Shift

The Bay

Scarlet took her third cup of coffee to-go and walked the few blocks back home. When she got there, Penny's car was in the driveway. Scarlet knew her friend was already inside the house, cleaning up all of Scarlet's messes and cursing her for being so irresponsible.

"Pen?" she called as she walked in the door.

"Who uses a bathrobe to soak up a spill?" Penny stood in the kitchen with elbow-length yellow rubber gloves on her hands and a scowl on her face. "That's going to be stained forever, you know. The house is a pit, Scar."

As usual, Penny was already made up to perfection, with silky curls in her long, red hair and shimmery golden shadow on her eyelids. Her lashes were curled up and coated in black mascara, and her lips were painted candy apple red.

"Nice to see you, too," Scarlet said. She chuckled as she tossed her hat, scarf, and coat haphazardly onto the recliner. "I'm having a bummer day, how about yourself?"

"There is a coat rack right next to you," Penny said. She pointed at the tall wooden stand that sat directly behind the chair.

"This is why I don't have roommates," Scarlet replied. She pulled her boots off and dropped them in front of the door.

Penny rolled her eyes. "And that is a fire hazard."

"Lay off, Smokey, damn."

"Are you packed? We have to pick Heather and Gina up in an hour."

"It'll take me five minutes."

"You look like shit. Have you showered?"

"Jesus, Pen," she huffed, flopping onto the couch. "Can you be less bionic for, like, five seconds and just let me chill." Scarlet rested her arm over her face.

"Where's your TV?" Penny asked after a moment.

"I sold it."

"Why?"

"I needed money, dude, why else would I sell it? I only got one channel anyway, and all it played was Jack Hanna's Wild Animal Adventure or whatever."

Penny sat on the couch and scooped Scarlet's legs onto her lap. She leaned against the back of the couch, her long, coppery hair falling away from her face.

"You need to sell this house, Scarlet."

"I'm not doing that."

"You're destroying it."

"It's mine to destroy." Scarlet remembered when this tiny house was a warm, loving family home where she and her father would make waffles on Sunday mornings and sing oldies together. She remembered what it looked like before the ceiling cracked and the walls swelled and the paint began to peel; before the carpets were stained with soda spills and vomit and cigarette ashes. She knew that the house lost value every day, with every drunken spill and every angry fist hole in the wall. But it was all she had left of her father, and she would die before she left it behind.

"Get in the shower," said Penny, patting Scarlet's knee. "I'll finish cleaning up after you, as usual, and then I'll help you pack."

* * * 

"Do you think there are wolves in Andrew's Bay?" Scarlet asked. She emerged from the steamy bathroom wrapped in a semi-clean beach towel she'd found in the back of the closet. Her hair clung to her bare shoulders and trailed down her back like big, wet leaches hanging heavily from her head.

Penny laughed. "No." She had cleaned the entire house already. The kitchen counter was cleared and wiped down, and the floor had been mopped, smelling of lemons and bleach. The coffee pot peeked out from the lid of the trash can. In the living room, Scarlet's things were hung from the coat rack, her boots neatly set next to it, and a plaid fleece blanket was folded along the back of the couch. The carpet was vacuumed and Penny had placed the hallway rug strategically across the worst of the stains. She'd even dusted the empty TV stand and end tables.