DIRTY MONEY

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Beginning to Stress...

Bianca didn't have to drop her sister off early this morning because their father showed up at the door at the time she promised to bring Sophie home.

Bianca wasn't pleased to see him, hugging her sister before sending her out the door. Of course, their father tried to speak to Bianca, but she didn't say more than five words to him, turning her focus to her sister.

Robert tried to say something about the new hairstyle on Sophie's head, complimenting Bianca for how well she did. Bianca's only response was a sigh before heading back inside her apartment as Dorinda said her goodbyes to Sophie.

The girls were supposed to get breakfast before Sophie went back to her parents, but Robert showing up was a shift in the plans. He tried to insert himself into them all getting breakfast, knowing that Sophie would be excited over that. He did this often, trying to use Sophie to get to Bianca, and she didn't allow it one bit, promising her sister that they could do something next week.

Bianca would die before she sat at a table with him, smiled in his face, or even listened to him go on about anything other than Sophie.

Bianca felt she was at a stage where she didn't need him to try to fix anything anymore. There was nothing to mend. What he did—leaving her—was enough to make her not want to see him or even hear his voice.

He's destroyed a good part of her, and her relationships were fucked because of it. She couldn't believe that a man would want her and would want to stick around to get to know her because the very man who was supposed to be there for her while she was growing up was proving to her time after time that she wasn't good enough for him to stay.

Bianca blamed herself for not being up to his standards, but she blamed her father for how fucked up she was.

"Did you see this?"

Bianca lifted her gaze from her phone at the sound of her friend's voice. She saw that she was being handed a single piece of paper, taking it and turning it around so she could read what was written.

"What is this?" Bianca asked before her eyes began trailing the black-printed words.

"He bumped up the rent by two hundred bucks," Ruth said with an eye roll as she removed her jacket.

Bianca stared in disbelief, "what?" re-reading the words in bold, "we don't got it like that to be pulling two hundred out of our asses."

"That's what I said," Ruth pulled out the chair after she tossed her jacket on it, "I tried talkin' to him before comin' here, and all he had to say was that it was out of his hands," she said, sitting down with an annoyed expression on her face.

Bianca rolled her eyes, "he could've at least given us a heads up about this," pushing the paper back over to Ruth.

"He said he had notified everyone via email last week, but I call bullshit," she sighed heavily, taking the paper to then put inside her bag.

"There's gotta be someone we can talk to about this shit," Bianca said while shaking her head, "what are we gonna do?" slowly slipping into a trance, eyes focused on the wall.

They were still missing money from last month's payment, so playing catch-up was like walking on a thin string.

"Rob a corner store like the chicks from Good Girls and pay for our rent like that," she said with a light shrug, "I know a store where we can buy the masks."

Bianca grins at her idea: "well, how about we let that be plan Z?" meaning the very last option, "and for now, we just enjoy tonight. Luckily, the first is in two weeks, so we have a little time to figure things out."