The Good Life

Chapter 2

Marla opened the door to the venue where she said hello to Jaime and her staff. Jaime hugged Marla and hurried her to the auditorium where all the items would be set up.

“Oh, and I know it’s ridiculous but, my brother’s band is going to do their sound check at 2. So it might be a bit loud. Feel free to put on your ipod or whatever. They get kind of out of control sometimes….Oh and you look super cute today.”

“Thank you for the heads up.” Marla said

Marla started to drag all the items out. She had labels, sharpies, posters, and emotional photos that would tug at even a person who had a heart of stone. After setting up about 20 of the 50 items she sighed heavily and grabbed the chair that was closest to her. She was going to power through the day in those red high heels. But it was just too much. “Ejole, ¿chanclas? Please?” She said under her breath. She rummaged through her reusable bags to grab her black USC flip-flops. Her hair had lost all the curl she had added at the office, too, so she threw it up in the messy pony-tail it was originally in when she arrived at the office. She thought to herself, Damn. I’m a mess.

As she finished putting her up she heard a large bang and “1, 2, 3…hey? Can you hear me?” Ohhhhh…ohhhhhh….”

“It’s good…” a voice said close to her.

She couldn’t believe that it was already 2 o’clock. She was only halfway done labeling all the items for the auction. Did it really take her that long to do all of this? She sighed again, stood up and started working. She music started getting louder so she grabbed her ipod and cranked it up. She put it on her most recently downloaded playlist which included the Now! gazillion. She shook her head remembering Now! the original version with Britney Spears and N Sync. A new song she only added because her friends had mentioned it to her started to play “Your smile, your smile…” and then suddenly she felt the song being played behind her. She turned around to see the eerie sound coming from behind her.

“Oh look…we finally got Marla to turn around….”

The music stopped and the singer spoke without the microphone.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything….I’m just so bus…”

“Busy…we’re all busy. I think everything is good y’all.” the singer jumped down from the stage and walked towards the girl in the fancy dress, messy hair and ratty flip-flops.

“Hi, I’m Bruno..Jaime’s little brother.” He held out his hand to introduce himself. “and you’re Marla Gonzales the charity’s development associate right?”

“Well, on most days, but today I’m their bitch.” She laughed as she glanced down at her horrible appearance.

He laughed her joke which made her blush a bit. “You’re an amazing…”

“What? Wait…bitch?” she finished the sentence for him.

“Intern…” he finished.

“Yeah. That’s what I meant to say.” he finished.

“I would love to talk to you Bruno, honestly, but I really…I really have to finish this before everything starts.” Marla cut off the mini flirt fest that she could not understand because of her appearance.

“Let me help…what’s your system?”

Marla explained the system and they finished labeling, writing and signing things for the auction.