I would have done just about anything for Olivia. I did owe it to her, after all. She helped turn my life around and get me into a much better place. This one favor didn't seem different from any others... at first.
I should back track a little. My name's Aurora. I grew up in an upper-middle class suburban neighborhood in Virginia. I went to private Catholic school through high school. My entire family, extended relations included, had been devout Catholics for as long as could be recalled.
I began as the stereotypical perfect kid-the one you just love to hate because they can't seem to do anything wrong. I was a great child for my parents, always doing what I was told, never getting into trouble. I was consistently at the top of my class, a straight A student. I participated in community life too, becoming the leader of the cheer squad and the Bible study group at my school, as well as being volunteer of the month 7 times in a row at the local homeless shelter.
I also had a beautiful face, radiant smile, and long red hair that garnered me a lot of attention from boys. My big boobs developed early and were accentuated by my slim figure and firm ass, which probably made the boys drool even more. Not to brag, but I was the prettiest girl my age in my town. I knew it, too, although I didn't care that much.
Things all changed for me when I was 16. One day in early spring, my dad and I were planning on going to a local fair. An unexpected heavy rainstorm shut down the fair for the day, so we returned home early.
When I walked into our house with my dad, I was met with the sight of my mom on the dining room table, being fucked by our priest.
Being a true Catholic couple, divorce was never an option, so my parents reconciled. They still go to the same church every Sunday too, with the same priest. I have no clue how my dad can ever look at the fucker without punching him. But he has for the past 5 years.
My life, on the other hand, was completely flipped upside down. I slowly started pushing back against my parents. I no longer respected them, my mom for being a liar and a cheater, and my dad for being a pussy.
I slipped out late at nights, drinking, smoking pot, and hanging out with people who my dad would have called "hooligans." My grades fell off a cliff. I got kicked off the cheer team and politely removed from the study group. I became a rebel as a "fuck you" to my parents, although it ended up hurting me more. Cliche, I know.
I just couldn't put up with my parents anymore, and it got to the point that they couldn't put up with me anymore either. At 18, I dropped out of high school a few months before graduation, and moved to California with dreams to become an actress.
Needless to say, my endeavors were not extremely successful. I was broke in two months. My most common source of income became bussing tables and more than once I had to slip cash from out of the register to make ends meet. But I pulled myself up by my bootstraps though, in large part due to my friend Olivia.
She worked as a waitress at the same restaurant that I did. After work one day, she saw me crying in the break room because I had just been served my eviction notice. I laid bare my soul to her, and she was there like my rock. By the next day, she had already gotten me a place to live rooming with a friend of hers.
Olivia was attending a local community college to get her art degree. I had taken on a negative attitude towards any sort of organizational power, but she convinced me to sign up, and I started taking classes with her.
I was able to quit bussing, and started focusing on academics. Ultimately, I hoped to get a degree in business and start my own beauty salon.
Suffice it to say that Olivia was extremely influential for me, and I would have done nearly anything to repay her for how much she helped me.
It happened in the first week of July, a few weeks after my 21st birthday.
School had been out for a month or so at this point. I was between jobs: the salon I had been interning at had moved. Luckily, I had qualified for a free summer housing program, so I didn't have to worry about money. I wasn't really doing anything but enjoying my free time. I had been really busy near the end of the semester, so I was relishing the months of laziness that lay ahead of me.
I had just woken up from a long night's sleep when my phone buzzed.
I checked the caller ID, and saw it was Olivia.
"Hey, girlfriend, how are you?" she asked me as I put the phone to my ear.
"Good. Just got out of bed. Haven't heard from you in a few days. What's up?" I groggily asked.
"Tssk, tssk, Ari," as she so affectionately nicknamed me, "it's almost 1 in the afternoon. You need to wake up earlier."
"Oh, fuck off. Not all of us have actual real-world responsibilities and shit."
Olivia wasn't currently worrying about a job either. Her parents recently did very well on the stock market, so with a roommate, rent was very manageable even without a source of income. She was, however, always doing artsy things, like running for charity or going on nature walks or doing yoga on surfboards.
She had recently volunteered to host a friend of a friend from Yugoslavia who was seeing America for the first time. Olivia and I hadn't talked in over a week; I guess being a full-time tour guide is a difficult job.
"Haha, fuck you too." she playfully responded.
"So has your visitor gone? I forget his name."
"Vladislav. And yes, he's gone. Shame you didn't get to meet him. Something tells me you would have liked him."
"Oh, yeah? Does he like sitting around a cramped dorm room playing video games and eating potato chips? Because that's exactly the type of person I'd like to meet right now."
"It never came up, so I can't say. But I meant for other, more... superficial reasons."
"Oh?" I inquisitively asked. "On a scale of 1-10?"
"Definitely a 10."
"Well, fuck, then I'm mad I couldn't meet him."
"I'm certainly glad that I was able to," Olivia said, with a bit of a sultry tone in her voice.
"Oh my god, did you fuck him?" I curiously asked.
"Well... I might have," she sheepishly responded.
"OMG, good for you girl! How was it?"
"God, he was fucking insane! I came so many times, you have no idea."
"Well, fuck! Why didn't you introduce me to him?"
"Um, how the fuck is this my fault?" she asked, with an air of incredulity. "You could have easily gotten your lazy ass out of your room and hung out with me."
"Yeah, well, you could have called and told me how good he was before he left. My laziness is not to blame."
"Go fuck yourself! Speaking of your laziness by the way, would you mind getting up off your fat ass and doing something for me?"
"No fucking way, I'm not scrubbing graffiti or picking up trash in a forest or anything."
"This job would be much easier," Olivia said.
"It's still a definite no."
"Come on, Ari, you haven't even heard what the favor is."
"I don't need to! It's a no!" I shot back.
Olivia paused for a moment before responding.
"You know, I seem to recall you telling me a while back that you would do any favor that I asked of you. In return for, you know, helping you get your shit together."
I sighed, knowing that she was correct.
"Alright," I conceded. "What is it?"
"Well, you know my summer art class?"
"I vaguely recall you mentioning it, but no, I don't remember the specifics," I honestly replied.
"Ugh, well, it's 10 of us who get together as a group once a month and paint together. It's pretty self-explanatory."