In quiet light

II

The next few weeks fly by and suddenly I'm waiting in the living room for Angela to come pick me up. Packing for two weeks when you barely know what you're going to be doing is hard. All I know is that there will be good weather and we're in a forest so the humidity will be high. My hair is gonna go crazy. Curls and humidity? No, thank you.
My mom watches her game shows while I wait, she calls out the answers to difficult trivia like it's nothing.

"Mom, you should go on one of those shows, you'd kill it." I tell her.

"Oh stop." She waves her hand at me. "I wouldn't last more than a minute in front of cameras." A car pulls up out front and my phone chimes with a text from Angela.

"Oh, Angela's here, mom. I'm gonna head." I reach over and hug her, then grab my bags and walk out of the house. When I get to the car, the truck pops itself and I drop my bags in. Angela turns down her radio as I climb into the passenger seat.

"Oh my god, Ria. You're looking amazing!" She immediately compliments me, as always. Angela knows how to make someone feel appreciated.

"Thanks, babes." We hug. "Look at you though, you're glowing. How's baby Jane?" Angela starts driving, her cars satnav showing the way.

"Jane is the most precious baby I could ever ask for." She gushes with the biggest smile on her face. "So since I know you're not great with remembering names I thought I'd give you the DL on everyone coming."

"You know me so well."

"So, we've got myself, obviously. George, he's a sweetheart, he's bringing his wife Beth. Big money family, they live comfortably." She exaggerates the 'comfortably'.

"Does he have a single brother for me?" I joke.

"Not unless you're a lesbian, his sister is happily single." We both laugh. "Then we have Jordan. He's married but coming alone. Real estate guy so again, big money."

"I sense there might be a trend of your friend being rich."

"Yup. Some got lucky and some were born into it. Isn't life great for us hard workers?" Sarcasm drips from her words. "Next is Carlos, he's a cop, but a fun one. He used to be the pothead of the group. His fiancé Christine is coming too, she's lovely."

"Ophelia is a rich girl to the bone, think Parks Hilton but small town version. Her husband does something in medicine. Marianne is an author, her books wouldn't be my taste but she's quite successful. Her boyfriend, Levi, is kinda hippy, you'll like his vibe. And finally Serena." She says with a heavy sigh. "Serena and I bumped heads often in school. She tended to like my boyfriends."

"Ohhh, this Serena?"

"Mhm. I'm playing nice now since the cabin we're staying in is her boyfriend's, Nick. Now Serena's family is rich but Nicks's family? They are wayyyyy above anyone else. Ever watch Crazy Rich Asians?"

"Umm, is the sky blue? Of course."

"Ok, then, but instead they're 'Crazy Rich Americans'. I don't even know what they do for work."

"Wow. We definitely don't belong their presence."

We yapped the whole way to the cabin. It felt like a twenty-minute drive instead of a couple of hours. We gossiped about everyone we could think of. If anyone ever says gossiping is bad, they never did it right.
As Angela pulls up to the cabin, both our jaws dropped. This place was so much bigger than I imagined. A few different cars were already parked rich people-type cars.

"Girlllllllll." Angela looked at me as she parked her car. "I feel like my little Fiat stands out so much right now."

We get out and ogle at the 'cabin' while we grab our bags. I actually can't believe this is where I'm staying for two weeks.