Chapter 2 – Making Friends
The trip across the US took Cerise 5 days. She didn't want to rush. She had lots of money and wasn't pressed for time. She left Georgia and headed toward Birmingham Alabama. It was the first major city on her journey and she planned on staying the night there.
She arrived, ate and then got a hotel room. She expected her night to be sleepless, spent tossing and turning. She surprised herself by sleeping like a baby. She mused to herself that it only made sense in a lot of ways. None of her old worries applied to her life any more.
She knew her worries would return; that her life had been too messed up to date for it not to have left her with some lasting effects, but for the time it took her to reach her destination she resolved to just enjoy life and be a teenager with lots of money and time on her hands.
She left Birmingham after breakfast the next day and got onto I30, headed toward Jackson, Mississippi. She only made it half of those 1600 miles before she found a motel and stopped for the evening. After ten hours of driving she was too exhausted to do much more then fall into bed. She did manage to eat first.
After Jackson her directions called for her to head toward Barstow California. She turned the car down I15. After another 10 hour day of driving she arrived. She was pleased to finally be in her destination state.
After getting a room in another motel she went for a drive around the city. She didn't see much to interest her so she just went back to her room and watched TV till she fell asleep. She spent the next day hanging out in Barstow shopping and seeing the sights. She figured she'd stay there in Barstow one more evening and then head to Los Angeles.
She only had about 5000 dollars left, so she knew she was going to have to get a job pretty quickly if she didn't want to live in a bad neighbourhood. She almost thought it would be fun to live in a less then affluent neighbourhood, somewhere with character. She'd never lived anywhere other then on her family's plantation complete with tennis court, swimming pool, and country club membership.
She went to sleep thinking about her new life, and where she would live it. When she woke up the next day she threw on one of her only remaining clean tee shirts and a pair of well broken in blue jeans. She added a bucket hat over her pigtails and a pair of thick soled flip flops and she was ready to roll.
She loaded her car and put the top down. Once that was done she headed toward Los Angeles. The rest of the drive took her about 3 hours to complete and when she pulled into LA she got promptly lost.
She'd known L.A. was large, but the staggering size of the largest city in the USA was overwhelming to her. She somehow got on the 110 freeway and drove downtown. She was sure she looked foolish as she craned her head around trying to see everything there was to see. It was all going by so fast she was sure she was going to miss something interesting.
She got lost totally in downtown L.A. but she was lucky enough to find someone who took pity on her and gave her directions toward an area of town with reasonably priced hotels. She ended up staying at a Comfort Inn because it was close to the airport and she knew she'd be able to find her way around from there. It was also the cheapest hotel she'd been able to find that wasn't reminiscent of something from a 70's slasher flick.
L.A. was disorientating to her. It was so much culture, so much life, so much variety and she wasn't use to it. She didn't know how to process a lot of what she was seeing. She'd, despite recent events, lead a pretty sheltered life and a lot of what she saw in down town L.A. made her double take.
She went back to her hotel room totally out of her element and scared for her future. She couldn't even find her way from her hotel to a restaurant, how was she going to find a permanent place to live or a job for that matter?
She sat down on her bed in her room and fought tears. She was so overwhelmed what she'd run from and what she was facing now washed over her like a tidal wave. After wallowing in her self pity for another few minutes it occurred to her what she had to do to feel better.
She had to go out and get blindingly, fall down dead drunk.
She'd only been drunk once before and she hadn't even been that drunk then. But she remembered how nothing had mattered to her while she'd been intoxicated. It had all come back and then some the next day, and had brought with it a violent need to vomit and a pounding headache, but thinking back she had to think the hours of freedom had been worth the cost.
Of course there were a few problems with her plan. One, she was only 18, far too young to get into any clubs, and two, she wouldn't have had a clue where to go anyway.
But once her mind was made up there was only one solution. She'd have to try to get into a lot of clubs and hope one didn't ID her. She knew she could look older with the right clothes and makeup, she hoped she could pull off getting into a bar.
She got ready in a fitted hot pink baby tee with a cropped waist line and little cap sleeves and added a pair of dark blue low rise jeans with a thick funky belt and no back pockets. She looked at her navel and wished she'd gotten it pierced when her best friend from Atlanta had. Cerise had been too scared of what her parents would do to her if they ever found out to do it.
Once she was dressed she did her hair. She left it down in long, silky, slightly wavy strands down to her shoulder blades. She then moved on to her make-up. She did it heavy, but not outlandishly. She was harsher with the black eyeliner and mascara then she would normally have been. She added black eye shadow near her lashes fading to dark grey up to the crease of her eyelid. She had naturally flawless skin, so she just used a bit of translucent powder to her face, then bright red lipstick.
She stood back to check out her results. She thought she could easily pass for 21 looking like she did. With that she picked up her keys and headed out of her room, taking only her room key card and 200 bucks. She hid 40 dollars of the money in her bra to be used for cab fare only.
One of the only things she could thank her mother for teaching her was the lesson that if you went out to always make sure you had the money for a cab home if you should need it. That left her 160 dollars to get as drunk as she could. She thought it should be more then enough.
On her way down to the lobby she ran into a girl who looked to be about her age who was wearing a hotel uniform. She stopped her hesitantly.
"Excuse me?"
"Yes?" The girl asked, smiling.
"I have sort of a strange question. Um, do you know where would be a good place to go out if you, um, forgot your ID?" Cerise looked up guiltily after tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.
The employee smiled at Cerise knowingly. "Well, depends on the kind of crowd you want to run into."
"Doesn't matter that much, a young crowd I guess." Not having much experience with bars Cerise didn't really know what to tell her 'informant'.
"Go to Nitrous. You should get in looking like you do, and you'll find the kind of crowd you're looking for there. They're mostly young street racers and their girls."
"Thanks, that sounds good. Will it cost a lot to get there in a cab?"
"From here? Yeah, a bit. Like maybe 30 bucks."
"Ok, that's a bit more then I hoped but still ok. Thanks." Cerise started to walk away.
"Say, you in a big hurry to get there? It's only quarter to 8. If you wanna wait like 15 minutes you can come with me. I just gotta run home and change then I'm heading there myself. I have my car to get home and the club is only a 5 dollar cab ride from my house."
"That would be so great, if you're sure you don't mind!" Cerise replied. She didn't get any sort of creepy vibes from the girl, who looked to only be about her own age.
"No problem. The more the merrier. So, do you race?"
"You mean cars?" Cerise asked.
"Yeah silly, cars. Like in the street. You know, street racing."
"No, I hardly even drive. I can't drive a standard at all."
"Wow. My friends are gonna get a big kick out of that. We all race, or at least hang out and support the guys who do. What are you doin in L.A.?" The girl started off at a hundred miles an hour asking questions. She came up for air and caught the overwhelmed look on Cerise's face. "I'm Keira by the way."
"Cerise. But everyone calls me Cherry."
"Cool name. You wanna wait for me in the lobby? I'll be down in like 5 minutes."
"Sure, see you there." Cerise answered and headed down to wait for Keira.
When the other girl got off work they both headed out to Keira's car.
"Wow, that's neat!" Cerise said when she saw Keira's car.
"Naw, it's nothing really. Wait till you see the parking lot at the club tonight. It'll make my little baby here look like the family grocery getter."
"This is still pretty cool." Cerise said as she slid into the car. "What kind of car is it?"
"It's an Accord. You really don't know a lot about cars do you? Do you have a car?"
"No, I know nothing about cars and I own a '70 Chevelle SS convertible."
"You have got to be shittin me!"
"Nope. I bought it for myself as a treat when I left home."
"Nice treat. Not my style, obviously, but nice. Where are you from by the way, you sound southern."
"I'm from Georgia originally." Cerise admitted.
"You in to all that southern belle stuff?"
"Not anymore." Cerise answered then turned her face to the passenger side window. Like Keira knew it was a sore subject she let it drop.
"You planning on doing some drinking tonight?" Keira asked with a sly grin.
"Oh yeah. You?"
"Of course girl." They arrived at Keira's house and walked in.
Keira living in the sort of place Cerise figured she wanted for herself. It was clean, but not too big, clearly lived in, and clearly shared with at least two other girls.
"Sorry bout the mess." Keira told Cerise. "Have a seat."
"Nice place." Cerise said as she sat down on the couch a bit nervously and crossed her legs self-consciously.
"It's small but it has three bedrooms so none of us have to share. I live here with my two friends from high school. Housing is expensive in L.A. and we were lucky to get this place."
"Yeah, I'm gonna have to start lookin for a place." Cerise said in her soft drawl.
"You might wanna check out UCLA. People always have roommate wanted posters up over there."
"Thanks for the idea, it's a good one. Can't stay in the hotel forever."
The trip across the US took Cerise 5 days. She didn't want to rush. She had lots of money and wasn't pressed for time. She left Georgia and headed toward Birmingham Alabama. It was the first major city on her journey and she planned on staying the night there.
She arrived, ate and then got a hotel room. She expected her night to be sleepless, spent tossing and turning. She surprised herself by sleeping like a baby. She mused to herself that it only made sense in a lot of ways. None of her old worries applied to her life any more.
She knew her worries would return; that her life had been too messed up to date for it not to have left her with some lasting effects, but for the time it took her to reach her destination she resolved to just enjoy life and be a teenager with lots of money and time on her hands.
She left Birmingham after breakfast the next day and got onto I30, headed toward Jackson, Mississippi. She only made it half of those 1600 miles before she found a motel and stopped for the evening. After ten hours of driving she was too exhausted to do much more then fall into bed. She did manage to eat first.
After Jackson her directions called for her to head toward Barstow California. She turned the car down I15. After another 10 hour day of driving she arrived. She was pleased to finally be in her destination state.
After getting a room in another motel she went for a drive around the city. She didn't see much to interest her so she just went back to her room and watched TV till she fell asleep. She spent the next day hanging out in Barstow shopping and seeing the sights. She figured she'd stay there in Barstow one more evening and then head to Los Angeles.
She only had about 5000 dollars left, so she knew she was going to have to get a job pretty quickly if she didn't want to live in a bad neighbourhood. She almost thought it would be fun to live in a less then affluent neighbourhood, somewhere with character. She'd never lived anywhere other then on her family's plantation complete with tennis court, swimming pool, and country club membership.
She went to sleep thinking about her new life, and where she would live it. When she woke up the next day she threw on one of her only remaining clean tee shirts and a pair of well broken in blue jeans. She added a bucket hat over her pigtails and a pair of thick soled flip flops and she was ready to roll.
She loaded her car and put the top down. Once that was done she headed toward Los Angeles. The rest of the drive took her about 3 hours to complete and when she pulled into LA she got promptly lost.
She'd known L.A. was large, but the staggering size of the largest city in the USA was overwhelming to her. She somehow got on the 110 freeway and drove downtown. She was sure she looked foolish as she craned her head around trying to see everything there was to see. It was all going by so fast she was sure she was going to miss something interesting.
She got lost totally in downtown L.A. but she was lucky enough to find someone who took pity on her and gave her directions toward an area of town with reasonably priced hotels. She ended up staying at a Comfort Inn because it was close to the airport and she knew she'd be able to find her way around from there. It was also the cheapest hotel she'd been able to find that wasn't reminiscent of something from a 70's slasher flick.
L.A. was disorientating to her. It was so much culture, so much life, so much variety and she wasn't use to it. She didn't know how to process a lot of what she was seeing. She'd, despite recent events, lead a pretty sheltered life and a lot of what she saw in down town L.A. made her double take.
She went back to her hotel room totally out of her element and scared for her future. She couldn't even find her way from her hotel to a restaurant, how was she going to find a permanent place to live or a job for that matter?
She sat down on her bed in her room and fought tears. She was so overwhelmed what she'd run from and what she was facing now washed over her like a tidal wave. After wallowing in her self pity for another few minutes it occurred to her what she had to do to feel better.
She had to go out and get blindingly, fall down dead drunk.
She'd only been drunk once before and she hadn't even been that drunk then. But she remembered how nothing had mattered to her while she'd been intoxicated. It had all come back and then some the next day, and had brought with it a violent need to vomit and a pounding headache, but thinking back she had to think the hours of freedom had been worth the cost.
Of course there were a few problems with her plan. One, she was only 18, far too young to get into any clubs, and two, she wouldn't have had a clue where to go anyway.
But once her mind was made up there was only one solution. She'd have to try to get into a lot of clubs and hope one didn't ID her. She knew she could look older with the right clothes and makeup, she hoped she could pull off getting into a bar.
She got ready in a fitted hot pink baby tee with a cropped waist line and little cap sleeves and added a pair of dark blue low rise jeans with a thick funky belt and no back pockets. She looked at her navel and wished she'd gotten it pierced when her best friend from Atlanta had. Cerise had been too scared of what her parents would do to her if they ever found out to do it.
Once she was dressed she did her hair. She left it down in long, silky, slightly wavy strands down to her shoulder blades. She then moved on to her make-up. She did it heavy, but not outlandishly. She was harsher with the black eyeliner and mascara then she would normally have been. She added black eye shadow near her lashes fading to dark grey up to the crease of her eyelid. She had naturally flawless skin, so she just used a bit of translucent powder to her face, then bright red lipstick.
She stood back to check out her results. She thought she could easily pass for 21 looking like she did. With that she picked up her keys and headed out of her room, taking only her room key card and 200 bucks. She hid 40 dollars of the money in her bra to be used for cab fare only.
One of the only things she could thank her mother for teaching her was the lesson that if you went out to always make sure you had the money for a cab home if you should need it. That left her 160 dollars to get as drunk as she could. She thought it should be more then enough.
On her way down to the lobby she ran into a girl who looked to be about her age who was wearing a hotel uniform. She stopped her hesitantly.
"Excuse me?"
"Yes?" The girl asked, smiling.
"I have sort of a strange question. Um, do you know where would be a good place to go out if you, um, forgot your ID?" Cerise looked up guiltily after tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.
The employee smiled at Cerise knowingly. "Well, depends on the kind of crowd you want to run into."
"Doesn't matter that much, a young crowd I guess." Not having much experience with bars Cerise didn't really know what to tell her 'informant'.
"Go to Nitrous. You should get in looking like you do, and you'll find the kind of crowd you're looking for there. They're mostly young street racers and their girls."
"Thanks, that sounds good. Will it cost a lot to get there in a cab?"
"From here? Yeah, a bit. Like maybe 30 bucks."
"Ok, that's a bit more then I hoped but still ok. Thanks." Cerise started to walk away.
"Say, you in a big hurry to get there? It's only quarter to 8. If you wanna wait like 15 minutes you can come with me. I just gotta run home and change then I'm heading there myself. I have my car to get home and the club is only a 5 dollar cab ride from my house."
"That would be so great, if you're sure you don't mind!" Cerise replied. She didn't get any sort of creepy vibes from the girl, who looked to only be about her own age.
"No problem. The more the merrier. So, do you race?"
"You mean cars?" Cerise asked.
"Yeah silly, cars. Like in the street. You know, street racing."
"No, I hardly even drive. I can't drive a standard at all."
"Wow. My friends are gonna get a big kick out of that. We all race, or at least hang out and support the guys who do. What are you doin in L.A.?" The girl started off at a hundred miles an hour asking questions. She came up for air and caught the overwhelmed look on Cerise's face. "I'm Keira by the way."
"Cerise. But everyone calls me Cherry."
"Cool name. You wanna wait for me in the lobby? I'll be down in like 5 minutes."
"Sure, see you there." Cerise answered and headed down to wait for Keira.
When the other girl got off work they both headed out to Keira's car.
"Wow, that's neat!" Cerise said when she saw Keira's car.
"Naw, it's nothing really. Wait till you see the parking lot at the club tonight. It'll make my little baby here look like the family grocery getter."
"This is still pretty cool." Cerise said as she slid into the car. "What kind of car is it?"
"It's an Accord. You really don't know a lot about cars do you? Do you have a car?"
"No, I know nothing about cars and I own a '70 Chevelle SS convertible."
"You have got to be shittin me!"
"Nope. I bought it for myself as a treat when I left home."
"Nice treat. Not my style, obviously, but nice. Where are you from by the way, you sound southern."
"I'm from Georgia originally." Cerise admitted.
"You in to all that southern belle stuff?"
"Not anymore." Cerise answered then turned her face to the passenger side window. Like Keira knew it was a sore subject she let it drop.
"You planning on doing some drinking tonight?" Keira asked with a sly grin.
"Oh yeah. You?"
"Of course girl." They arrived at Keira's house and walked in.
Keira living in the sort of place Cerise figured she wanted for herself. It was clean, but not too big, clearly lived in, and clearly shared with at least two other girls.
"Sorry bout the mess." Keira told Cerise. "Have a seat."
"Nice place." Cerise said as she sat down on the couch a bit nervously and crossed her legs self-consciously.
"It's small but it has three bedrooms so none of us have to share. I live here with my two friends from high school. Housing is expensive in L.A. and we were lucky to get this place."
"Yeah, I'm gonna have to start lookin for a place." Cerise said in her soft drawl.
"You might wanna check out UCLA. People always have roommate wanted posters up over there."
"Thanks for the idea, it's a good one. Can't stay in the hotel forever."