Jennifer

 

There we were.

The three of us, all misplaced. All fighting different demons that night. The night we all crashed at Alphonso’s apartment.

I did not know Pat very well. I had only met him a few days prior. We seemed to hit it off in a “We are both screwed up kind of way.” His girlfriend, who also worked at Walmart, was pregnant, and found herself not knowing who the father was.

Apartment B-303. Two flights up. Three if you are coming from the underground parking garage. I had only two bags with me. My purse, and an extra bag filled with clothes, makeup, and a journal.

It was quiet. The lights were all off. The only sound was coming from the back bedroom. “Delilah” was playing from the radio.  It was close to 3 am and we knew Alphonso’s roommate, Christin, was sleeping. She had to be at work in four hours.

Alphonso, Pat and I continued our drinking binge. We drank, we talked, we ate, we drank some more, and then we passed out on the living room floor.

The next morning, found us all dealing not only with a hangover but unanswered questions. What were we going to do? Alphonso and his constant struggle of feeling like he never fits in. Pat, not knowing if he was the father or not, and me.

There were two sofas in Apartment B-303. I was sitting on one, Pat was on the other, flipping through one of Alphonso’s fashion magazines. Alphonso was in the kitchen making an early cocktail. He knew I was nervous. The constant cigarettes, were a dead give away. “Stop being dumb, everything will be okay.”

Christin comes in the front door. A young twenty-something woman, who looked like she had her act together. Her light brown hair was swept up in a clip, very minimal makeup, yet pretty in an “All American Girl” kind of way.

She looks and me, she looks at Pat, gives us a nervous kind of “hello” and heads to her bedroom, but not before she calls Alphonso to follow her.

I am pacing, while Pat is on his second fashion magazine. He tells me to calm down and that everything will be okay. I silently wonder how it is that he can be so calm. I mean he has a lot at stake too. His girlfriend kicked him out of their apartment. I suppose that happens when one is a whore.

About twenty minutes later, Alphonso and Christin come out from the bedroom. They have a bill that needs to be paid in person. Alphonso asked, or maybe he told Pat and I “Come on, we need to go pay a bill, and then go to the mall.”

And then just like that, we were off.

All four of us.