“Ah, you must be Melody! Wonderful meeting you, have a seat.”

  Immediately, colors are invading my eyes from the wall-art, the patterned carpet and this woman's colorful hair and clothes. I squint just a tad and set my purse on my lap as I take a chair.

  “Hello,” my legs are bouncing under the table causing an occasional squeak from my chair. Her face remains smiling, but it looks a little more forced now.

  “Melody, I’m Jenn, are you ready to jump into the interview?” Her smile widened, but my face remained stiff, I prefer not to talk to people that I don’t know. Obviously, if I want this job, I don’t have any other option.

  I nod my head, initiating the beginning of the interview.

  Her blond hair with red streaks is distracting me, along with her geometric patterned shirt and tightly fitted jeans. This lady’s style screams kindergarten teacher, I wonder why she worked at a theater company. Her hair is bobbing as she speaks to me, and frankly, I’m not listening. While she’s trying to find out about me to see if I’m a good employee, I’m trying to find out about her. My eyes keep scanning, scanning-

  “Melody, dear? You’ve been thinking for a while, do you have an answer?” Her brows furrow, and I can tell now that she has a quick temper.

  “Apologies, I was lost in thought, would you mind repeating yourself?”

  I shut the door behind me and do a walk of shame towards the exit, purse in hand. Rejected, again. I walk along the edge of the sidewalk into the parking lot, doing a mental recap of the interview.

  In total, I stuttered more than 5 times, asked her to repeat herself 4 times, dropped my purse 1 time, accidentally insulted her 2 times, and got off topic about 3 times. I am horrible at this whole “job” thing.

  Now I’m in the car, and resting my head on the wheel. Again, I start thinking about how everything used to be perfect. Wallowing in my self pity isn’t good, but I just need a moment right now. I wish things could go back to the way they were.

  Three months ago, I was living, and working for, my parents. I was getting paid minimum wage, and I was totally okay with that. I didn’t have to go outside and talk to anyone, I could stay home, I did things mostly on my own terms. However, the moment I had enough money to get out, my parents sat me down. They gave me two weeks to find an apartment and pack my things, not telling me at all how the real world works. I didn’t know I was living in a bubble. They don’t answer my calls or texts anymore, I’m completely lost.

  The only person that’s been there through all of this is my best friend, Ramona. She’s been my best friend since Sophomore year of highschool, and she’s currently the only reason I’m still in an apartment right now. She’s been paying my rent, taking me to dinners, cooking for me, trying to teach me. Even though I love her, I will always wish for my family to go back to the way it was.

  I lift my head from the wheel, now a mark on my forehead from it. Now I’m ashamed, and I look stupid, what could go wrong now? I buckle my seatbelt and start the car to head home.

  So far I’ve passed 2 stoplights, and 3 of my favorite stores. I feel those are the only things worth counting right now. I hit the brake to stop at what would now be the third stoplight, but my phone lights up, throwing off my numbers and making me jump in my seat.

  ‘Romona’ with exactly 4 heart emojis, that’s her favorite number, flashes across my phone screen. I don’t call while driving, she probably just wants to know how the interview went. Maybe I’ll call her back when I get home, if I don’t feel like too much of a disappointment.

  The couch is calling to me the moment my apartment door slams behind me. I plop myself down, head in hands and think about my next moves. I can call Ramona back, and face my emotions, yuck. I could make dinner, I have ingredients for chicken alfredo, which Ramona taught me how to make. Dinner takes too much energy. I could just sit on the couch and cry? Lame. Why am I so lame?

  My phone lights up again, great. I don’t even look at who’s calling, I already know.

  “Melody, hi! You didn’t answer my call earlier, so I figured I’d call again, did I call at a bad time earlier?”

  I tried not to breathe, she always knows when something is wrong with me.

  “I was at a stoplight, driving home,” I let out quickly. Hopefully not too fast to be detected on her emotional radar.

  “Oh!! That’s right! The interview, how did it go?” Her voice rang through my head. She was gonna be so disappointed.

  “Mel? How’d it go? He-”

  “I got rejected again, ‘Mona.”

  I hear her sigh of disappointment over the phone but her voice remains hopeful.

  “Hey, that’s alright! You have another one tomorrow right? At one of the stores in that stripmall right?”

  “Yeah, I guess-”

  A pounding knock at my door cuts me off, “Hey, someones here, I gotta let you go, sorry, love you, bye.”

  I glance at my phone, the call already ended, hm.

  I look like a mess but I don’t care, I crack the door anyways to reveal a messy, sweaty Ramona.

  “Oh hello!!”

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  “Why are you here?”

  “Don’t act so excited to see me, girl!” She walked in, as she always does.

  I love Ramona, we’re like polar opposites, and we go hand in hand. I’m monotone, very observant, and Ramonas very bubbly, very energetic.

  A smile grows on my lips as I shut the door and turn to face her, “so again, why are you here?”

  “To cheer you up of course! Getting rejected 5 times in a week is hard, let alone the past two months, with over countless rejections and-”

  “Okay, I get it, you’re disappointed. Don’t even try to act like you’re not, I heard you sigh over the phone.”

  Her face twisted in confusion and then lit up.

  “Oh no no no! I’m not disappointed, I was running! I ran here. I was waiting for you to ask me how I got here so fast, so I could tell you all about it!”

  I rolled my eyes and chuckled, classic Ramona.

  “Alright so, cheering me up, what exactly are we doing?”

  “Go get your most daring dress on! We’re going to dinner!”

  I slump over a little, “Ramona I don’t exactly feel confident right now and-”

  “Hey even if you’re not the greatest at getting jobs, you’ll always be sexy! Go put on that dress, we leave in five!”

  “And where’s your dress?”

  She leads me into my room and opens my closet, “Right here!”

  Grabbing a red dress of mine, she holds it up to her and struts a little pose, making me giggle. She really does know how to cheer me up.

  She opens the passenger door of my car for me.

  “After you, m’lady!”

  I giggle some more and get in, she’s the best. My gorgeous blue dress flows down to the floor and my heels grip my feet tightly. Ramona has a habit of not telling me where we’re going, so I’m just along for the ride, and whatever food may come of it. Her phone lights up and she quickly grabs it to answer it, unlike me, she talks and drives.

  “Hey babe, what’s up?”

  She rolls her eyes, “I’m taking Ramona out to dinner-I- Ugh! Yes again! She’s my best friend!”

  After a while of watching her progressively get more irritated, she starts making static sounds.

  “Psshhhttt, bad psshtt signal, gotta let you pshhh, go, love pshhh”

  I can’t help but look a little concerned. Ramona is always happy, but her and her boyfriend's relationship has been rocky recently. With her opening her new burger shop, and taking care of me, she really hasn’t been home much. I feel like it’s my fault that their relationship is unsteady but she assures me time and time again that it’s not, whatsoever. She sighs and shuts her phone off, setting it on her lap.

  “Anyways! Almost there! You should refresh me on that interview you have tomorrow, Mel!”

  I had a feeling that she was just trying to fill the silence, but I couldn’t blame her.

  “There’s this strip mall downtown, I’m interviewing to work at the little movie rental place down there.”

  “That sounds amazing! You know, I’ve never understood what you like so much about theater and entertainment but watching you immerse yourself in something you love makes me truly happy!”

  It was only now looking around that I had no idea where we were. I think we’re on the complete opposite side of town.

  “Ramona, where exactly is this restaurant?”

  She stays silent as she pulls my car into this parking lot in front of this seemingly extremely fancy restaurant. The building was a sleek black with long windows that reached to the ground. You could see the fancy decor and setup inside. There were dark red chairs with dark grey and black tables, plants hung from the cieling along with cute little lights.

  “It’s right in front of us! Taking it all in? You look a little spacey,” She said, turning her head away from me, as she reached for the door.

  I nodded my head and proceeded to follow her out of the car. This whole side of town was just beautiful. The pavement was outlined in beautiful greenery of all assortments, shops stood line to line with bright colorful lights, but it all had the same sort of chic classy look.

  “After you M’lady,” Ramona playfully teased as she opened the restaurant door.

  I couldn’t help but blush from embarrassment and nod my head at her. The moment I stepped in, I had a realization. Most of the tables in here were high ups, my favorite. Just the way I liked it! I couldn’t contain my excitement as I eagerly proceeded to one in the back corner, with dim lighting.

  “Wow Mel, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think we were on a date!”

  I rolled my eyes and went to sit in the chair, but as always, there stood Ramona, holding my pulled out chair for me to sit in.

  “M’lady.”

  I felt my face turn a hot red as I climbed into my chair and crossed my arms “Ramona we are in public, these jokes are funnier when it’s just us.”

  She loves getting arise out of me, “so you don’t want pushed in?”

  I’m only 5’2, she knows I can’t touch the ground in this chair.

  “Push me in, please” I say reluctantly.

  She smirked as she gently pushed me in and went to get into her own chair, which was easier for her considering she was 5’7. We’ve had these little inside jokes since we first met, ever since someone in high school thought we were dating. Ever since then, she’s started calling me m’lady and doing little acts of service for me, opening the door for me, pushing me in, even brushing my hair behind my ear a couple times. She always jokes that we’re like a married couple because she’s with me more than her boyfriend, Jason. I will admit that the dating allegations haven’t stopped even though we’re both out of high school now. But you know what they say, if you’re not just a little gay with your best friends, are you guys even best friends?

  “Hello my name is Mark, I’ll be serving you two lovely ladies tonight. Can I get you started off with anything?”

  “Hi! Yes please, could we get two strawberry lemonades please?”

  “Sure thing! I’ll be right back with those.”

  We said our thank yous as he walked away.

  “So, Mel, how are you feeling?”

  “A bit better, I guess. I’m really grateful that you took me out tonight, I’m sorry if I disappointed you.”

  She reached across the table for my hand, “You could never disappoint me, things happen! Everyone’s cards are different, we just gotta persevere! I know you got this next interview tomorrow in the bag!”

  “Will you be disappointed in me if I fail again?”

  She chuckled and shook her head, “No Mel, but you need to be positive okay! Look, there’s our drinks!”

  Mark set the strawberry lemonades on the table, making a loud clink sound, “Are you two ready to order?”

  “Can we get one large plate of chicken alfredo to share, with two sides of garlic bread please?”

  “Sure thing!”

  The waiter walks away again. I love sharing food with Ramona, it makes me feel better about eating. That’s just my preference, I would always rather share a meal then eat alone, and if I do have to eat alone, I probably won’t eat.

  After stuffing our faces and yapping all evening, we made our way back home. The door slammed behind Ramona as we linked arms, walking inside.

  “I’m so sorry I kept you out so late! You need to get ready for bed! You’ll need lots of sleep for your interview!”

  “Oh no no! No worries, it’s alright. I promise it’s okay. You goin home now?”

  She nodded, her eyes darting away from me. “I’m really nervous to go home. I know my boyfriend is mad at me because of earlier.”

  I opened my arms for a hug, which she happily accepted.

  “It’ll be alright Ramona! Things will be okay, you should get home to work it out with him though. I’ll see you later okay?”

  I let go, but she held on. “Mel, I don’t want to go,” her voice was breaking.

  I smiled and put my arms back around her, “sleepover?”

  She backed up looking like she lost her color, “no no, I can’t. I have to go, I’m sorry. Good luck with your interview tomorrow, bye!” And just like that, she rushed out.