While Chloe was upstairs working on the remainder of her paper, Merri-Belle was downstairs in the kitchen preparing a snack. Merri was on a health-food kick this week, and she’d been experimenting with vegetables and different spreads.
Bored, Tiffany sat at the kitchen table removing old nail polish from her fingernails while Merri made a tray of celery and Nutella for them to snack on, which she had managed to eat half of prior to even getting the tray fully assembled. She had been slowly preparing for her date with Joey throughout the day, fiddling with her hair, picking at and painting her nails, raiding all of the girls’ closets for the best shoes.
Her date was later on that night. Joey was to pick her up at the boardinghouse, meet her friends briefly, and then go out to dinner. She wasn’t sure why he wanted to meet her friends. Joey had requested it, saying that it would only be proper. Tiffany didn’t think anything weird of it—she just considered him to be that type of guy. He had an old-fashion swag about him, an air that breathed distinction, respect, and class. He screamed gentleman, and this is what drove Tiffany crazy for him. She felt he was the real deal: an actual man rather than a little boy playing dress up in oversized boots. She felt secure around him. Not that she needed to. But something about his essence made her feel like he could stabilize any form of chaos. And this is what Tiffany needed. This is what she yearned for. Chaos had robbed her of everything in the past, and he made it seem like that would never happen again.
“What color do you think I should do my nails this time? I want to match them with the shoes that I’m wearing tonight, so what do you think? Midnight blue or scarlet red?”
“Since when do you have scarlet red heels?” asked Merri with eyes full of suspicion.
“Since this morning” Tiffany replied while focusing intently on scrubbing her thumb. Sensing Merri's angry eyes on her, she hurriedly continued, “OK, OK…I meant to ask before I took them, but I forgot to ahead of time and you had already left.”
“No you didn’t. You just took them. Like you take everything all the time” Merri replied sourly.
“Don’t make this a big deal… they’re just shoes… and we’re like sisters. Sisters share without asking all the time.”
“You didn't even try and see if it would be an inconvenience to me. I have no problem letting you borrow my stuff. But don’t just take my stuff because you can. It’s inconsiderate. What if I had a hot date tonight too?”
Tiffany started laughing. “Who talks like that now-a-days? ‘A hot date.’ You sound like you’re trapped in the 70s.” Tiffany’s laugh eventually turned into a giggle. “If you had a date tonight, then I’d just give them back.”
“Well, I do. And I need my shoes,” Merri retorted. Her mouth grew tight and rigid. She hated being laughed at. She’d been laughed at for her weight, hair, glasses, and acne since childhood. Merri wasn’t an ugly girl, but she had always been rounder than what some may consider “necessary.” She considered herself large and in charge: a real, full-figured woman. Others didn’t see what she saw: they called her a cow because she was fat and bald-headed. They saw a plump face and a worsening condition of acne. They also called her butterball. Free-Willy. Big Bertha. Crater Face. She had been a victim of the cruelest forms of bullying, but no one was able to make her feel as insecure as Tiffany did, with her long lean body and glances of superiority. Tiffany flaunted her body even when no one was there to look, which always did a number on Merri’s self-esteem. Even now, she sat at the humble table in a slinky dress that made her silhouette look infallible. Who was she showing off for? Merri? Chloe? The invisible men in the house? Her body could do no wrong, and Tiffany made sure that was clear. Merri’s, on the other hand, did everything wrong. She ate some more.
Tiffany laughed again. “Who you got a date with, Merri? The Pillsbury Doughboy?”
This infuriated her. She wasn’t typically the jealous type, but the ugly monster reared its head occasionally. Tiffany had no mercy when it came to picking on Merri for her weight. Tiffany was the demon that haunted her life, making it impossible to bear at times, as well as extremely fruitful at others. She was Merri’s blessing and curse.
“You’re so rude and evil. Someone I’ve been seeing for the past three weeks, thank you very much. Someone who likes me for ME. You’ll never know how that feels. You’re just a piece of meat to these salivating dogs.” The hate in her voice slithered like a snake until it took a bite out of Tiffany’s heart. Unfortunately, the same man had claimed them both as his pieces of meat.
Merri threw the celery stick she was nibbling on back on the tray and jumped up from the kitchen table, lifting it from its legs upon doing so. She stormed out of the room and proceeded to stomp up the stairs. Tiffany could only sit there in amazement, aghast at what just occurred. She had never seen Merri act like that before. They’d been working side by side for the past two years as partners on assessing the social inequality present in Ruby, and Merri had always been the one to remain calm and patient. Chloe always said Merri had a lot of earth in her personality because of how centered she typically was. Something had changed her though. Something had put Merri on edge. Whether out of reluctance to admit her own flaws or her perceptive understanding of her friend’s normal and subsequently abnormal behavior, Tiffany knew things couldn’t be ended like this. Something was up and she was going to get to the bottom of it, for her friend.
