Page 3 of Snowed in with the Villains

Oh right. Lily from twelve B, whose door I tried to break down so she could call the police and tell them my sister was taken because I only had one phone and I didn’t want to disconnect the call with my sister, who I thought was kidnapped. I close my eyes in embarrassment.

“I just wanted to check and see if everything is all right,” she says before I open the door.

“Yes, thank you. Again, I’m so sorry about that,” I say immediately, taking in the girl who now looks as if she just stepped off the catwalk despite now being dressed casually in jeans with her hair brushed out. “I just panicked for some stupid reason and jumped to a crazy conclusion. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. But you look like you need a drink.” She holds up a bottle of whiskey. Wait, it’s a Glenfiddich bottle, and it’s the fancy kind. I used to work as a waitress at an upmarket restaurant before, so I know that is some expensive whiskey.

We live in Tuscan Rose Heights; it might not be the slummiest of apartments in the neighborhood, but it certainly isn’t Upper East Side Manhattan by a long shot.

The rent is cheap; there’s no one peeing in the corridors or exposing themselves directly outside of the building. It’s meant for people like me, the comfortable side of otherwise poor. But can a resident of Tuscan Rose Heights afford to offer a stranger a glass of that kind of whiskey?

I want to tell her I don’t drink, but Lily steps into my apartment, heads to my kitchen, and pulls out two glasses from my kitchen cupboard.

If ever there was a time I needed to start drinking, now would be it, I guess. Lily pours some of the smooth golden liquid into the glasses and hands me one.

“Salud,” she says and downs hers. I say the same belatedly and do the same with my drink and then end up coughing like I’m dying while tears flood my face.

“Just breathe and allow it to hug you from the inside.”

I close my eyes and draw deep bouts of air into my lungs until I feel a warmth spread throughout my whole body. It really does feel like a hug from the inside. A spicy one at that.

“There. Want to talk now?”

I sigh. “I thought my sister was taken. She called me crying, and I jumped to the worst conclusion imaginable.”

“So, she wasn’t kidnapped?” Lily asks, pulling out a chair and sitting at my kitchen table. I do the same opposite her. We’ve lived in the same building for about two years and always just greeted each other with smiles whenever we bumped into each other.

On closer scrutiny, I realize that her clothes have designer labels on them. That pair of jeans that she wears so casually cost the amount of my salary, and it’s not fake at all. Those boots, Chanel. That bracelet... is that a Van Cleef?

Does she come from a rich family? Why is she livingherewhen she could be in a penthouse in Manhattan? Not my business.

“No, thank god. But my rock bottom just decided it needed more rock and depth. I just lost my job, not because I’m bad at it or anything, but because my boss, who ran a dental practice, and I handled all his accounts, went to bed last Wednesday and didn’t wake up the next day. His wife had her lawyer issue his staff of two, me and the receptionist, a prorated check and sent us home.”

So yes, in between all that, I’m also mourning the loss of Doctor Harper. He was such a kind man, and I truly loved my job. He paid me well, bonuses and everything. I was going to get out of Tuscan Rose Heights and maybe buy myself a small little housewith a garden and—I stop myself from thinking like that. It’s never going to happen.

“And my mother gets involved with the mafia; can you believe that? I mean, I believe it; I don’t know why I’m shocked. She used up all my sister’s tuition money—that’s why she called me crying, by the way, not because she was kidnapped as I thought, but because she was being thrown out of school for not paying. And if that’s not bad enough, my mother now owes The Sledge Hammer, that’s the mafia guy’s name, three hundred thousand dollars.” I open my phone and show Lily the text I’d received from The Sledge Hammer.

Chapter Three

Skye

Apparently, my mother told the scary mafia man I was good for her debt, and he should talk to me. Then he sent a picture of a pair of legs that were not joined to a body, a warning for how both my mother and I would end up.

“Oh fuck. That’s rough,” Lily says, but she says it almost matter-of-factly. Like shit happens, move on.

“So, I had to empty my savings to cover a portion of my sister’s tuition, so she’s not kicked out, at least for now, and I have to come up with two thousand dollars so she can finish the semester. Punchline? I won’t even be able to pay rent due in three days or eat until I find a new job, which could take forever. And I can’t take out a loan, because my mother screwed up my credit score when she took out a slew of credit cards in my name when I turned eighteen.”

“Oh my fucking god, girl. You’re like the princess of doom,” Lily laughs.

“That would be me,” I say, shrugging my shoulders and laughing before I take another sip of the drink and grimace uncontrollably.

“I’m sorry. I did not mean to lay that all on you,” I say, my voice hoarse as I shake my head, embarrassed. “Enough about me and my problems. How’s life treating you these days?” I say, trying to change the subject.

“I think I can help you out,” Lily says, smiling.

Unless Lily from twelve B is going to hand me a very, very large sum of money in the next three days, she really can’t help me. No one can actually.

“I could help you out with a job. Minimum hours, very high pay, and that will still leave you half the day to find a regular job if you still want to.”

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