You're Not Safe

Chapter Nine-Araba

I held onto my empty flask bottle making my way past the corridor. I wished I had more iced tea to cool my nerves. Being in the middle of the tension between Emma and Helenor was insane. If only I could force my ears to unhear the moment of humiliation that I had to endure in front of me. Whenever the nervousness kicked in, iced tea would help me fight it. Specifically, Aunty Esi's, of course. But she's not here anymore. I could not get Helenor's moans out of my head. When her fearful face flashed into my mind, the more I doubted if she was a narcissist.

Entering the Social Media Department, two Asian women, thirty-ish, or probably forty-ish, were going back and forth in their conversation, pretending as if the boss had just announced his decision to travel to Canada so they could have the whole office to themselves for their girl chat. Both their legs rested on the desk, which was scattered with photos, documents and brown envelopes. What was up with these grown folks anyway? To be honest, it was like they rarely did any work over here. It was a blessing they at least gave Emma and me something to do, or this whole thing would be one complete waste of a good summer vacation.

It was a miracle I was able to land my internship dream of working for this late-night show. Connections have always been a powerful factor in every industry. Of course, it wouldn't have worked without Emma's popularity. One of her many friends, who formerly worked for the NBC Network studios, linked us to Marty.  It was no doubt that after one look at Emma, he made up his mind to take us as his interns.

"...Her legs are to die for," one of the Asian women with glasses on said, aloud.

"I know," the other with the long ponytail replied. "Imagine rubbing oil over them at the massage parlour. Gosh, Heaven on Earth, I tell ya. If Shannon Tweed and Pam Anderson had a baby, it would be her for sure."

"What? No. If Shannon Tweed and Anna Nicole had a baby, it definitely would be her. Have you seen the puppies she's carrying on that chest? They're not Pam Anderson big but average cups. I see more of a Shannon vibe from her."

"You noticed she's worn only white clothes since she and her friend started working here? What's up with that?"

I felt a little jolt in my chest when it came to notice the person they were referring to. I made a mistake narrowing my eyes at them because I'd immediately been caught gawking.

"Hey, Araba," the long ponytail lady called. "Could you come here for a quick second? There's something we wanna ask you."

I tightened my grip on my flask. "Yes?"

"Um, look," the glasses lady began. "We all know your pal Emma is banging the show host. It's very obvious. By any chance, is she into girls too?" I raised my brows at her.

"If she is, could you please tell her we'd love to hang out for drinks sometime? Or spend time together hanging out at the saunas or massage parlours."

My Gosh, the audacity of these old people. I wanted to scream at them with all the power in my lungs. I managed to mask the anger in me. "Absolutely no way. She's only eighteen! Way too young for both of you. Do you realize how weird and inappropriate that is?"

The ladies seemed a bit shaken by my reaction when they looked at each other. "Okay," the glasses lady said, raising both hands. "That's all we wanted to ask. Thanks." They turned away from me to continue their chat. Shaking my head, I motioned out of their sight to look for Dwayne so I could have a chat with him about Marty's plans for the workers. I swear, it felt like high school all over again. Random girls whom I never even knew were in the same school as us approached me and tried to get me to ask Emma if she would hang out with them. Join their stupid clique. All they wanted to do was to take Emma away from me so I would end up being a loner. There was no effing way that would happen. Every single boy in our classes used to ask Emma out to prom.