Clementine had become a wild child. Born in America but raised abroad, she now had little regard for the expectations of high society. But her reckless ways eventually catch up with her when she is kicked out of college in New York City and forced t...
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The next day she went to get a massage.
Though it felt like nothing compared to Zico, she was in a state of withdrawal and thought that this would help.
He may be doing drugs, Clementine thought, but I'm doing him.
Maybe being addicted to something is easier than to someone, you don't get hurt and you don't hurt others. Or maybe it's so much worse because it's so much more vapid.
Then, she realized, that she was on some sort of momentum. And that she couldn't stop, wouldn't stop.
So when she got home, it was still early afternoon and she called Mina.
"Halo, chica," Mina picked up after the first call.
"Heyo, how are you?" Clementine, forever the polite child of her parents.
"I'm fine. How are you?"
"Listen, do you want to go out today? To the beach club, like now?" Clementine asked her and she heard a shuffle on the phone, as if Mina was moving it around.
But really she was just choking on her water.
"Are you serious? Now? Today? I thought you were...I don't know, still grounded."
"I was, kind of, but under a few conditions of me seeing a shrink and my parents realizing they can't actually do much, and me paying off the new driver, I can pretty much do things now," Clementine said simply, as if all of this was to be obvious. "And anyway, we would just be going to the beach club. That's very parent approved and you know that."
"That's true, they always wanted you to meet a man there..." Mina thought about it wistfully, and though she seemed to be hesitant, Clementine could feel her swaying towards her and giving in.
"So?" Clementine probed.
Mina signed and then, finally, "see you in an hour," she said.
Clementine didn't feel guilty, she couldn't.
She just so badly needed someone to soften the blow from the comedown from last night that the thought of being alone again was freaking her out.
It all happened ever so slightly, this shift in perspective, that she did't even have time to notice it herself.
It just so happened that it was a pre party to the Carnival - the biggest show on earth - a festival spanning several days with the biggest dancing and costumes and partying on the streets.
Perfect timing, Clementine thought.
Of course, neither Clementine not Mina were prepared enough to think about this. And in their beach club, there was a sanitized, filtered, clean dirty version of the Carnaval.
With dancers in jewels and feathers and tight clothes came in and danced and the drinks flowed freely.
"I didn't realize it'd be so active here today," Mina said to Clementine as they were both in line at the bar, in their bikini and coverups, waiting to get a refill on their fruity drink of choice. Clementine loved pineapples.
"The last time I experienced Carnival was as a little girl, when I was still in school and all I can remember is the dancing and the party from an extremely sheltered outsider's perspective," Clementine mused, mostly to herself.
"You'll love it," Mina said, "its totally different when you can be a part of it."
Clementine's mind automatically wandered to Zico. How he would definitely know where to go.
"Why are you smiling to yourself like that?" Mina asked, looking at her through her cat eyed sunglasses.
Mina watched her as she pulled out her phone and took a quick picture of the scene, sending it to Zico. She wanted him to know where she was. She wanted him to think of her. She wanted him to know she knew how to have fun!"
"You didn't!" Mina exclaimed, connecting the pieces together. That boy?" Mina asked mouth agape, knowing the answer.
Clementine nodded.
"How do you get away with all this?" Mina continued interrogating her.
