Tattered Beauty (Watty Awards 2011)

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

I felt a little bad about hanging up on Kelsey on Christmas. I could have easily excused myself to say hello. When was the last time we talked anyway? Oh God—I couldn’t even remember that. I was a terrible person! But, she had to know my situation. I mean, I had people to see and places to go. I can’t wait around for her everyday to do the same old crazy stuff we used to do. I mean, come on. My 20th birthday was in less than four months now—I wasn’t a silly little teenager anymore. I wasn’t content to spend the rest of my life playing games with an eighteen year old. Kelsey needed to go back home to her family, finish school then go to college. She could not spend the rest of her life whoring herself to middle-aged men.

            Anyway, I had plans with Daniel tonight. He invited me over to his New York City apartment—the one home I’d seen was his family’s Manhattan estate—for a New Year’s Eve celebration. I was happy to hear Daniel was in possession of his own place; a man who lives with his parents at twenty-one was bound to become a forty year old man living in the basement playing video games all day in ratty t-shirts and boxers. Or, rather, Prada shirts and Calvin Klein underwear.

            As New York City was the epicenter for New Year’s Eve partying, the traffic was crazy. The car might have moved an inch every five minutes. “Bloody hell,” I grumbled—the British slang was starting to rub off on me. I was due at Daniel’s place at nine—it was now nine ten. “Excuse me, how long is it going to take to get there?” I asked the cab driver.

            “Look out your window, ma’am. There are cars everywhere. Everybody is out tonight.” The driver said as though I were mentally handicapped.

            “That’ll be all then, thank you.” I said curtly. I threw ten dollars over the seat and stepped out of the cab. It was cold. Like, so cold even my butt had goosebumps all over it. Thank God for wool coats. He began to protest, obviously displeased with his payment, but I slammed the door.

            I dodged through the cars at a standstill until I reached the sidewalk. Having lived in New York for the majority of my life, I knew how to get to his place. At least my sense of direction hadn’t frozen as the cars and streets had. I thought about the past year as I clomped down the sidewalk, squeezing between party-goers out on the town and ignoring wolf-whistles from drunken men with bottles of liquor wrapped up in brown paper bags. Had this year been anything special? I turned nineteen, became best friends with Kelsey, starting dating an international celebrity…yeah, I’d say it was a pretty good year. It hit me that I was about to turn twenty in the coming year. My teen years—years where I could party and act immature and nobody could say anything—were over. Time to grow up; time to be an adult.

            “Good evening, Miss. How can I be of assistance?” The long-suffering doorman requested as I approached. His black hair was becoming gray and he was beginning to get wrinkles around his face. Overall, he looked like a frail old man stuck out in the cold to make people’s lives easier by opening doors. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say people are perfectly capable of opening their own doors. Or maybe there’s some disease wreaking havoc amongst wealthy people, making it impossible for them to open their own doors…

            “I’m here for a visit. The penthouse suite, I believe.” I replied. “I can show myself to the elevator, thank you.”

            “Alright…” He said, slightly dumbfounded. “Have a good night, Miss.”

            “Happy New Year, Sir.” I smiled. I slipped a folded twenty dollar bill into his palm. A grin grew on his face until it was so wide I thought his face would split in half. With a final beam backwards, I walked through the glass revolving doors.