Claudia Kishi was on her way to her bank to deposit the check she received for the painting she had delivered last week, a commision from a wealthy owner of a private mortgage company she had never heard of. He had seen one of her paintings in a local art gallery and wanted a personal piece painted for him to hang up in his office. Ironically, it was a colorful and abstract painting of the downtown L.A. skyline. Made sense, since the office was in the heart of downtown and Claudia was happy to do it, especially for the amount of money that came along with it. After depositing her check, she headed off to her day job working for Ricardo Clements.

Driving her light blue Toyota Prius through the backed up city streets, it would probably take her another 20 minutes to get to work, giving her time to reflect on what has been going on lately. It had been two and a half weeks since the invitation to the SHS reunion was sent out and all the original members were attending, with Dawn going as Kristy's plus on and Dawn's husband going as Stacey's. The only holdout was Claudia and while she had discussed with Stacey, her reservations about attending, she had yet to even respond to Kristy's original text. Claudia had no doubt her feelings were a little hurt but she just couldn't find it in herself to talk to Kristy right now, even though she knew she would have to make her decision and call her in the next day or two and had rehearsed the conversation in her head a good 10 times in the last two weeks.

Staying true to the "everywhere in LA takes twenty minutes" mantra, she arrived at work when she expected to, pulling into the underground parking lot of a luxury high-rise steel and glass apartment building called "The Vaso." As Ricardo's assistant, her job duties varied on a daily basis, where sometimes all she would do all day was sit there and mix colors for him, on other days she'd actually assist and help him on his actual paintings, usually filling in lines and finer details, which he was having trouble with as he has been getting older and some days she would be in charge of running his personal errands, or arranging and setting up parties or showings, getting lunch, etc. It was exhausting work but she really loves what she does and feels incredibly lucky to have actually found a job in the art world. Today was going to be different however, due to her boss being in New York to do a lecture at an art school leaving Claudia with nothing to do so she thought she'd take that opportunity to clean and organize the studio, which had gotten really messy and disheveled. She got into the fancy mirrored elevator and pressed the 10 button. Apartment #1016 housed the studio, with Ricardo living directly underneath on the 9th floor in apartment #916. While the studio was accessible via private staircase in his apartment, Claudia never felt comfortable going to his personal space and only did so when he asked her to, usually when he needed her to grab something or when he was having a party, which he does a few times a year. The studio was quite the contrast from his pristine luxury apartment, which was modern and simple, filled with various sculptures and his own unique paintings hanging on the wall, light wood floors, white quartz countertops, glass front cabinets and floor to ceiling windows. While it housed four bedrooms and two bathrooms, she had only been in his living area but imagined the other rooms were similarly decorated. Upstairs in the studio, there were concrete floors and unpainted drywall, although it was all flecked with a rainbow of paint splatters, giving it a little personality. Several large shelving units lined an entire wall with literally hundreds of bottles of paint lining the shelves, along with boxes of brushes and various chemicals. In the corner of the studio, there was a small bathroom and in the opposite corner, a folding picnic table with four plastic chairs and a black refrigerator next to it, along with a flat screen TV against the wall, which was the unofficial "break room."

Claudia dropped her purse on the picnic table and immediately got to work organzing the studio, including organizing all the art supplies and even cleaning the bathroom and clearing out leftover food from the fridge. Thinking it would be a pretty easy task, it ended up taking her hours. The last task was to sweep the entire studio and after pausing and giving the place one more look, she decided it was clean enough and sat down at the picnic table for a second to remove her cushioned boot and put her shoe back on. That day it was a dark blue glittery ballet flat, which matched the blue velvet bomber jacket she had paired with black skinny jeans and a black tank top. Usually adorned with a lot of jewelry, today she only sported simple black pearl earrings knowing she'd be doing physical labor. Claudia tried not to look at her foot but it was hard not to, the pinkish-purple scar running from he third toe down almost 2 inches was made visible by her shoe. Not looking again at the original site of her cancer, she walked down the hallway towards the elevator with her orthopedic boot in hand and pulled out her cell to call her boyfriend, Frankie. As the elevator was going down, he answered.

"Hi honey. What's up?" answered Frankie.

"Hey sweetie" replied Claudia. " I just wanted to know if you'd had lunch yet? I finished all my work at Ricardo's and I wanted to see if you'd like to grab lunch with your girlfriend."

Frankie said, "Actually no, I haven't but I was just about to go out. How far are you? I can wait."

"Oh, not even five minutes" said Claudia.

"Hold on" Frankie quickly responded, followed by a 15 second pause before he came back on the line, adding "there are four open parking spaces, so hurry."

"Be right there" Claudia quickly replied before quickly hanging up, as she was already in her car, pulling out of the parking garage and certainly didn't want to get a ticket for talking on the cell while driving. It actually took closer to ten minutes to get to the art gallery but luckily, the parking spaces were still open and Claudia was greeted by her boyfriend waiting outside. A pretty typical definition of a "hipster," Frankie was Caucasian with almost shoulder length wavy brown hair and a goatee. He had tattoos scattered up both of his arms and small stretchers in his ears. Claudia typically wouldn't go for a guy who was trendy and following the latest fad but he'd looked like that ever since she first met him years ago when they were in art school together. She got out of her car and was greeted with a kiss before her boyfriend asked, "where are we going?"

Claudia replied "I was thinking about trying Lemonade."

"Oh, that new salad place?" asked Frankie.

"Yep." said Claudia.

"Let's hoof it." said Frankie and they began to walked the 2 blocks to the restaurant.

While enjoying her delicious BBQ chicken salad, Frankie jokingly asked "So what's new?" knowing exactly what's been going on with her lately.

"Very funny" replied an annoyed Claudia.

"Have you talked to Stacey?" he asked.

She responded " Nah, she has so much going on right now. I'm leaving her alone for the week."

"What about the reunion? You gotta make that decision soon and book those plane tickets" said Frankie.

"I just don't know, honey" said Claudia before adding "I haven't been back to Stoneybrook since..you know" her eyes drifting down to her foot before darting them back up and saying "I just don't know if I can handle it. I don't know if I can see Kristy."

Frankie replied "I'm so sorry I can't go with you Claudia..but I'm just telling you right now that you're being ridiculous."

"Excuse me?!" yelled Claudia, prompting a few other customers to look at her.

"Hey, lower your voice. You know I don't mean to hurt your feelings, Claud but you're being unfair to Kristy."

"I'm traumatized!" said an angry Claudia.

"I know you are but she didn't cause your cancer, honey. You need to to call her. Call her and tell her the truth" said Frankie.

Before long, Claudia found herself back at the apartment she shared with Frankie, laying in bed on her red silk comforter and staring at the ceiling. She placed her hands behind her head, feeling the back of her neck, as she now had short hair, cut into an angled bob that only reached her chin. In the event that her cancer returned, she wanted to make the transition to being bald again an easier one. She closed her eyes and let her mind drift back about 5 years ago, to the last time she was in Connecticut, for Mary Anne's graduation. She remembered celebrating and drinking way too much with Kristy and Mary Anne at Doyle's, a local Irish pub downing two pickle backs in a row. She recalled being very unsteady on her feet and getting ready to call a cab before she felt a sharp pain in her foot as she looked down and realized Kristy had squished it with her bar stool and then drunkenly apologizing profusely. An ugly bruise on her foot greeted her the next morning but she thought to herself that drunk people do stupid things and get hurt, but by late August, her foot was still swollen and hurting so she finally went to a foot doctor who noted right away that she had been walking around on two broken toes for months but he still needed to do an xray to determine the type of cast she needed to wear. Immediately after the x-ray, the doctor's demeanor changed and he stated he saw something unusual on her foot and needed to do a biopsy on her bone and tissue. Claudia was then thrust into a horrible world that would become her new "normal." Surgeries, a diagnosis of Ewing Sarcoma, chemo, radiation, hair loss, vomiting, recurrence, more chemo, more radiation then remission. A grueling process that took years of her precious young 20s away from her. She then snapped out of her unpleasant daydream and knew it was time to call Kristy. With shaking hands and her body tingling with the beginning feelings of a panic attack, she grabbed her phone and finally called Kristy.

"Claudia!" answered Kristy. "Finally!"

"Hey Kris" said Claudia with way less enthusiasm, adding "you busy?"

"No, no. It's fine" said Kristy.

"I can text if you" Claudia started to say before Kristy interruped with "It's fine, Claud. I'm so glad you called."

"Well, I am very sorry I didn't respond until now but..I'm just very been very torn about this. I don't want to go" said Claudia.

"Um, ok?" said a slightly confused Kristy.

"I don't want to go to the reunion or Connecticut. Like, ever again!" blurted out Claudia.

Taken aback, Kristy couldn't help but ask, "What? Why?"

"I'm scared. I'm..scared to go back. I'm scared to.." drifted off Claudia before making her second confession "to see you."

"What?!" exclaimed Kristy. "What did I do?!"

Claudia sighed before saying, "you didn't really DO anything to me, Kristy."

"Then what the hell are you talking about, Claudia?!" yelled Kristy.

Claudia the confessed everything from start to finish, which took about 15 minutes of uninterrupted talking on her part and said lastly, "I feel like I have PTSD. I know you didn't give me cancer, Kristy. Honestly, you probably saved my life by doing it but the day you broke my toes was the day my life changed forever. It's hard to separate."

"Wow" sighed Kristy. "I am so sorry but God, I wish you had told me about all of this sooner."

"I know" said Claudia. "I should have been honest with you."

"I am so sorry" repeated Kristy before adding "I am so sorry that something involving me is making you feel this way. I don't want you to feel this way. Is there anything I can for you? Honestly? I'lI do anything I can to help you. You have to know that."

Claudia replied, "I know you would..but no, I don't think so."

With a more gentle tone of voice, Kristy asked, "Do you see a therapist, Claud?"

"Well, I used to but not for a few years now" replied Claudia.

"You shouldn't let this rule your life. Or prevent you from visiting your family. Lynn is 17 now, you know" said Kristy with a more stern tone. "You don't want to miss her graduation do you?"

"Of course not" said Claudia.

Kristy added "I don't have bad intentions here. Despite what you told me, I'm always here if you need me. Can you at least promise me that you'll talk to someone about this?"

Claudia agreed and said, "Yes, I need to. I'll give my therapist a call."

Kristy sighed and said "We're sure going to miss you at the reunion, girly but I am looking forward to the day when we can see each other again. Mary Anne and I miss you a lot."

"I'm sorry" said Claudia. "I miss you too."

"It's ok, Claud." replied Kristy. "You take care of yourself, ok?. Bye"

"Bye" said Claudia before hanging up. It was less than one minute before she burst into tears, burying her face in her hands and sobbing out loud, "what's wrong with me?" realizing that her boyfriend was right. She WAS being ridiculous. She had been afraid of Kristy for 5 years and after essentially telling her that it was all her "fault," she still was nothing but kind and understanding and just wanted to help her. It was a few minutes before she could calm down enough to grab her laptop and her purse all put them on the bed. A quick phone call to Stacey preceeded a little Internet searching and after a few click clicks, Claudia closed her laptop, took a deep breath and said to herself, "here goes nothing" and then picked up the phone and shot Kristy a text:

"You r an amazing woman, Kristy Thomas. Thank you for not getting mad at me. Ur right. I do need some help but I also need a place to stay on January 20th. You have room in your apartment for me? ;-)"

"Of course I do, Claud!" responded Kristy a few minutes later.

"Good. Cuz I'm coming!" Xoxo