Page 46 of Risking it All

“Macie!” Zuri called out after me. “Lev, why are you lying on the floor?”

In the hallway, I heard the bathroom door shut, and I went in after Melanie. One of the stall doors was closed, and sounds of muffled cries filled the restroom. I had no idea why Melanie was upset, but I hated how everything hurt her all the dang time.

“Are you okay?” I asked from my side of the closed door.

“I’m fine,” she said in a broken voice that indicated she was not fine.

“Why are you upset?”

“I’m not.”

Thankful for the closed door, I rolled my eyes. “You are, and it’s okay to be upset. Can we talk about it?”

After a few seconds of her choking on a sob and then blowing her nose, Melanie came out of the bathroom stall with tear mark rivets in her thick foundation. Mascara ran from her red eyes. She sighed. I sighed. I really needed to teach this girl how to properly apply makeup. “Come here. Let me fix you up.”

She shuffled toward me and the sinks. I pulled out two paper towels, wetted one and kept the other dry. I went to work wiping the smudged mascara. “Why are you crying?”

“I don’t know.”

I’d been to enough therapy sessions since February that I had the follow up question memorized. “If you had to make a guess as to why you were crying, what would it be?” Okay, so the therapists worded it much better than me, but that was what they were trying to get at.

“I don’t know. Our group therapy sessions have been fun.”

I had never known any therapy session to be fun, but I went along for the ride. “You mean the one where Lev wore a shark suit?”

“Yeah, that one and the other ones since then, and then you got us all jobs at the park and training was super fun and, so far, work has been super fun. When I’m at work, you and Demarius and Lev and Relic all talk to me…” She trailed off, and I wished she wouldn’t because my brain couldn’t come up with how all of that led to her crying and me fixing her makeup.

“And?” I prodded.

“I thought we were becoming friends.”

I pointed at the thick layer of bracelets. “It looks like you have plenty of friends.”

“But I liked having you all as friends.”

I mashed my lips together and went to work blending her foundation. “I am your friend. I’m also your supervisor, so at work I’m always going to be bossing you around.”

At least she half laughed at that.

“But I am your friend.”

“Are you just saying that?”

I don’t know, was I? “I like you. You’re sweet and kind. You listen. You talk a lot, but you do listen. You follow all the instructions we give you at work and you ask questions, which is awesome because not everyone does and that can cause accidents. I can tell you want to do well, and I’m very proud with how you’ve done.”

Her eyes had the start of a sparkle. “I want to be the best assistant ride operator there is.”

“You’re off to a good start. Did you know I started as an assistant ride operator?”

“That’s so cool.”

Eh, not really, as that was how everyone started out, but I liked that she was coming around. “Do you have any powder foundation?”

She dug it out of her massive purse and handed it to me. I went to work lightly applying it, and then I turned her toward the mirror. “See? Doesn’t that look better? You have beautiful skin, so you don’t need a lot of liquid foundation. A light application of powder will do the trick to even out your skin tone, which to be honest, you don’t need.”

Her smile went ear to ear, and I smiled along with her. Melanie turned to me and became very somber. “Why are you and Relic fighting?”

I wanted to deny we were, but doing so would upset her. Friends, after all, were supposed to share important parts of each other’s lives. “He hurt my feelings.” It was a very dumbed down version of what happened, but it was the best I had.

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