Page 4 of Push & Pull
“Maybe I’ll see you there next time.” Petra winked at Daria, who soon collapsed onto the far end of the couch, fanning herself. While she recollected her inhibitions, Petra turned to Simone. “Your girlfriend? You lucky bitch.”
Simone curtly shook her head when Daria wasn’t looking. “Don’t believe anything this one says. She’s a player.” Something Petra had said a few moments before had piqued Simone’s interest, though. “You said you knew Hailey from when she was in Chicago?”
“Yeah, she went to undergrad there, you know.”
“I also know her mom grew up there.” Mrs. Lambert had always been polite to Simone, but far from motherly. From what she understood, Mrs. Lambert wasn’t that motherly to Hailey, either. “I’ve never seen you at one of those parties before.”
Although Petra maintained her friendly countenance, the slight cock of her head implied that she didn’t like the cut of Simone’s jib. “I don’t get down to Miami very often. We’ve kept in contact over the years, though.”
“Did you go to college together?”
“Oh, no. You might say that my family knows her mother’s.”
“The Greek family?”
Petra politely declined to answer that. “Think I’ll let you ladies get back to your fun. I’m off to find Hailey.” She turned to Daria, whose bare foot had crept into Simone’s lap. Two red shoes clattered to the floor. “Youcome find me later if this one isn’t giving you what you need.”
Daria squealed in over-exuberant delight as Petra sauntered away with another wink on her face. “Who wasthat,do you think?” Frisky fingers attached themselves to Daria’s breast as she pretended to have been felled by a stranger from the Midwest. “I think you have some competition for my affections now, Simone.”
She can have you.Yet Simone kept that opinion to herself. She was too busy recalling how close Petra had come to giving up her real story when caught in a white lie.
She’s from Greece and I’m from China.Simone didn’t have proof Petra was lying, but she’d be damned if that woman wasn’t a middle-class drug dealer Hailey used to fuel parties like these.
Or maybe that was the cynical bitch in her sinking deeper into nihilistic despair.
Chapter 2
Thesweetsoundsofpeople having fun always brought a smile to Petra’s face. Even better if they were folk she didn’t know.
Strangers are the spark of something special.Petra’s extroverted nature didn’t stop with going out a lot or preferring the company of friends to solitude. It was getting to know the people who populated her world. Every stranger held untold potential inside of them. Were they a fascinating font of information? An endless source of entertainment? Or, if certain French heiresses were anything to go by, potential one-night stands who could lead to something more?
Something like… money?
“Are you having a good time?” Hailey broke off from a group talking about some Netflix movie that they didn’t understand had been making fun of them for the entire plot. “You don’t know many people here outside of me, do you?”
“When has that ever been a problem for me?” Petra opened her arms to invite Hailey into a hug. In Ms. Lambert’s true nature, she lightly placed her hands on Petra’s shoulders and shrugged into a half-hug.Yeah, yeah, not big on touching people who might smudge your makeup or break a nail.“You know how much I like to sit between two strangers and get to know them by the end of the night.”
“Maybe get to be their third, huh?”
“Oh, did you see me in the living room earlier? That French girl was a trip.” If Petra hadn’t excused herself, she’d be in that orgy pile right now.Not that I’m complaining, really, but it’s a bit early in the evening for that kind of fun.She didn’t want to blow her energy until she was sure she wasn’t getting involved with someone who was in big trouble dressed up.
“Daria? Yes. You should meet her sister.” Hailey jerked her head toward one of the closed doors down the hallway. “It’s unlocked, by the way.”
Petra’s face fell once she knew what Hailey meant. “I don’t do that shit. You know that.”
“Neither do I anymore.”
Uh-huh.Hailey was all talk. For as long as Petra had known her, the Duchess of Forest Glen would stick a cigarette in one side of her mouth and say,“I’ve quit smoking,”out of the other.You get used to it and learn how to navigate hypocrisy and lies.At least it kept things interesting, not that Petra appreciated finding out that one of her oldest friends had fallen in with drug dealers and grifters over the years.
I mean, grifters other than me.Petra was always the exception. Kinda like how she could say she “never did the stuff” and turn around and drop acid at the next rager.No matter how many times I tell her to stay away, though, she’s like a moth to the Next-High flame.Sure, Hailey was sober now, but for how long? Especially with friends like Yvonne Marseille, whom Petra knew by name from the rich girl party circuit.
While Petra didn’t struggle to make friends wherever she went, sometimes it was best to hang out and take in the vibe of a party before deciding who to network with or who to turn into the lucky mark of the night.Yeah, yeah, don’t shit where you eat.Hailey knew Petra was involved with some shady business, but like with her drug-dealing friends, didn’t commentate or necessarily hold Petra back from doing what she did best. Even at parties like these.
This party was stacked with rich kids and their entourage.
“Once they reopen travel to Japan,” a douchey-looking guy with spiked hair and a torn sweatshirt said to one of his friends in the long hallway, “we have got to go and see this friend of mine. He’s got the sickest bar in Roppongi. You know where that is?”
“Yeah, I started at Stanford,” said a woman blocking the bathroom door. “Then I migrated over to UCLA, then Lakewood. I dunno, something about the pandemic has made college so…” She sighed, heavily. “Taking a break. Lakewood can call me when they let us back on campus for more than a week.”
