Liberty Begins (The Liberty Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Amber. She was never really friendly, but that’s not what bothered me. It was the dead look in her eyes. It was like she was looking straight through me, like I could jump up and down and wave my arms at her and she wouldn’t notice. Every time I saw her I thought the same thing: She’s already given up. Typically, the girls at the Chest, myself included, liked to at least pretend that we hadn’t.
    Five dollars was better than none, I reasoned. I left the eighty degree warmth and sun of the parking lot and went in. It smelled like beer and pee in the alley outside the door but I would still rather be here with a couple of bouncers, a DJ and a bartender than home alone with the ghosts in my head. Maybe I would see Alex and he could tell me something, anything, about John. I looked for him as I walked in and my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I didn’t see anyone but Chelsea, the bartender, standing behind the bar, texting feverishly. There were also two men sitting separately, nursing what appeared to be their brunch cocktails. Neither one looked like they had been to bed yet. Nina was up on stage, rolling around in the bottom half of a glitter bikini and looking dreamily at the ceiling. She’d probably been doing that for a good long while. I should have brought her a coffee.
    I grabbed a glass from behind the bar and filled it with diet soda — Chelsea nodded to me once without looking up from her phone — and I headed out back quickly to get dressed. No one was in the dressing room. I was up next, so I hurried off my sneakers and jeans, threw them into my locker and put on my plaid mini skirt, a red thong, a red nipple-less bra and white oxford shirt. I put on my makeup carefully, making sure that I didn’t put on too much mascara because I would have to add more as the day went on. I put on my bubble-gum scented clear lipgloss over my red lipstick and smacked my lips together. As I bent down to dig my heels out, I saw the white package in my backpack. I grabbed it and sat back in my chair. Glasses make you look smart. I took them out of the package and tried them on.
    When I looked in the mirror, I sucked my breath in. It didn’t look like me, but in a good way. If I kept my shirt buttoned and you couldn’t smell the bubblegum lipgloss, I looked like I could be a lawyer, albeit a young, slutty lawyer. Still, I looked good. And the glasses were mine, I reasoned. Someone had sent them to me for some weird reason. I stood up and headed towards the stage. It was time to relieve Nina. Her allergies were going to start bothering her if she kept rolling around on that dirty floor.
    The song changed and Nina seemed to wake up. “Cool glasses,” she said, and rubbed my shoulder as she left the stage. Allergies aside, Nina was the healthiest person who worked here. She taught yoga and Pilates, and she worked at one of the health food stores in Vegas, so she was always showing up for her shift with green smoothies, seaweed bars and cashews. Honestly, I didn’t know what half of her snacks were. She wore a sequined bindi and was a strict vegetarian, both of which mystified me, but she was always so calm I liked being around her. She was nice to all of us and dreamy and detached with her clients, which was maybe just her way of distancing herself.
    She was probably off to teach a yoga class this morning to rich women at one of the trendy resorts. She was always working. I couldn’t figure out why she stripped, but the other girls said eating like she did was wicked expensive. I don’t know why anyone would choose an expensive green seaweed bar over cheap macaroni and cheese or French fries, but I had limited exposure in these matters. My mother used to take us to Friendly’s for special occasions. It was still my favorite restaurant.
    My audience of two was still hanging on, but just barely. They were both slumped in their separate seats. I could dance the hokey-pokey and they would probably be okay with it. I decided I