The Girlfriend Experience

Chapter 14: The ugly truth [Part 1]

Rhiannon

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I met Clara when I was ten.

Her parents had moved from New-York City. Before actually meeting her, I thought she was one of those prissy little princesses from the Upper-East Side spoiled rotten by her parent's money. My mother told me to never judge a book by its cover which is why I gave her a chance.

It was during the summertime that I first met her. Her parents were hosting a lavish pool party to celebrate 4th of July and they invited just about everyone in the neighborhood. Clara wasn't mingling outside with everyone else. I was on my way to use the bathroom when I saw her sitting in the living room watching TV.

She looked extremely bored by the TV images flickering across her eyes. I thought she was very pretty: blonde curly hair, pouty mouth and dark gray eyes. When she spotted me our eyes locked. I could see something painful behind her eyes, like she'd seen too much for her young age. Her knowing look was incongruous with her round baby face.

We hadn't actually spoken that day; I was too scared to approach her, she'd always been very intimidating. When we did talk, she was the one who initiated it. It happened one afternoon, she was sitting on her porch listening to music on her iPod and I was on my way out to go to the park. When she noticed me, she waved then I waved. She walked over, told me her name and asked if I wanted to hang out. We ended up watching reruns of The Hills for the rest of the day.

That's pretty much how we spent our summer, watching The Hills and The real World. We sunbathed by her pool, ate way too much candy during our late night movie slumber parties. We skimmed through endless issues of Teen Vogue because she thought the fashion in Teen Vogue was more high then of eventeen.

We became close friends over a quick period of time. It was weird because I never thought I'd be as close to someone as I was with Kylie and we'd been friends since, like, birth. Kylie was spending her summer away in Paris with her family during that summer and I was worried that when she came back she would, like, claim me back and my friendship with Clara would cease. Thankfully, that didn't happen. They were able to create their own bond and together we were like the Three Musketeers.

I love my friends. I really, truly do. I love how attentive they are to my needs. I love the efforts they put in to make me feel better and I especially love how they've been the most constant thing in my life. What I don't like is when they interfere in places they shouldn't. For example like right now. We're driving home from school heading to the mall and they won't leave me alone about my date with Ethan.

"When the hell were you and Ethan Wallace friends?" Clara asks with her arms flailing in the air. "Correction," she yells. "When did he become your rebound guy?"

"He's not my__"

"Ethan's not a bad guy," Kylie cuts me off. "It's just that we don't understand where this is coming from.

I want to tell her that it's not something they can't understand but Clara has open her big fat mouth again, interjecting her thoughts like I'm supposed to give a flying fuck about what she thinks.

"I know where this is coming from. She wants to lower her standards." She says. "After a guy like Brandon you're supposed to move up, get an upgrade not a downgrade."

"She's not downgrading," Kylie tells her. "She's rebounding and when you rebound it doesn't really matter who it's with."

"You could have went out with Matt Wells, he's been asking me for your number since the break-up." Clara chimes in again. "Or Andrew Daniels or that guy that lives down the block from us, he's friends with Ethan," she pauses to conjure up his name. "Kylie, what's his name again?"