“Fucking abysmal.” Natalie slammed the front door behind her and slugged her heavy purse over the couch. Her dad’s eyes looked up from his iPad without movement from his head.
“We didn’t teach you to use that language, Nat. You don’t ever hear Kara swearing, do you?” He looked back down to his game without waiting for an answer. Natalie’s eyes rolled to the back of her head accompanied by an agitated sigh. “You should take your stuff to your room, otherwise it’ll be there all weekend.”
“Really, Dad? Do you even wanna know why my day was so darn abysmal?”
“Yeah, just gotta finish this round. I’m on a roll.”
“Forget it.” She grabbed her purse and headed towards her room. “I’ll just go call Libby.” Without any word from her father, Natalie ran up two flights of stairs while rummaging through her bag. “Call Libby Mobile,” she uttered to her second best friend. Being a much better listener than her dad, a call to Libby was instantly transmitted through the phone.
“Hellooo!”
“Hey, are you busy?”
“Nah, I’m just at work. No one buys caskets on a Friday night. What’s up, lady?”
“Well. Got myself in an accident tonight.”
“Nat! Was it your fault? What happen—wait! You were playing Trivia Crack on the way home, weren’t you? I thought it was strange you were playing at 5:30!”
“I mean… Well… Maybe. More like, yes. Yes I was. But give me a break—it was a freaking crawl the entire way.” Natalie docked her phone and hit the speaker button.
“No, we don’t give discounts. If you don’t care enough to spend the money, why don’t you just bury ‘em in your backyard yourself?” The sound of a door opening then quickly shutting was audible on the line. “Sorry about that. That always does the trick to get cheapskates out of here. Continue.”
“I’m still trying to beat Kara at that damn game. She has literally beaten me every time. I just needed to answer one question, and I would’ve won, then BAM! I hit the guy in front of me. Then he gets out and starts yelling at me, then everyone else starts yelling and honking at us, because now we’re just causing even more traffic. It was embarrassing and annoying, and that guy was such a jackass.”
“Was he cute?”
“Seriously? No! He was like, almost thirty. His eyes were stupid blue. No one’s eyes should be that blue. And he had like long skater-ish hair but was wearing a douchey button-up. Some ugly green color. Way too tall. Looked like he was scrawny under that shirt, too. And of course he had some obscure car with a look-at-me paint job. I bet he likes cats… Hey, why are you being so quiet over there?”
“Because,” Libby laughed into the phone, “it sounds like you think he’s pretty cute.”
“I don’t. Believe me. Especially the way he acted when I told him I didn’t have my insurance information. And I was all, ’15 minutes or less could save you 15% or more on a better haircut’—which got him even madder.”
“Wonder why.”
“Right—I was just trying to lighten the mood. So, long story short, I’m going to the repair shop I always use with him tomorrow to get a quote on his ca—oh my god!”
“What now?”
“Just got a notification that Kara beat me AGAIN. Oh man, and I just can’t wait for the, ‘Kara’s never been in an accident; Kara always has her insurance card in her car; Kara doesn’t use her phone while driving’ kill-me-now speech.”
“Well…”
“I mean, okay, I know I’m supposed to be responsible and stuff, and texting and driving is dangerous, but how come every time I do something wrong, it always has to be about Kara doing everything right? Why can’t I just screw up without her name being mentioned? It’s like, come on, you guys got the inheritance right before she went to high school. So she got the fancy private school and now gets to go to Harvard. Of course she’s a freaking saint. I was stealing food because we were so poor when it was time for me to go to college!”
“Yeah, I definitely see where you’re coming from. Your parents probably feel bad for what you had to deal with and bring Kara into it to make themselves feel better. Sucks they can’t see that, but your parents were in denial about a lot of things even before they got all that money. Agh—a customer just walked in, or should I say “a soul to comfort” as my boss likes to put it. I’m gonna deal with them, and I’ll call you when I get out, okay?”
Natalie said goodbye to her best friend and reached over to end the call. Her yoga pants were lying beside her from when she threw them off earlier that morning. Quickly, she changed into them, and then got up to examine the contents of her mini refrigerator: three travel size bottles of white zin, half a bottle of pink moscato, and a half-eaten pack of Oreos.
“Happy Friday to me!” She cheered as she pulled out a small bottle and a handful of crème-filled goodness.
The next day, Natalie walked into the auto shop still wearing last night’s yoga pants, now tucked into over worn Uggs, with a purple and black football graphic tee. The guy she hit was already sitting in one of the plastic black waiting chairs in the lobby.
“Um, hey,” Natalie said expressionless. She sat down next to him and pulled out her phone. “Victor should be out soon to check out your car.”
“I already met with him. They’re looking at the damage now and should have a quote in ten minutes or so,” he responded. Natalie rolled her eyes. “He said you’re quite the regular in here.”
“Thanks,” she huffed sarcastically. “Sometimes trash cans and poles just come out of nowhere.” He smirked, making Natalie scoff and shake her head. She put in the passcode to her phone and opened up Trivia Crack.
“Isn’t that what got you into this mess?”
“How do you know?” She questioned, completely puzzled.
“Because everyone around you could hear the sounds coming through your Bluetooth.” Natalie’s cheeks instantly turned a bright pink. She didn’t have any sort of rebuttal, so she turned back to her phone and tapped Kara Millington on the screen.
“Dude, I only need one more right, and I’ll get to win my last character,” she whispered to no one in particular. How many points is a touchdown worth? “Ha!” Her finger lightly tapped the correct answer. She chose to win her final crown: history.
“Founded around 600 B.C. by the Greeks, what is the oldest city in France?” Natalie sputtered as quickly as possible. “Ugh, hell if I know…”
“Marseilles,” the guy offered.
“What? How do you know?”
“I’m a history teacher. Trust me.” Natalie watched as the timer got closer to zero. She saw her coin count was at two and decided to listen. With one eye shut and the other half closed, she tapped Marseilles and watched CORRECT pop up over the question.
“Oh my, God!” The screen she’d been waiting for weeks to appear was finally in front of her eyes. Three animated characters displayed sad, disappointed faces under her sister’s name, while three celebrated under Natalie’s. Completely disregarding her public setting, she jumped out of her chair and started what would best be described as a white girl happy dance. “I won! I won!”
“Technically, we won,” he said with a grin. Natalie stopped rejoicing and crossed her arms.
“Fine. We won.” She sat back in her seat. “A teacher, huh? Not what I was expecting.”
“Oh, really? And what were you expecting?”
“I don’t know. Some government contractor or vice president of some mega douche company.” Her cheeks turned pink again. “Sorry. I have no filter.” He chuckled.
“That’s okay—I’m used to it. I work at Youth for Tomorrow.” She shrugged her shoulders. “High school for inner city underprivileged kids.”
“Sooo, kind of the exact opposite of what I thought.” He smiled and ran his hand through his skater-ish hair.
“I got $20 that says I can prove whatever you thought about me was wrong. And another $20 that says you’re not nearly as hard and sarcastic as you like to put on.”
“Oh, no, I am. Promise.”
“So then, take the bet?”
“Sure, I’ll take it!” They shook hands and made eye contact that was anything but awkward.
“I’m Max, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, again. I’m Natalie.”
the blonde yoda 