Kristin freshened up her make up like Soothe had shown her. Soothe was like an older sister, a mother and best friend all rolled up into one. She was older, maybe early twenties, and to Kristin’s eyes impossibly glamorous.
Andre had introduced them. He’d told Kristin that Soothe was a singer. That he was going to produce her debut album. He’d said that, seeing as how Kristin was arguing so much with her mom about seeing him that she could go stay with Soothe.
Kristin had snuck out that night, putting some bundled up clothes in her bed so that if her mom peeked in, it would look like she was sleeping. Andre had been waiting for her at the end of the block. He’d whisked her away to go meet Soothe.
“How come I can’t stay with you?” she had asked him.
“You know why,” he’d told her. “You’re too young. This is better. This way you can stay with Soothe, party and have fun and I can come over whenever and hang out.”
It had turned out to be a lie. She hadn’t seen Andre since. But he was right about the fun. The first few days with Soothe were so much fun that Kristin had become lost in it. It had left her so breathless that she had barely missed him.
Soothe’s place wasn’t all that nice, in fact it was kind of crummy. But there was no school and no bedtime and no one nagging her about every little thing like her Mom did.
There were cigarettes and weed and pills and wine, even fancy cocktails with names that made Kristin giggle, like Soothe’s favorite drink, a Pornstar Martini. There was music and dancing too. Soothe loved music, she played music from the moment she got up until the moment she went to bed.
They slept late, which suited Kristin better than getting up to catch the bus to school. They went to bed late too. Sometimes it was three or four in the morning before they crashed out, lying next to each other in Soothe’s huge bed. Just like sisters.
Kristin had always resented being an only child. She had always wanted a big sister. Now she had one, and it was the best thing ever.
On the first morning Kristin was in the kitchen when Soothe started asking her about Andre.
“You’re sweet on him, right?” she asked Kristin.
“He’s cute,” conceded Kristin, trying to be cool about it.
“Yeah, he’s real pretty,” said Soothe, turning to look at her with this big grin plastered all over her face. “You and him do it?”
Kristin blushed.
“Come on, girl,” Soothe prompted. “I wouldn’t blame you if you had. He’s fine.”
Soothe pushed aside some dirty glasses and hopped up onto the counter. “Come on, girl, spill, give me all the nasty details.”
Kristin told her everything. How it had all happened so fast. How the first time had hurt, and how it hadn’t hurt so much after that. She hadn’t enjoyed it exactly, but it had been okay and because it seemed to make Andre happy, it made her happy.
She had felt older too. Like she was a woman. That part she hadn’t shared with Soothe. Soothe had been a woman for so long that she would have felt silly telling her that part.
When she finished, Soothe had hopped down off the counter and given her a hug. She smelled of French perfume, or what Kristin imagined French perfume smelled off.
When Soothe finally broke away, she looked serious.
“I’m glad your first time was with Andre,” she told Kristin. “That’s going to make this a whole lot easier for you, girl.”
“Make what easier?”
Soothe’s face hardened. It was like a mask had dropped down. She swept a hand over the kitchen, long nails slashing the air.
“Girl, all this costs money. I can’t have you freeloading. You’re going to have to earn your keep. This ain’t your mama’s house no more.”
Kristin had started to ask her what she meant, but the hard mask had dropped, and happy big sister Soothe had come back into the room.
Soothe put her finger to Kristin’s lips.
“Don’t worry about it now. I’ll hold your hand. Show you how the game works.”
Then she kissed her on the cheek. “You’re in the life now.”
Kristin hadn’t known what Soothe meant by the life. She’d guessed from the way she’d said it that it wasn’t regular life. That it was something more.
She’d assumed by the way the sweep of Soothe’s long fingers had taken in the apartment that it meant living like this. No rules. No job. Partying all the time. Going to bed late and getting up in the afternoon. Rolling down to Mickey D’s to eat and ordering whatever you wanted to order.
Over the next day, Soothe had started to explain that it was more than just that. Soothe had a Daddy, a boyfriend who paid for everything. But it was a boyfriend she shared with other girls that she called wives-in-law.
“Kind of like Mormons,” was how Soothe explained it. “Only they don’t party, and we party hard.”
In return for everything being paid for, Soothe had to work. And so would Kristin. If she wanted to stay.
Or, said Soothe, she could go home.
Only Kristin knew that she couldn’t go home. Not now she had seen all this. And not after all the arguments she’d had with her mom about sneaking out to see Andre, and how when she had gone to school how the other girls talked about her because she had a boyfriend who was a man.
Kristin could feel her world start to constrict. Something told her that none of this was good. Not Andre. Not Soothe. Not the life. But, she told herself, she was in too deep.
It was like she had stepped from one world into another, like in a movie, or a fairytale. It was like this movie she had seen with her mom about these kids who had found a magical wardrobe that took you into a magical land called Narnia.
Soothe was the queen and Kristin guessed that all the alcohol and weed and music and excitement were like the magical Turkish Delight that the queen in the movie used to cast her spell over one of the children.
Only now she had tasted it, she craved more, and the queen wasn’t so bad after all. Not scary like she had been in the movie. Not yet anyway.