Spare Change

Penthouse Parties

Mom wasn't in the bed when I woke up. I threw the heavy quilt off of me and turned onto my side, reaching for my phone. I glanced at the ring sitting next to my water bottle on the nightstand. Holy shit you met fucking Harry Styles yesterday.

I shake my head and grab my phone seeing a text from Charity.

"Do you wanna come to the party with me tonight?"

My heart stops. Of course I want to come to a party hosted by Harry Styles. It is my one night off, but I think about how I should ask mom and Javi if they need any help today before I say yes.

I respond, "Have to talk with the family about working tonight. See if they need help."

"You always work. Please take one night!! When is something like this ever going to happen again?"

God she was right. When was I ever going to get to go to a party hosted by a household name celebrity? This is something that I could tell my grandkids about.

"Fine we'll go. What the hell are we going to wear?"

I turn off my phone and walk into the living room. Mom is nowhere to be found, meaning that she already went downstairs to do prep work for tonight. That or she's trying to make sense of the books. I'd have to remind Javi to help her with that.

Javi is fast asleep on the couch, his calves hanging off the sides because he's too big for it. I glance at the wall clock, it reads 6:30. He needed to get up. I gently pushed his shoulder, "Javi, wake up."

He grunted before shoving a pillow in front of his face, "My alarm didn't go off yet, Georgia."

"It's 6:30. Let's go downstairs."

He sat up, rubbing the sleep from the corner of his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I'm up."

I walk into the kitchen and grab two mugs, setting them on the counter before turning off the coffee pot. Javi sleep walks to the bathroom, I can hear him mumbling something about wanting to sleep in.

If there's one thing that everyone knows about Javi, it's that he doesn't complain. Even when we were kids and we couldn't afford new Nike shoes or a Nintendo DS, Javi never ever really let his disappointment show. After dad left, I think that he knew better than to put that extra stress on my mom. He felt that he had to fill his shoes, be the man in the house. Javi always had more on his plate than he could carry. He was working three jobs, and it was getting to him.

He came back out and grumbled. I grabbed the chipped mug with the map of Disney World on it and handed it to him. He smiled before taking a sip, "Thanks."

"Do you remember when we went to Disney World?" I laughed, "and you puked after riding the spinning tea cups?"

He grumbled, "you'll never let me fucking forget it."

I laughed as we lumbered downstairs, the sound of Selena getting louder the lower we got. The office was empty. I glanced at the pile of bills stacked up on the makeshift desk out of a folding table.

"Javi, you have to help her call some of these people!" I said, grabbing an envelope with a big fat 'Notice' stamped across it in red.

"Fuck Georgia, I can't do everything!" He snapped.

I rolled my eyes, so he definitely worked 2nd shift last night, otherwise he wouldn't be this cranky, "Javi, I would help but I don't know how to do anything when it comes to bills!"

"And you think I do? I have a fucking GED, at least you're in school-"

The partition door to the office opened, interrupting our little argument. Mom wiped her hands on her apron, "Buenos días mis amores" she smiled.