At Her Best.

Sixteen.

All work and no play made Raja a cranky bitch. The attempts I was making to run into the mayor were all proven failures, so tonight I was taking a break from my Stanley fixtation. I was stepping out on the scene with my good old friend Astra in toe. We were moving more subtle tonight, as Keisha, another long time friend of ours invited us out to her bachelorette party. Not sure what Keisha's rush on commitment was but hey, who was I to tell her how to live her life.

"Thanks for coming my babies." Keisha gushed when Astra and I entered, hugging us all happy. "I haven't seen y'all in a minute. What's been going on?"

Smiling pleasantly, I engaged in Keisha's greetings. She was so ecstatic. All bouncy and shit. I'm telling you, Keisha's man's dick must be fucking phenomenal, because I ain't ever met no man that had me tweaking like this.

Now a bachelorette party wasn't really my type of scene, but I'll never miss an opportunity to celebrate. Keisha knew that all too well, and I smiled encouragingly throughout the night to support my good sis. I loved seeing women happy. We deserved so much. And if it brought Keisha glee to be deliberately placed in a situation to have sexual intercourse with one man for the rest of her life, then so be it.

Keisha's party started to die down around midnight and boy was I grateful. She insisted on no strippers, limited alcohol...and basically nothing else that was fun. She was really preparing for this marriage life, and I just prayed she really wanted to do all of this, and wasn't forced and told she had to. Last time I checked, a bachelorette party was supposed to be the soon to be bride's last hurrah, not an outlook of what's to come in her marriage.

Women were starting to leave and finally it was just a small group of ladies. Astra was outside smoking a blunt...new activity for her, and Keisha and I were huddled around a small table catching up. The women that were still here were scattered across the room, waiting for rides from their husbands and whatnot. I shook my head at them, feeling pity for them all. If this was what relationship life was about, then count me all the way out.

"You know, I'm proud of you." I murmured to Keisha. "You've come such a long way. Been a real one since college days."

Keisha smiled and wrapped an arm around me. "We've come such a long way. We both grew, learnt, evolved. I just want you to progress Raja. Seriously, when are you going to stop wasting your life? And now you're dragging Astra in your mess? From the looks of things you've clearly created a monster. You and her both need to stop this prostituting bullshit before something bad happens. You're better than this and you know it."

I rolled my eyes and sighed heavily. Now I remembered why Keisha and I hardly hung out. I was in no mood for her holier than thou ass. Back in the day she was my sidekick, so I don't know why she was judging me so harshly. She was taking her new lease on life too far, and I was not here for it.

"How 'bout you live your life, and I live mine." I spat. "And besides, I'm not doing anything to Astra that she's not allowing. Mind your business."

There was a small awkward silence, but thankfully it didn't last too long. This was not the way I wanted to end my night. Keisha and I hardly spoke these days since she turned all saintly on me, and I honestly missed my friend.

"You're still angry and it's taking over your life." Keisha whispered. "Raja, I really think you should talk to someone. My fiancé knows so many great therapists, there's so many different exercises you can do to shake the whole college experience with..."

I glared at Keisha full in the face, and that's when she decided to shut the hell up. Going back down memory lane was something I definitely didn't want to do, and she out of all people should know that. I put those college memories at the back of my brain for a reason. I was ready to cut this conversation short and get the hell outta here. I've had enough judgment for one night.

"Raja I didn't mean to upset you, honestly." Keisha said, holding my hands in hers. "We've been friends for so long and I just want the best for you. Baby girl if you had finished college you would have been brilliant, and that's not to say you aren't now. I think you should check out this therapist. His name is Dr. Don Everton. I'll even put in a good word for you since my fiancé is his nephew. My future husband spilt some tea and told me he's so amazing, that his clients are only high end people. His clients are members of parliament, successful businessmen, and even that popular mayor elective Stanley Orchesto. But keep that on the hush hush. La'Raja, this Dr. Everton man works wonders, please tell me you'll be open minded to meeting with him if I pull these strings."

Keisha was really trying to have a genuine moment with me but my mind was already swirling with ideas. Stanley Orchesto, huh? Just the man I've been waiting to get in contact with. Tracking down the mayor has become harder and harder since our first meet up, I've recently been trying to have pop ups on his ass but it always fell flat. So Keisha's therapy idea was sounding better and better.

"For you, I'll do this." I answered with a sigh. "You know how I feel about talking to strangers."

"Do this for you too Raja." Keisha answered, squeezing my shoulder. "I'll be with you the entire time."

I was smiling all worriedly, acting like I needed all of this damn reassurance. My longest college friend was so oblivious to what she was actually doing, it was fantastic. Thank you Keisha for coming through. Sis had no idea how she was truly helping me out.

"What the fuck is wrong with you bitches?" Astra asked, jumping both Keisha and I. "Why the sentimental moment?"

Keisha frowned at Astra's presence, and began coughing persistently. "Okay miss thang, back the hell up. You smell disgusting."

Astra mimicked Keisha's complaints which made me smirk. After a few moments things started to regain normality, and Astra, Keisha and I spent some time chatting it up until Keisha's future husband came. I could tell my friend's fiancé wasn't feeling me, it was all over his face. But I surely didn't care. I was glad to be going home. I had a pending plan in my head and I couldn't wait to tell Renzo all about it.