Life's A Cappella Read Online Free Page B

an emergency?” Trent asked.
    “Sure, I guess,” I answered, feeling self-conscious about my reaction to such a simple touch.
    “What kind of nurse?”
    “Pediatric.”
    “So you like kids?” he asked, and I laughed, again at ease in my own skin.
    “Are we playing twenty questions?” I countered.
    “Sure, I guess,” he mimicked me.
    “So I can ask you a couple questions?” I asked and he gestured with his hand to go ahead. “Are you really a cop?”
    “Yeah.” He nodded and I shook my head. “Why is that so hard to believe?”
    “Because I’m pretty sure there’s some sort of law against offering women you don’t know your banana. Some might call that harassment,” I responded, and he graced me with one of his enthusiastic, no barrier laughs that I was starting to grow a fondness for.
    After a few hours of talking and dancing, Camilla and I were ready to call it a night and made our way to the Jeep with Trent and Dave as our escorts. I told myself I was happy to have them with us because of all the drunks stammering around Duval Street. Although I knew all too well the anger alcohol could unleash, I wasn’t really too worried. After all, how much harm could a grown man who, for example, was too drunk to be able to slip on a pair of flip flops actually do? But I liked having Trent close by, so I told myself it was because of the drunk tourists, who in actuality hadn’t even noticed us as we walked by them.
    “What are we doing here?” Trent asked as we turned into the parking lot we had left Camilla’s Jeep.
    “I don’t know about you two,” I answered, “but Cam and I are sleeping.”
    “Where?” he asked looking around obviously confused.
    “My car,” Camilla responded as she skipped towards it.
    “Wha – your car?” he shook his head, at a loss for words. “Okay, fine, but why?” he laughed.
    Before I could get defensive, Camilla nonchalantly asked him, “How else are we going to sleep under the stars?” as if what we were doing was perfectly normal. Which, in my case, was perfectly normal. I had grown up sleeping in cars when my mom couldn’t make rent or had gotten kicked out of her current boyfriend’s apartment. Thankfully, us sleeping in Camilla’s car was our choice and bound to be far more enjoyable and comfortable than anything from my past.
    “By yourselves?” Trent continued.
    Camilla rolled her eyes at him and nodded yes while I watched their interaction, quietly interjecting my point of view in my head. I didn’t say them out loud because there wasn’t an actual reason for my being so upset with Trent and the probability that he was judging me. But I was angry. Mainly because us staying in the Jeep wasn’t really something either of us actually wanted, but because I couldn’t afford a hotel room. Plain and simple. And while the idea of sleeping with the top down, staring at the stars did sound like fun, that wasn’t the real reason. And I hated the real reason. It reminded me too much of the poverty I had lived through. And it reminded me that while I had escaped my past, I still carried it with me.
    But I was also angry because I had already depicted a scenario in which I was being judged and looked down upon. Or worse, he could be feeling sorry for me. And, in my opinion, pity was not only degrading, but, more importantly, a complete waste of an emotion. Pity could cripple the soul. Pity was for spineless fools who bent over and let life fuck them. Pity was not for me. I was, in my own right, a fighter and not someone to feel sorry for.
    "Okay," Trent said as he leaned down and kissed my cheek. "See you tomorrow?" he asked.
    "Sure," I responded and watched him leave, a bit confused by his easy acceptance of our sleeping arrangements.
    "You're thinking too much," Camilla told me once Trent was no longer in earshot.
    "Yeah," I agreed, trying to calm my frenzied mind as I crawled into the passenger seat and reclined it so I could stare up at the stars.
    Camilla