Shades of Sepia

I

Onika Tanya Maraj
May 21st
Houston, Texas

Nobody looked good in the rain, and no sane person was stepping out in that only to ruin a perfectly good outfit. Yet here I was, standing in the window, about to do just that.

I couldn't say it wasn't for a good cause.

I pulled myself away from the rain and knelt down next to Sierra.

I loved my girl, and I was so sad for her, but I was happy to take her spot.

Sierra was always connecting with somebody that had something to do with the fields she wanted to get into. She was outside always, coming home with more phone numbers than her phone could carry. And Sierra had never been stingy. She always invited me, but this fundraiser was exclusive, exclusive enough that they had restricted Sierra from bringing a plus one.

But I wanted to go so bad. The Alzheimer's Association had made a large impression on me from very young. I'd known elders and some cases of young adults with Alzheimer's. From one stage to the next, the neurologic disorder tugged on my heart strings like no other.

So when Sierra got invited to a fundraiser by the governing board of association, I wanted to go too. Her and I were in the same field so things like this were common, but I was feeling like a school girl, sad that I couldn't go with my best friend. Now not only were we not going together, but she was sick too.

"It was probably the weather," I told her and placed my hand on her burning forehead.

"Or it was that guy at Trojan that would not stop coughing and sneezing. Rock should have kicked his ass out the moment he started doing all that yakking."

"You really think that was it?"

"He was on me the whole entire night."

"Sorry SiSi."

"It's not your fault. I'm glad one of us is going instead of neither of us. You can just give me the run down when you get back," She said then she dragged herself off of the couch, "Let me get up and get you dressed."

Sierra was refusing to let this opportunity go to waste, no matter who was going in her place. She had an outfit ready, accessories to change, the girl even had her conversations mapped out. I didn't know if I could follow her exact instructions, but I would try my best.

I followed her sickly body to her bedroom where the biggest mirror in our apartment sat right in front of her bed. I told her she was going to open a portal with that damn thing, but her mirror was her baby. Her dad bought it for her as a parting gift when we came out here.

I flopped down on Sierra's bed and kicked my feet back and forth while she opened her closet. On the back wall, in plain view, there was her black, silk chiffon dress. The way the silk would mold to her curves, it would do the same for me.

"I'm so sad I don't get to wear that tonight," She pouted and carried it from the closet. She laid it on the bed then went back to get a box of Very Wang shoes. "These too."

"I didn't know this outfit was so serious."

"I hate being sick," She said then sniffed real heavy, her nasal passages full of mucus.

I knew how badly she wanted to just sit beside me, but she wanted someone to leave this place with a working immune system.

"Hurry up. Doors open for you guys at eight."

"What time does the board get there?"

"They'll be there before you even get to the gate."

That was usually the way it went at these fundraisers. Since they had practically pushed the event, they got to front run it when the time came. By the time I hit the venue, a spread of board members would be there, sitting as elegantly as they were portrayed online.