Chapter 11
Allison throws her head back, laughing heartily "I can't believe it..." her voice broken, a hand on her stomach that now hurt.
"But you have to, sweetie" Sammie laughs too, both sat on their queen-size bed with a half-empty box of pizza on it and the radio on.
Sammie stares, famished, at the last piece of pizza in the box, then looks at her friend.
Allison, who had just managed to stop laughing, smiles "Take it".
Sammie smiles, grabbing her prey and eating it. She finishes it quickly, regardless of the tomato on her lips, with Allison looking at her amused.
Shortly after finished eating, she keeps telling the rest of her story, but then she suddenly stops, eyes widening.
Allison looks at her, frowning.
"Oh my god, Allieeee ! I love this sooooong!" and without giving her time to realize, Sammie stands up on the bed, moving to the music.
Allison listens to the radio, recognizing the song, she seems to remember it, nothing too good anyway. While trying to remember who is the singer, she feels Sammie pulling at her hand. She tries to resist but her friend invites her to get up.
"Sammie, stop it...How old are you?".
"Thirty-two, sweetie. Is it a problem?".
Allison shakes her head.
"Come on, Allie, If you keep living like that I'll start thinking that you're rather on your eighties".
Allison looks at her in a mixture of amazement and offense "What did you just say?".
Sammie laughs, Allison pretends to be serious.
"I'll show you who is eighty years old here!" she gets up too and they start dancing together to the music, laughing and pushing like little girls, having fun...
The first to give up is Allison, after about ten minutes of wild dancing, lying on the bed, laughing and breathing hard. She observes Sammie that keeps dancing, unleashed, feeling her energy filling the room. Suddenly, she remembers the first time she had met her, smiling.
*Flashback*
She had just entered a supermarket, it was cold, too cold for the jacket she was wearing and the cotton pants. She was shaking, it was three days she was sleeping in a dingy motel along the highway, and she hadn't closed eye 'cause of the sound of mices and ants on the floor.
She hadn't eaten for far too long, she no more knew exactly.
The first few days she had felt the hunger, the real hunger that gripped her stomach and didn't leave her alone, but now it was almost normal for her.
And, to make matters worse, she had her period, the reason why she was in need of tampons.
She had walked quickly to the department that interested her and peered through the shelves. She had grabbed the cheaper ones, but they fell immediately from her hands. She had observed the pack on the ground and bent down to pick it up, she was going to grab it but she found that she simply couldn't.
She felt the ground turn upside-down, felt the pain, the fatigue and the desire to stop altogether. She had fallen on her ass on the floor and stayed still.
"Hey, you need help?".
Allison was silent, staring at an empty space in front of her.
"You feel good?".
Allison didn't answer, she had heard the murmurs of people gathering around and the warm voice of the woman with a too low-cut shirt.
"Ok, people, you can go, she's with me".
She had felt someone grabbing her arms, the same woman putting her arm around her shoulders and dragging her throughout the supermarket.
"Excuse me, where are you going, miss?".
A tall man with thick beard and dark, bright eyes pointed toward the neckline of the woman who held her.
"She's my friend, she's had a case of low blood sugar. I'm taking her home, is there a problem, officer?".
The agent stared at them, shaking his head "Absolutely no".
He smiled a strange and vulgar smile, she didn't know that she'd have learnt to know him very well, while the two of them came out of the shop.
That same evening, Allison saw the apartment where she'd have lived for the next three years of her life. She remembered that Sammie had put her on the couch, bringing a sandwich and a glass of orange juice.
"Here, you eat, you're really white".
Allison had observed the tray for a few seconds, she had spent too much time to realize that that food was for her and then she had devoured everything in less than five minutes.
"Who are you?".
Sammie had smiled "It's a pleasure, I'm Samantha Collins, but you can call me Sammie".
Allison had looked at her and then, inexplicably, had burst into convulsive and desperate sobs. Sammie had taken her in her arms, stroking her hair, waiting patiently for the girl to stop crying.
Allison had thought back to the last three months of her terrible life. Three months before, she would never, ever imagined of being able to find herself in that situation. Three months before, she led an enviable life, serene in her home with her giant bedroom.
She was born into a very wealthy family, her mother was very rich, her father was a judge, they had met during a trial for a stolen car and they had madly fallen in love. Less than a year later, they had found themselves married, and after a few months, her mother was pregnant.
After the birth of Allison, Mr. and Mrs. Cameron had two more beautiful children, Jane and Caroline; Allison remembered the love she had felt for them the first moment she had seen the two.
She had always gotten along well with her family, arguing rarely, from a certain point of view her life was flawed, it was clear from an early age that she could have got anything she wanted, but she had always been happy with what her parents thought was appropriate for her.
She had always dreamed of being a doctor, when she was a child it was her favorite game. She dreamed of being a great doctor able to establish a relationship with her patients based on trust and respect, when she had chosen Medicine in college, after two tests with excellent results, she had almost thought that her dream would have been real.
And then he had arrived, and with him his blue eyes and his smile a bit childish. A guy from college, they had started going out together, their parents seemed pleased. He was rich, richer than her, and apparently he was a serious young man, he was to graduate with honors in Law. In short, the perfect guy.
And when he had asked her to marry him, she couldn't have said no.
But she was uncertain, she wasn't sure to be in love with that beautiful guy, he was romantic, but she thought that when she'd have fallen in love, she'd have felt the heart beat faster, and that with him had never happened; but in the end, she had come to believe that that kind of love was imaginary and simply didn't exist, everyone around her repeating it. She had to get her head straight and think about her happy ending...
She remembered the cold morning of that February of three years before, perfectly, she'd never be able to forget it.
She had looked in the mirror, a beautiful white lace dress and earrings frighteningly expensive (a small little thing to show off during the ceremony, her boyfriend had told her), her hair in curls around her shoulders...And her fragile smile, which had vanished completely when her father had told her she would have to leave university.
Her dream of becoming a great doctor, broken.
Suddenly, she had seen her future: she, with wrinkles of unhappiness on her face and that soon she'd have covered with plastic surgery; her four children that she had to take to classes of diction; her big smile during some stupid dinner party at their house; her husband coming home late at night, but no one could say anything because he's the one who works, he allows her to live like that...
She had seen before her eyes the same future of her mother, she had never realized that she preferred to die rather than end up like her.
She had tried to reason with her parents, but her father had been furious, and she had left nothing but escape.
Yes, she had run away, she had left his beautiful prince at the altar, to the dismay of all.
She felt a shiver at the memory of that night, when she got home, the horrible words received by her parents, the same parents that she had so loved...
They told her to go away, not to be seen again. And she had simply obeyed.
Never mind that then they had looked everywhere for her, she had not wanted to know anything of them.
She had started a new life, far more bleak than the last one, but at least it was her life.
Sammie had found her three months later, when she had tried all possible jobs to be able to make a living, but failing. She had opened her house, that beautiful little face had been too much to ignore, or so she had said.
Soon, however, she had been clear: she couldn't support two people with her salary, so she would have to start working as soon as possible...
And from that moment, she had started her job...
*End flashback*
"Allie, you okay?".
Allison turns around to her friend, now calmer.
'Sure, Sammie, it's all right...' she thought.
She smiled, moving closer and curling up against her "Yes, Sammie, everything is perfect".
TBC...