“Oh….baby, Momma wants more honey from your beehive.”
In her bedroom, Simone was still fast asleep thanks to the sleeping pills that Erica had given her. Goodness knows when she would be waking up.
<3>
“For 2 days, Mark? Really?”
“Just a thought.” he shrugged.
“Did you break a brain cell doing that?” she teased.
“Hardy har har.” he snorted as Pandora banged on the door.
“Simone, it’s Pandora! If you can hear me, please open the door!” she called out.
“What is with the Andy Warhol vomit you are wearing?”
Clearly she didn’t think that Pandora knew what style was. She shot a look at Mark as if to say who are you, then went back to eyeballing Pandora.
“Simone…is asleep, and there is no way in merry hell you are going to wake her up.”
It didn’t appear that Erica wanted to let her in.
“You’re Brock’s girl, right? The same fuck that abused Simmy at the Tavern the other night. Why can’t you and Kali pull your men into line and just back the fuck off Simmy?’
Clearly this was going to be a very strained situation looming.
<3>
“Long story. Where is Simone?” Pandora asked.
“Simone…is asleep, and there is no way in merry hell you are going to wake her up.” Erica scowled, blocking the doorway with her body. It was clear she had no intention of letting Pandora in. That was until… “You’re Brock’s girl, right? The same fuck that abused Simmy at the Tavern the other night. Why can’t you and Kali pull your men into line and just back the fuck off Simmy?”
That was news to Pandora and she let Erica know that.
“I didn’t know that. I wasn’t with him the other night. I’ve been in the hospital for 2 days as you can see. And for your information, Brock is his own man. What he choses to do is none of my fucking business, now get the hell out of my way.” Pandora scowled.
“Ladies is this really necessary?” Mark asked. Pandora gave him a dirty look and he backed off a step with his hands in the air. “Sorry I asked.”
“Let me in, Erica. I am in no mood for your bullshit. Simone is my best friend and I’m worried about her.” Pandora brandished her crutch, ready to ram it into Erica’s stomach if she didn’t move out of her way. Broken shoulder and leg aside, no one was getting in her way of seeing her friend.
“Let me in, Erica. I am in no mood for your bullshit. Simone is my best friend and I’m worried about her.”
“Some friend!” She snorted, letting Pandora past her rather than cop the crutch. Fancy resorting to violence just to save her curiosity. Turning around as Pandora got further into the apartment, Erica let fly. “I don’t give two shits where you have been. You weren’t here when Simmy got called a whore by Kali’s rich shit of a man. You weren’t there when Brock tore strips off Simmy for trying to help YOUR relationship with him…”
She then marched up to her and poked her in the right boob.
“AND you weren’t there when Simone tried to commit suicide!”
She sniffed angrily and opened the door to Simone’s room, where Simone was still fast asleep.
“Go ahead PANDA…be a good friend now.”
<3>
That stopped Pandora in her tracks and her anger left her as quickly as it had arrived. All color drained from her face until she was milk white. Mark stepped forward, worry etched in every line of his face.
“What?” she whispered. Erica didnt’ seem to hear, storming to Simone’s bedroom door and shoving it open, pointing to Simone’s sleeping form.
“Go ahead PANDA…be a good friend now.”
Pandora’s gaze was rivited on Simone’s face. She looked so young, Pandora almost forgot how old she really was. She and Erica had a hard life and they knew each other’s deepest, darkest secrets. Ignoring Erica and Mark, she hobbled her way into the room, sinking onto the bed, her eyes never leaving Simone’s face. She reached a shaky hand out and ran it through Simone’s lank locks.
“Why didn’t you call me?” she whispered, pain and sadness in her voice. “I would have been there, no matter what. No matter what.” Simone brushed away a stray tear from her eye and continued running a hand through Simone’s hair. She wasn’t leaving. They would have to drag her away, by force, before she would leave her best friend’s side.
She looked up to see Erica and Mark in the door. “I’m staying with her. Thanks for the ride over, Mark. Tell Cecil I’ll swing by tomorrow to fill out my disability paperwork.”
“You sure? I can stay if you want.” Looking at Erica’s scowling visage, Pandora shook her head.
“No. I’m good. My apartment is a few floors up so it’s not like I need to do any serious traveling. Thank you though.” She gave him a small smile. He nodded.
“Call me if you need me.” he stated before he left the apartment.
Much of her childhood abuse that she suffered she felt she was the one that instigated it. That it had to have been her fault. She could never wash the stain from her body that she bore night after night for years. How on earth she managed to get away from it all was a miracle. The truth was she was a fighter, a survivor. But even a fighter…can get beat.
Simone didn’t have the stability of a relationship like Kali, or the hopes to have a love like Brock in her life. Maybe she craved these things secretly, but only to have these same men that were her best friend’s love turn on her like she didn’t belong, cemented the self loathing she had always felt.
Erica then produced the needles. Heroin.
“I love her, Pandora….and I almost lost her. I don’t even know where she got these.”
Erica’s voice had lost its anger, more like she was deeply troubled by her friend’s mental stability.
“She didn’t even tell me….till she was at rock bottom. The tears…didn’t stop till she took the sleeping pills.”
<3>
“She didn’t even tell me….till she was at rock bottom. The tears…didn’t stop till she took the sleeping pills.”
“What the fuck did those two morons say to her? I want to know exactly what they said?” Pandora scowled, clenching her fist tight against her chest to keep from setting the whole room on fire in her anger.
She’d never been so angry in her life. Oh she’d be having words with two certain males and God help whoever tried to stop her.
“I was here the night Kristian came. Boy, does he have some backwards ideas on women. Like, they belong in the kitchen not bars. You know, macho shit head fluff. I mean, its not like Simone drags Kali to those places. Then he went on about the fire at the gym, which had nothing to do with Simmy.” She toyed with a coaster as she continued. “He pretty much called her a slut for not being monogamous. But, come on, how many women you know stay solely with the one guy. I don’t know Kali’s arrangement, but…he really didn’t like Simone at all.”
That being said, she moved on to Brock. This was tricky, cause she was currently dating his brother; Orson.
“Brock was in a shit of a mood, so Orson said. Something about a fight over talking about relationship advice with Simmy. Course, Simmy ran into him, and he let her have it for ruining your relationship by telling you what to do.”
Course this was all assumed, and a bad case of misunderstanding gone horribly wrong.
“If you ask me, Simone thought she was going to lose her best friends, cause their boyfriends hated her so much. Plus…everything else just snowballed into a downward spiral. Things with her work have been…kinda weird. I try to help, and I got her the fashion show gig.”
<3>
“He pretty much called her a slut…” Erica went on to say. Pandora’s eyes went dark with rage and if she wasn’t currently crippled, she would have stormed up to the Greys apartment and fried his nuts off with her bare hands.
And then she explained about Brock, and for a brief moment Pandora wondered why Erica was talking about Orson.
“If you ask me, Simone thought she was going to lose her best friends, cause their boyfriends hated her so much. Plus…everything else just snowballed into a downward spiral. Things with her work have been…kinda weird. I try to help, and I got her the fashion show gig.”
“What the hell? Doesn’t she realize that she is more important to me then any man could possibly compare? Why didn’t she say anything to me? Goddammit! I would have been here!” Pandora raged, struggling not to cry. She was done crying. Men were and always will be assholes.
Just then a shadow appeared at the door. It was Simone.
“You two are noisy.”
She ambled through the room and went to the kitchen, as though still half asleep. She was wearing just a small tweety bird tank top and matching panties.
Erica shot a look at Pandora and made a face. Feeling bad now to talk about her friend while she was still in the room.
“You okay, Sim?”
Standing at the fridge, she scratched her right boob, and then opened the fridge door, staring into it.
“I want a sammich.”
Can you believe she had the munchies?
“Sim…Pan is here. All banged up. Even got crutches and came to see you.”
“Cool…Wanna a sammich?” She asked, her head looking over the fridge door as she dropped the teddy bear. She clearly had no idea what the two were on about. Maybe it was the pills.
<3>
“You two are noisy.” she mumbled before ambling into the kitchen, seemingly in need of a sandwich.
“Sim…Pan is here. All banged up. Even got crutches and came to see you.”
“Cool…Wanna sammich?” Simone asked.
Pandora arched an eyebrow before looking at Erica. “What the hell did you give her? She looks stoned.” she whispered, waiting for an answer. “Maybe you should get her back to bed.”
