Lara was finishing her breakfast when the doorbell rang. She knew who it was. Julia.
Lara's younger brother answered the door.
"Lara! It's Julia!"
Lara's mother sat at the kitchen table, putting her cigarette down on an ashtray. Her eyes were red from not getting any sleep that night. She put her hands up to her mouth, and took in several deep breaths to calm herself down.
"I'm going to miss you." Lara's mother spoke.
"I know Mom."
Lara finished off her toast. Her mother had cooked up a big breakfast for her, scrambled eggs and lots of bacon. It was going to be Lara's last home cooked meal.
Lara drank down the remaining apple juice in her glass, wiped her mouth and got up.
"Wait a minute, gimme a hug and a kiss." Her mother asked.
And Lara wrapped her arms around her, to which her mother held her nude body tightly.
"Tell Julia to call me, OK?" She spoke.
"I will."
Her mother started to cry.
Lara let go, eager to get going, as if she had no care in the world.
She walked quickly out of the house to meet Julia.
"How did I know you would be going nude?" Julia asked.
"I'm doing everything nude for now on!" Lara responded.
Lara walked to the car, opened the door and sat in the passenger seat. Julia got inside.
"Uh, where's your stuff?" Julia asked.
"I'm not bringing any stuff."
Julia let out a short breath in sarcastic tone. "Uh, what?"
"This is it. I'm not bringing anything!"
Julia sat back in her seat and dropped her hands to her sides. "You are not, serious."
"I'm serious!" Lara said musically.
"You mean you have no money? No identification? No clothes??"
"Nope."
"How are you supposed to eat?"
"I'll find something, you don't have to worry about me." Lara waved her hand, "Come on, let's get going."
This was the "real Lara" yet again, in all of her daring, her bravery, her smarmy, and even kinky demeanor.
Julia kept her look on Lara for a few more seconds, then started the engine and slowly backed out of the driveway. She tried to figure out what to say while driving through the neighborhood.
"So, you have no plans on what to do, or where to go, you have no money, no clothes, no nothing... I mean, do you realize how stupid this is?"
Lara rested her elbow on the car's window sill, and propped her head, not wanting to discuss any further.
Julia continued, "You're going to get in trouble with the police. There's weird people out there. What if you get hurt, what are you going to do?"
"I'll be OK!" Lara insisted.
"It'll get cold, and you have nothing to keep warm with."
"The car has a heater." Lara countered.
Julia paused, still looking for something else to say. Meanwhile, Lara looked out the window and took the last glances of the neighborhood she grew up in.
"I mean what I said about my aunt. She's not going to let you stay." Julia continued.
Lara blew out a sarcastic breath of air. "I know! I'm not expecting to stay with your aunt!"
Julia rolled her eyes.
"Look," Lara spoke as she took her elbow off the window. "I'm going to figure something out. Somewhere along the way I'll find something. I can take care of myself. The worst that could happen is the police will arrest me, let me call my mom, and let me go. It's not like I'm going to die or something!"
Julia felt frustrated. She cared deeply for Lara, but respected her spirit of independence, and was even envious of it. And in fact, Julia would have simply refused to take Lara if not for the fact that Julia had now saw herself as an adult, and felt just a little bit more ready to indulge in Lara's stories of sex and promiscuity.
