Overdramatic, restless, and just seventeen... Maria is sent back to her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, she's determined to revive the past but finds out that everything has changed. Maria faces off with old friends, and the added complication of local...
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October 18th, 1991. 4:58 P.M.
I arrived back at the community service site at two minutes to five. Dallas is standing there with another man, smoking a cigarette, in dirty overalls. I didn't think of the mess he might make until he stepped inside the car. His boots had a thick sludge of mud and he stamped them on the floor without realising. I knew I would need to scrub it later on, before Aunt Sheridan had a chance to see it. But I had bigger issues to worry about at this moment.
Dallas directed us to one of the backstreets behind the new grocery store. It had been built earlier this year and had taken over the corner store. The same one which had been in business for over sixty years. I wondered where Mr. Wilson was and how he was doing. Dallas randomly mentioned he had died.
I wondered if he could have read my mind, but he told me to turn onto a lot and drive up a half unfinished road. It was a dead end, with a decently sized trailer home. He gets out of the car and motions for me to follow him. I had a sick, twisted feeling in my stomach... that's when she opened the door. My childhood best friend, Sylvia.
Then I began to wonder if she still thought of me. I wondered if she still had that friendship bracelet we made one summer or if she remembered our secret handshake.
"Who the hell did you bring home, Dallas!?" she hissed rudely. Her voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard. She was rude, not homely, and her once beautiful golden hair, was now hair was ratted and fried.
She slouched back inside, not even offering any greeting to me. I started to think she really didn't remember me. I also noticed she was heavily pregnant. And thought, maybe I made a big mistake coming here.
"See, she doesn't remember you. Come inside." Dallas coughed. He seemed warn out from working so hard, but I didn't press it.
I followed him inside, anxiously. The place smelt stale. There was old furniture everywhere. It must've all come with the trailer. I wouldn't be wrong to assume an old person had died in here, it would explain the smell.
"Close the damn door. It's cold out!" she barked, so I did just that. Sylvia was slain across the couch with the television volume up too loud, and a full ashtray in front of her. She was obviously pregnant from this angle.
Dallas sat on the arm of the couch, and ripped his work boots off, "Sylvia. This is your old friend... What's your name again?"
"My friend?" she scoffed, reaching over to the pack of cigarettes, she lit one between her lips, "I don't have any friends. Tell that two cent h*ssy to hurry up getting your rocks off then she can leave."
"Excuse me?" I hissed, "You're wildly rude, Sylvia. Don't you remember me!?"
"No. Sorry! You must be another one of those forgotten wh**es, who's parents are out looking for them on the news! One of those Manson children or whatever." she laughed at her own joke, huffing smoke into the air.
"Maybe the fact that you've forgotten how to brush your teeth has rotted your brain, but we used to be best friends for life. Ring a bell, Sylvia?" I spat. I couldn't believe my own mouth. But I couldn't stop myself from insulting her, "And oh god, you shouldn't be smoking when your pregnant. Have some morals!"
Sylvia sat up, almost alarmed to have remembered, "Wait, Maria!?"
I nodded my head, happy that she had come to her senses.
She smirks devilishly then flopped herself back down on the couch, "Life treated you terribly!" she chuckled, looking at me up and down. Her eyes said to me that I was white trash, but I couldn't believe it. I wasn't the one who was married at seventeen, pregnant and living in an old trailer. Yes, I might have made mistakes but I still had something called a future.
"I don't have to take this!"
I slammed the trailer door and Dallas chased after me. He grabbed my arm near the car, "Don't worry about her. She's just mad that we are getting a divorce. I'm letting her stay here until she figures something out."
"You just got married, though?" I found myself saying, "Can't you figure a way to work it out."
"You just said you were against our marriage, and now you want us to work it out?"
"I know what I said." I trailed off, rubbing my arm. Although she had been so rude, I still cared about that girl I used to know. And maybe she was still there... deep down.
Dallas shakes his head, "There is no chance. I'm not even sure the baby is mine. I thought it was at first but she had admitted to sleeping around after we got hitched... All well..." he shrugged his shoulders, "We will have to see."
I just didn't know what else to say to him. It didn't seem like my place to be all involved in their personal life. I had just met them again after all this time away. I had a habit of thinking I knew people. I didn't even know myself at times.
