What Happened at East Houston Street

Chapter 11

After graduation, Tip had followed the plan like a robot programmed to perform its functions. He interned at Newell Investments in the summer and caught onto the job rather quickly. He had always been good with numbers and his endearing personality was an asset in client relations. By September, he had already made a name for himself among his older colleagues in the business and had accumulated enough contacts to make an impressive business portfolio.

It was always a choice between settling in Boston or New York, and he decided on the former city, since he was doing well at work and Stephanie was still there. Desperate to make her student loan payments, she took a job as a front desk manager at an upscale gym. After graduation, Stephanie had convinced her older sister to move to Boston from Worcester. She knew that she was never going back to her childhood town. Sarah knew that too and didn't want to be away from her little sister any longer, so she quit her two part time jobs, packed her Toyota Corolla with three bags full of every piece of clothing she owned, and made the hour drive to Boston. The previous four years had been long and lonely without Stephanie and she was eager to live with her little sister again, taking on the world together, just like old times.

The sisters found an affordable two bedroom apartment in Brighton near the Mass Pike. Between Stephanie's entry level salary from the gym and Sarah's house cleaning job during the day and waitressing job at night, they could easily afford their monthly expenses.

On the rare night that Sarah didn't have to waitress at the Irish pub on Market Street, the girls would buy submarine sandwiches at the local deli and eat on their rooftop. Even during the colder months, they'd wrap themselves in layers of fleece and scarves, wearing two pairs of socks on each foot, and languor in each other's company. They'd recall stories from their day, giggling about the ridiculous extravagance they witnessed at their respective jobs. Stephanie would sit at the front desk at the gym and watch wealthy female members stroll in, dressed in $100 leggings and $400 sneakers, always in a full face of makeup and huge diamond earrings. Sarah would clean the homes of rich executives in Chestnut Hill, not far from the BC campus, and would dust delicate Waterford crystal vases, tiptoeing around the housewives who would be lounging on the sofa reading Vogue or Cosmopolitan magazine.

"Like, they're sooooo busy!" Sarah said, throwing her hands up in the air. "They can't be bothered to lift a freshly manicured finger to fold laundry, so instead they're paying me $200 to do it. You want to pay me good money to vacuum your hideous $10,000 rug too?" she rolled her eyes. "Fine by me, you rich fuck!"

Stephanie would snort and choke on her sandwich, laughing at the obnoxious amount of laziness that her sister witnessed on a daily basis.

Sarah would continue her observations.
"And Seamus at the pub last night! This dude has overstayed his visa by six months and is soooo desperate to find an American wife that he is hitting on Esmeralda, who is busing tables for $5 an hour. He's always sooooo wasted! The craziest part is that Esmeralda is illegal herself and is working at this place under the table!" Sarah would shake her head and swig from her bottle of Coors Light.

The girls found so much comfort in sharing their views of the world. Stephanie felt whole having her sister around again, realizing that though she had managed to make some great friends at BC, they would never compare to her sister. Well, except for one.

Stephanie and Lauren still saw each other regularly, despite the fact that the older girl had graduated a year before Stephanie. Lauren had moved to an apartment in Cambridge with two of her sorority sisters and was working as a Dean's assistant in the English department at Harvard.
She'd visit Stephanie in her on-campus dorm room a few times per week, always sneaking in unseen around 10pm, after she had left Brent's house in the Back Bay. She'd tell him she had to work early the next day and needed to get home. Instead of getting on a red line train back to Cambridge, she'd walk to the Arlington station and get on a C line train to Cleveland Circle, the end of the green line. She'd walk the ten minutes to the campus dorms and text Stephanie to let her in. Upon seeing Stephanie waiting for her at the side door, she'd stop and smile, plunging her gaze into her favorite pair of hazel eyes and giving a soft squeeze to her arm. Lauren would never be so bold as to kiss her outside of a closed room, knowing that they could be spotted by someone she or Brent knew. Instead, the girls would quietly shuffle up the stairs. Once inside the privacy of the single dorm room, the displays of affection were endless. Snuggling on the bed, the girls' limbs would be wrapped together, so close but never close enough. They would exchange small talk about their day between long, soft kisses.