A Billion Little Clues Read Online Free

Rachel resumed rummaging in my closet, I collapsed back down. When I had gotten home an hour earlier, I had felt filled with motivation, determined to make the best of this new opportunity. But as I rummaged through my closet, discarding outfit after outfit, my hope began to fade. This was going to be a very fancy event! I couldn't possibly hope to show up in a dress that I bought off the rack at the thrift shop for 70% off!
    Just lying there, I could see all of my wild dreams slipping away. I wasn't going to go strutting in wearing a four-figure dress, showing off my sexy side to all of the executives there, and then wowing them with all my professional business knowledge as soon as I opened my mouth. (I didn't know exactly what professional business knowledge I would share, but something was certain to spring to mind when I really needed it.) I wasn't going to be promoted up out of my current job into something that paid twice as much. I wasn't going to become the newest, hottest rising star of Panther Worldwide. I wasn't going to have Roman Wayland personally thanking me in a speech for all of the "invaluable contributions to helping our brand become such a global powerhouse."
    There was a rustling sound, and I lifted up my head. Rachel had managed to find something in the back of my closet, and was currently engaged in a tug-of-war with a bundle of jumbled hangers to try and get it out. She reached out and gave a yank-
    -and came tumbling back, accompanied by the terrible sound of tearing fabric.
    Rachel clambered back up to her feet a second later. She looked down at the scrap of now-ragged fabric in her hand. "Well, I guess that dress isn't an option," she joked with a little giggle.
    I rolled back, putting both hands over my eyes. "Ruined! I'm ruined!" I wailed piteously up at the ceiling.
    I felt the bed shift a little as Rachel sat down beside me. "Oh, Melinda, stop being such a drama queen," she chided me. "Look, if it really comes to it, I'm sure that I've got something that you could fit into and wear tonight."
    Don't judge me, but I might have been hoping for her to say something like that. Okay, I was waiting for her to say something exactly like that. I bounced back up to a sitting position so fast that I saw my roommate lean back a little. "Ooh, really?" I exclaimed, clapping my hands together. "In fact, I'm pretty sure I remember you having this lovely little black dress from a few months ago that I'm sure you wouldn't miss for tonight..."
    I probably could have been a bit smoother with that, but Rachel just rolled her eyes at me and grinned. She probably knew that I was after her closet from the beginning. But I couldn't help myself! She just always seemed to have the perfect clothing, able to totally flatter her body. Whenever we went out together for drinks after work, I felt like a frumpy middle-aged matron standing next to her.
    Rachel stood up from the bed, stretching her arms up towards the ceiling. "Fine," she grunted as she stretched. "Come on. Let's go take a look at my closet."
    Next to my little, schlubby room, Rachel's room looked like something out of one of those style magazines that I always saw next to the check-out counter at the supermarket. She had the easy, breezy, effortless style that usually took four feverish magazine editors to attain. Her room didn't look lived-in as much as it looked like the site of a cover photo shoot.
    I stood off to one side and tried not to touch anything as Rachel opened up her closet. The folding doors slid back to reveal a dizzying array of clothing, all of it amazing. She had multiple racks of shoes! She had the perfect elegant getup for any occasion! And there wasn't a single thing crumpled up in a ball on the ground!
    With my closet, my issue had been finding anything that would look halfway decent at a dinner party. With Rachel's closet, the new issue became narrowing down my choices.
    Forty minutes later, however, I had finally settled on the absolute