Sinning In The City

Chapter 30 - Sleepover

I guess this is it... Natasha thought to herself.

She was sitting on the doormat, her back against her apartment door, holding a paper in her hand. If she hadn't struggled her entire life and witnessed misery first-hand, she probably would have broken down and cried already, but she was a street girl and had spent the past 10 years of her life trying to make ends meet in a brutal New York City.

She lifted the document and read it again. The lone red word written in bold capital letters stood out in the middle of the page.

Evicted.

Natasha banged the back of her head against the door, as if that alone would wake her up from a horrible nightmare. She had forced herself to live in an imaginary world for far too long, smiling when she truly hurt. She had lied to the one person that had opened up to her. Her only friend. Layla.

The bills had kept coming and Natasha had been taking care of them. The rent was her responsibility and in no way would she allow Layla to pay any part of it. She was doing fine, she had lots of "friends" that were happy to pay for her company. Well, that was mostly a lie. She did make some money here and there, but she had fallen behind on the bills and her services couldn't cover the rent any longer. The landlord had found himself a girlfriend, and his sexual appetite was now well taken care of for now, thank you very much.

Natasha banged her head against the door again. What was she going to do? What will she tell her friend, if she could still call her that after she found out they were locked out of their place.

She heard the building's front door open a few floors below and froze. She remained quiet, listening to the footsteps. The pace was fast and energetic and Natasha knew right away it was Layla coming up. As the steps were closer, Natasha felt her heart shrink into her chest, she wished she could just disappear, or at least fast forward the next few hours so she wouldn't have to face her friend disappointed looks.

Layla turned the corner, her keys in her hand and a big smile on her face. She saw her friend sitting on the floor and froze.

"Quite the welcome." She joked. But Natasha's expression made her quickly understand that the mood was somber. "What's wrong?" She asked.

Natasha didn't have the strength to respond so she handed her the letter instead. Layla quickly read the document and gave it back to her friend.

"Well, let's call them, clearly this is a mix up." She said, reaching for her phone.

"It's not." Natasha whispered.

"It's not what?"

"It's not an error. We're a few months behind on the rent." Her voice was shaking, on the brink of crying and letting out weeks and weeks of struggles. Layla just stood there for a moment, quietly trying to make sense of the situation.

"But... how can it be?" She finally asked as she came closer and kneeled down in front of her friend.

Natasha found the strength to look up and hold her stance.

"The past few months have been hard on me, Layla. I just could not sell my services to all these pigs any more... so I lied to you... I haven't been making much money at all." She explained just as a tear finally rolled down her left cheek.

Layla reached out and her thumb dried the tear before it could go any further. In that one gesture, at that particular moment, Layla felt as if the roles had been reversed and she was now the older of the two, ready to help out her friend who was facing adversity.

"We'll figure something out!" She said with conviction in her voice. She stood up and grabbed Natasha's hands, helping her up.

Knowing too well that inaction was the devil's playground, Layla turned around and headed towards the stairs, her friend's hand still in hers.