“Casey, I need your help, puulleeaassee!” Mari shouted from her bedroom in the loft.
“Yeah girl, I’ma coming, chill babe!” Casey shouted back from downstairs.I heard her coming as she stomped all the way up the stairs. It was just her way, she was never quiet with anything she did. She flew into the room, her black, fuzzy, knee-high socks making her slip and slide across the floor, leaving her grand entrance into my room looking smooth as butter. “Okay, I am here. Whatcha need? I was rockin’ out downstairs with my boys Millencolin and getting ready for work.”
“Yeah, I could hear, I have been shouting for you for like ten minutes girl! You are going to be deaf when you’re old, you know.”
“Meh, who needs ears when you’re old anyways?” She smiled with a shrug to her shoulders. “So what are you shouting for?” She glanced over at my bed and her black outlined eyes went wide. “Girl, what the heck are you doing?” she asked, as she motioned toward the bed overflowing with clothes, most of them with price tags still attached.
“I am trying to find something to wear to this dang award ceremony this afternoon. I bought a bunch of stuff but I am still not sure what I should wear. It is supposed to be more formal, but I don’t want to look too formal. Got any bright ideas for me?”
Let’s get something straight. Casey was NOT a girly girl. Her entire closet was a mishmash of blacks, grays, and whites, but the girl had style. She knew how to dress up when she needed to and I trusted her one hundred percent with her styling suggestions. She headed over to my bed and dragged out a cute, timeless blue dress. With a lacy top and scalloped neckline, the sleeves hit just below my elbows and its empire waist flowed to the floor. Its dainty, lace-covered buttons dotted up the back, giving the dress a distinctly elegant look. I purchased four different gowns for this event, originally worrying that the blue dress seemed too extravagant. But at her suggestion, it now seemed like the perfect choice. Oh, my indecisive mind. It had always given me a run for my money, quite literally.
Casey shuffled over to the closet and grabbed a pair of jet black velvet high-heeled pumps, which would make it much easier to walk. Great idea Casey. She knows me and my klutzy self so well. She then headed over to my vanity jewelry box and grabbed a pair of teardrop earrings that dangled on a two inch chain. I hadn’t worn them before, but of course the earrings she picked were gorgeous. When had I even bought these? I took them from her and threaded them through my ears making the teardrop dangle near my neck.
She smiled at me and said, “There ya go babe! Make sure not to dress up your hair too much. Maybe just a few waves throughout. And I am sure the stage crew will do your makeup. Now go get dressed. I wish I could be there today, but my stupid boss, Principal Fosters fancy-pants can’t get coverage for my class. So, good luck chica, and don’t forget how much I love ya!” She walked over to where I was standing and threw her arms around me and trapped my arms by my sides. “You’ve got this girl,” she said with a squeeze. Then she let me go, gave me a fist bump and turned around.
“Love ya too, Casey!” I yelled at her as she slid out the door. Her voice trailed down the hallway as she sang along to the Millencolin song blasting downstairs at the top of her lungs.
‘Cause I don’t care where I belong no more,
What we share or not, I will ignore
And I won’t waste my time fitting in
Cause I don’t think contrast is a sin
What they say is,
go back where you come from…’
Her voice got softer as she headed down the stairs and into her bedroom. I loved her punk rocker self. The music she played was all about rebels and being different and standing up for who you were. Something Casey never had troubling doing. Ever. Casey and I had been best friends since our freshman year of college and even though we couldn’t have been more different, we just clicked. She was with me through my mom’s death seven years ago and supported me through all of the heartache that comes with the loss of a parent. My father left when I was little, and my mom never trusted anyone enough to remarry, so I had no siblings. Casey was my family and I was hers. She had been in the foster system since she was born, and was emancipated from the care of adults when she was seventeen. She was smarter than anyone gave her credit for and had graduated from high school when she was sixteen, which made her a very young college student. She was the most structured person I had ever met. She had held two part time jobs while going to school full time, and she graduated with a 4.0 from The University of Southern California with a degree in Music Teaching. Now she taught choir students at Mission Bay High School in the place we called home: the lovely city of San Diego, California.
Another thing about Casey was she has never dated. Ever. I had never seen her with a man and the only men she ever talked about were her “boys” which referred to the music that she listened to. Oh, and her boss, Principal Edward Fosters. But mostly she just complained about him and all of the restrictions he put on her music program. I hadn’t met the guy, but when I did, I would have some not so nice things to say to him for locking up her brilliantly talented musical mind.
I heard her door shut, and then a few minutes later, the music disappeared and the front door slammed. I wish she would find a gentler way to exit a room, but Casey will be Casey and I loved her just the way she was!
Guess that was my cue to finish getting ready for this thing and I was more nervous than I had let on. My hands were already shaking as I buttoned up my dress and curled my hair. It was a good thing that the make-up artist would be fixing my face, because if I had tried to do that right now, I would have probably come out looking like a clown.
I finished with my hair and clipped back a small section with bobby pins so that it wasn’t all hanging in my face. I said bye to my fur babies and made sure they knew their momma loved them and grabbed my shoes, because there was no way I was driving my manual car in heels. Before I turned off my lights, I slipped my cell into the pocket of my dress and shut my door to my room and then went downstairs and quietly shut the front door, unlike someone else I knew, and walked to my car. I sure hoped Bean wouldn’t give me problems today. I needed my forest green, fully restored, 1960 VW beetle to be on her best behavior today and didn’t have time to deal with her attitude.
