The Art of Starting Over

Chapter 45 - The Other Side

"Sosa, what is all this?" I ask as she walks into the store with three large suitcases and a duffel bag.

It's ten to nine in the morning and I'm already tired. I only had three hours of sleep after yesterday's shift behind the bar. There was a group of particularly heavy drinkers who really did not want to go back home to their wives. Keith was sound asleep when I got home, probably passed out from his own drinking session with his mates. He didn't even hear me get up this morning.

"My stuff. I'm moving out."

She looks at me with a fearful, almost manic expression in her dark brown eyes. Her face is glistening with sweat and panic.

"What do you mean you're moving out?" I ask bewildered.

"He found out!" she says, her lips quivering. "Derek found out about me and Shaun! Shaun just called. He and Derek had a fight and he beat him up really badly. They're taking him to the hospital."

"He what? How did he find out?"

"I don't know!"

I reach for her fidgeting hands and sit her down on the stool. "Is he okay? Shaun? Go to him, I'll cover for you."

"What? No way! Derek will come to find me for sure! He won't come here because he knows you'll be here and there's cameras and everything, but I can't go to the hospital or home, Ally! He'll kill me!"

"No, he won't," I say trying to calm her down. "He won't risk coming over with your dad around."

"My dad hasn't been home for days! He's been sleeping over at that woman's house... Eileen something. He only comes home to dump his dirty clothes in the laundry and then disappears. I'm on my own, Ally!"

"So, what are you going to do? You can't live here!"

She covers her face with her hands and shakes her head desperately. Clearly, she didn't think this through. She looks lost and scared but even in my state of constant paralysis I realise she's right. She's on her own and she's in danger. If Derek really beat up Shaun, then for sure he'll be looking for her too.

"Come stay with us," I blurt out, knowing, as soon as the words are out of my mouth that this is a mistake. But it doesn't matter. We don't have a choice. "At least until things calm down with Derek. We'll figure out the rest as we go along."

Sosa looks up at me, teary-eyed. Her whole body is shaking. "Really?" she says with a trembling voice.

I look into her face. My one friend in the whole world, the fearless girl who won't stop at anything to get what she wants, is terrified.

"Yes," I say determined. "Sosa, I need this just as much as you do. You're right, we're on our own. We need to get a good hold of our lives once and for all."

#

I stand my ground in front of Keith's furious face, secretly thanking God that I had enough sense to ask Sosa to wait in the car while I broke the news to him. But I'm not backing down. She's my friend. She's staying.

"You should have asked me first. It's my freaking house, Ally!" he spits.

"What do you want me to do? Leave her out in the streets?" I implore.

"I don't know! Have you ever heard of hotels?"

"I am not sending her to a hotel by herself! Derek is out looking for her!"

"No shit, he's looking for her," he shouts, pushing his scrunched-up locks out of his face. "She's been fucking his mate behind his back! What did she expect? Or do you think that's okay? Huh? Do you think it's okay to cheat, Ally?"