You laid on your couch back in Los Angeles. You changed positions maybe thirty times in the last ten minutes. Now your head was hanging off the side of the arm.
Olive, without knocking, walked through your front door. She made her way over to you, stopping at the other end of the couch. She stared you down as you met her eyes.
"Your show finished weeks ago. Have you even moved off this couch since then?"
"I left to go pee a little bit ago. Missed it."
"Wow, what an experience." She picked up your feet to move them away to sit down. "I need you today."
"For what?"
"A party."
You sat up, not sure if you heard her correctly. "You need my help for a party?"
"I was hired to plan a birthday party. It's supposed to have a bunch of A listers. I need your help setting up. The people who were supposed to come are short staffed so I'm going to need extra hands. It all has to be done before tonight." She smiled innocently, begging for a yes.
"You just need my help setting up?"
"Yes. You can even come if you would like. I'll tell them you're with me."
"I'm good. But yes, I'll help."
Olive squealed and hugged you tightly. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay let's go."
"Oh, we're going now?"
She stood up and started heading out of your house. "Yep."
You got up and grabbed your purse before following your friend out the door. She drove you to an extravagant house that sat right across from the beach. She entered a code into the keypad to get through the gated fence. Men stood outside their trucks who you guessed were part of Olive's setting up crew.
"Hello boys." Olive smiled and pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head. "Follow me."
Olive pulled out a set of keys to unlock the front door. She gave out instructions to each of the men explaining where everything must go.
"Uh Liv, it looks like you have more than enough people to help you. You didn't need me did you?"
Olive smiled knowing she was caught. "No, but I wanted you to get out of the house."
"I leave my house."
Olive put her hands on her kips knowing full well you don't.
"I workout. I have an audition next week. The premier for Wednesday isn't far away, which means I'll be gone for a while to promote it." You put a finger down for each of the three things you listed.
"You're talking about the future when you won't be home. I'm talking about the present. Now come on, you're gonna blow up balloons and tie them to the archway." She dropped a couple of bags of balloons into your arms.
You looked at the amount of balloons each of those bags held. "I might die if I do all these."
"That's why you'll use a helium tank. Marcus, will you be so kind to bring that and the archway out here please. Place it here." Olive stood a good ten feet away from the entrance.
You watched as Marcus put a helium tank in front of you and then set up an archway with weights at the bottom to hold it in place. He smiled at you with a wink when he finished.
Your face didn't change. You didn't smile back or make a disgusted look. You just stared at him and then started opening your balloons to get to work.
This wouldn't be the first time you helped Olive. Before moving out on your own, you would always go with her anytime she went to set up to get out of the house. So this wouldn't be your first balloon archway to decorate. At this point, you could call yourself a professional. If you quit acting you could start getting hired to set these bad boys up. Of course that was all a joke.
