As I was looking at my empty bag hanging in the closet, I looked at all my hair products, my curling iron, my hairspray and a teasing comb but I don't really tease my hair, I heard laughing from the other room and a man walking down the hallway to go to the bathroom. It has been 3 months since my Graduation, that settles it, I can now move out so I grabbed my bag and walked downstairs,"What are you doing?"
"What's it look like? I'm moving out mother" I looked back at her and I grabbed my backup blanket,"You can't be serious, get back here"
"No, I've had it. I've had this planned for months, ever since I turned 18 a couple days ago, I was actually thinking that maybe you need me, obviously you don't" I went into the bathroom grabbing my shampoo and body wash,"Where are you going to stay? You don't even have a job"
"Because you never pushed me to have one and look how that turned out" She scoffed as she was following me from behind,"Don't you blame me"
"There's plenty of reasons, you work at a dead end job, you have a door full of men coming through every month, even most of them have tried to fuck me while they were fucking you"
"Cliff was innocent and you know it you liar" I scoffed and shook my head then faced her,"The evidence was right there crystal clear. The lie detector was involved and he confessed. The fact that you sided with someone who barely knew you rather than someone who shares the same DNA with you....that says a lot so I'm doing you a favor by getting the hell out of here" I shoved my clothes into my duffle bags,"Dad and Jim did the right thing by walking away. I don't know what caused both of you to end it, but he did the right thing and so did Jim. Now I'm gonna do the same thing" I went downstairs and she grabs my shoulder,"Where are you going to go?"
"I'm not telling you, don't even think about looking for me or contacting me" The man was hearing the entire argument and I say to him,"Hope you caught all that so you can tell all the men of Brooklyn what she's done. And you don't even know all my friends' addresses so you'll never find me. I'm out of your life Maureen"
"Go ahead and leave me! Everyone does!" And just like that, I walked out as she was following me and stopped on the steps. I ignored everything she said, played my Discman and just walked until I made it to Yvonne's house
"Hey..." She hugs me and I walked in with my bags,"Are you sure your parents are okay with this?" She lightly scoffed and nodded,"Of course they are, they almost moved one of my brothers to stay in a room with my younger sister, for you to stay in their room, but I told them that you can room with me until we can find our own place"
"But I don't have a job" Her mother, Claudia came in and said to me,"Then we'll make damn sure that you get one, I don't like it when there kids in my house who are being lazy like a bump on a log" I nodded and thanked her,"But for now, you just get settled in and we'll have you look over the jobs on the newspaper" Yvonne wrapped her arm around me and patted me,"Let's bring your stuff up"
"Thanks" We went up to her room,"I start work in a couple days, just to let you know and also if you need my help or theirs, don't be afraid to ask" She pulled out a trunk for me to put my clothes in,"So this Saturday, the girls and I are making the night of it in the City, wanna come along?"
"Yeah I don't see anything wrong with it" For Dinner, we had Pot Roast with mashed potatoes and gravy, it was a very hearty meal, the dessert was Cheesecake with strawberry swirl on it, I think it was the first that I ever dined with an actual family in a long time. The first night, it was the first time that I slept without having to worry about what's going to happen in the morning or whatever my mother was going to say to me. I don't have to worry about the next man that's gonna come walking through the door every single week or month. There was this dream
I had, but it wasn't something that I never knew I needed until that night, I had a dream of a man that has a beard or brown hair, we actually connected, but I needed to remember that it was a dream so that doesn't mean that it's real.
For the next couple weeks, I've sent out applications to these potential jobs that I knew I was capable of, but interview after interview, I never got a call back from any of them. I was sitting on the couch and Claudia sits next to me,"I know it's difficult to find a job in Brooklyn, that's why I asked Yvonne to pull a few strings at this 24-Hour Diner that she works at. You can always ask her for help, there's nothing wrong"
"You know I tried, I gave it my all, but with my lack of job experience, I'm not good enough for any of those jobs" I applied at a Fast Food Joint, one of the clothing stores and such, only the ones that I can get started on, but it wasn't good enough for any of them. She sighed and leaned on her hand that was resting on the couch,"It'll take some time, but this opportunity that Yvonne has in store for you, it could work. Don't give up yet" It was nice that I had someone older that was able to motivate me and push me to the point that I want to achieve and accomplish,"Okay, I'm gonna go make lunches for tomorrow, when Yvonne comes back from her errand, you can ask her" She got up and I turned on the TV and All My Children was playing, oh god was Michael J Fox was a cutie and especially Back To The Future 1 and 2. I went to get a Fruit Punch and Popcorn to watch the show until I heard the door open and I saw Yvonne coming in around 2am,"Heyy, what are you still doing up? It's 2 in the morning"
"Couldn't sleep, plus Claudia said that you can maybe help me out with my unemployment situation" She set her bag down and took off her jacket,"R-Really?"
"Yeah and she said that you already managed to pull some strings" She sat down and looked around,"Yeah I did, but I didn't think that it would come to this" I wrinkled my eyebrows as a sign of confusion,"What do you mean?" She sighed as she tapped her fingers,"I think it's best to tell you now when everyone's asleep" I nodded slowly and turned the volume down,"I don't work at a 24-Hour Diner, it's just part of my routine"
"R-Routine?"
"I'm a....I moonlight as...aw shit I don't know how to say it" I took a deep quick breath,"You're a stripper" She nodded and explained,"I've tried too, I've applied but they never called me too, until this club across town. I'm at legal age to be one, I'm not ashamed of it, but it's hard. Having to do that in front of unattractive men, those who are attractive, they're married or about to be, so it's not really a great place to find someone. Also I've spent majority of my life being conservative"
"So your parents don't know about this"
"Yeah, they don't know" She says softly as she looks down,"If you don't want to, that's okay"
"Actually, I could give it a shot, maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, but won't know it until we try it, right?" Her face glowed up and she said,"I'll tell them tomorrow and see if we can get you an application"
The process was very hard emotionally, but at least they agreed to have an interview with me. The manager was a woman, she asked me a few questions and made sure that I didn't have any contagious diseases and whatnot, she did enjoy having a conversation with me and asked questions so she hired me. During the day, she walked me through it, she isn't going to have me bartend until I'm a bit more comfortable here,"And also, you need to be more accepting about what the customer wants, it's how it is around here" I guess I'll have to get used it, after my orientation there, I did let Claudia know about my job at the Diner, she was happy to hear about it. I folded my clothes and Yvonne came in,"Do you get used to it?" She did have hesitation and she did answer,"It's when everyone wants to raise hell, so might as well join"
Home sweet home huh?