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“Have you ever wondered what it would be like to backpack across the world?”

Natalie’s face goes slack “Uh, not really,” she says “That ht…suck”

“Well, think about it for a second,” I say, leaning against the table and focusing all of my attention on her “Just you and a backpack with a few necessities No bills No getting up at the sao to a job you hate Just you and the world out ahead of you You never knohat the next day is going to bring, who you’ll ht sleep” I realize I’ve becoht’ve seemed a little obsessed for a second, myself

“You’re starting to freakme across the small table with a look of uncertainty Her arched brow settles back even with the other one and then she says, “And there’s also all the walking, the risk of getting raped, murdered and tossed on the side of a freeway so…”

Clearly, she thinks I’m borderline crazy

“What brought this on, anyway?” she asks, taking a quick sip of her drink “That sounds like some kind of ain as if to underline, “And you’ve hardly paid a bill in your life”

She takes another sip; an obnoxious slurping noise follows

“Maybe not,” I say thinking quietly to myself, “but I will be once I move in with you”

“So true,” she says, tapping her fingertips on her cup “Everything split down theout onwarily across at me

“No, I’ with a slut”

“You bitch!” she laughs

I half-s, the stuff before that she wasn’t relating to, but I expected as ht out-of-the-box Instead of sitting around drea up new sex positions, as Natalie often does about Das that really matter At least in my world, they matter What the air in other countries feels like on my skin, how the ocean sasp “You’re one deep chick” That’s what Damon said to me on more than one occasion

“Geez!” Natalie says “You’re a freakin’ downer, you know that right?” She shakes her head with the straeen her lips

“Come on,” she says suddenly and stands up from the table “I can’t take this philosophical stuff anymore and quaint little places like this seeht”

“What?—No, I’ to that place”

“Yes You Are” She chucks her erabswith me this time because you’re supposed to be ain for an answer” Her close-lipped shtly tanned face

I know she means business She always means business when she has that look in her eyes: the one brimmed with exciteo this once and get it over with, or else she’ll never leave me alone about it Such is a necessary evil when it co a pushy best friend

I get up and slip my purse strap over my shoulder

“It’s only two o’clock,” I say

I drink down the last of my latte and toss the empty cup away in the same trash can

“Yeah, but first we’ve got to get you a new outfit”

“Uh, no” I say resolutely as she’s walkingto The Underground with you is ot plenty of clothes”

Natalie slips her ar line of parking lances over at me “Fine Then you’ll at least letout of my closet”

“What’s wrong with my oardrobe?”

She purses her lips at ue why I even asked a question so ridiculous “It’s The Underground,” she says, as if there is no answer more obvious than that

OK, she has a point Natalie and me may be best friends, but with us it’s an opposites attract sort of thing She’s a rocker chick who’s had a crush on Jared Leto since Fight Club I’irl who rarely wears dark-colored clothes unless I’ a funeral Not that Natalie wears all black and has so on, but she would never be caught dead in anything fro to differ I kno to dress, and guys—when I used to pay attention to the way they eyed my ass in my favorite jeans—have never had a problem with the clothes I choose to wear

But The Underground was uess I’ll have to endure dressing like her for one night just to fit in I’m not a follower I never have been But I’ll definitely become someone I’m not for a few hours if it’ll make me blend in rather than make me a blatant eye sore and draw attention

~~~

Natalie’s bedroom is the complete opposite of OCD clean And this is yet another way she and I are so co my clothes up by color She leaves hers in the basket at the foot of her bed for weeks before throwing theain because of the wrinkles I dust my room daily I don’t think she has ever actually dusted her roo off the two-inches of dust fro