Audrey Hepburn's Pearls: Part I

Chapter 73.1: 1995, Ruiz

Chapter 73.1: 1995, Ruiz

"I think my lip injections are wearing off. Are my lips droopy? Touch them."

"Ew, I don't want to touch them!"

"Touch them, Anthony Winston Churchill Mayberry!"

I burst into laughter, the first time in a while. "Dios mio, is that really your name?" I couldn't help it, I was rolling in my seat in Veronixxxa's father's diner. Veronixxxa was sitting next to me glued to herself in her compact mirror, touching her lips which looked perfectly fine to me.

"Its May-burry.  Not pronounced berry. Like digging, not the fruit!" Tony cried out. He looked like he wanted to run out the door in embarrassment. "And lips don't droop when injections wear off, they just get smaller!"

"Do they look smaller? Oh god, I need more. Give me some money, Tony."

"I don't have any money for you. Where is that fifty I gave you two weeks ago? Why do you think I needed a job here?"

"I spent it on lipstick. I guess and also a coffee. No, two coffees. I got some for that guy, Tyrone. He let me ride on the back of his motorcycle."

"Who the fuck is Tyrone?!" 

"Don't worry about it, baby. Now give me some money. I think I need like three hundred? Three hundred dollars."

"In what universe does lipstick and coffee cost fifty dollars?!"

"A universe where coffee costs ten dollars and lipstick costs eighteen. Come on, I think my lips are really drooping. Look at them!"

"I just told you that your lips aren't drooping!"

Veronixxxa tossed her long, straight blonde hair over her shoulder in two flips as they volleyed words back and forth. It was hard to keep up. 

"Ruiz...um...just Ruiz. Get in here." An overweight man wearing a white undershirt and blue jeans with a chef's apron on was calling to me from behind the counter in a doorway. 

"Hi, daddy!" Veronixxxa called to him, waving like a little girl. 

It was weird seeing him completely ignore her and just stare at me. An uneasy feeling. At the same time, a waitress wearing a light pink uniform came over and plopped two plates of grilled cheese and fries on our table unceremoniously without a word, continuing on her way like she hadn't even seen us. This made the unease spread. My eyes quickly alighted on Tony and he was giving me an unnamed questioning look. 

"Fifteen and ten!" Somebody called out in the open kitchen and somebody else yelled back, "give me twenty!" Veronixxxa had taken out her lipstick and was casually adding more dark pink to them. The lipstick looked brand new. I wondered if it was the one that had been eighteen dollars. 

"You better go, Ruiz. Good luck. I bet he's just going to give you your schedule or something," Tony assured me from across the table.

"No, I bet he's going to be a dick-" Veronixxxa started but didn't get to finish as my eyes went wide at both what she'd said and her father's louder yell for me over the din of the restaurant. "You go. I'll buy you some ice cream after. But not from here. I'm not going to be in this place for longer than I need to," she finished, sighing and clapping closed her compact mirror.

I quickly got out of the booth's seat and they both stared at me. There seemed to be an extra something in Veronixxxa's large blue eyes, but I couldn't figure out what. My head whipped around to her father, and I tried to walk over there as casually as I could.