My feet draped over the pastel sofa, which was probably once a vibrant pink when it was made in the seventies. It reeked of stale cigarettes, which my mom frantically claimed was how it smelt when she picked it up from the garage sale. She’d been addicted to nicotine for half of her life and had only recently “quit” when the doctor broke it to her that it was life threatening, which expectedly came to her as a surprise. It didn’t matter much since she was constantly on the road living out her teenage dream of becoming a successful musician. She was the lead guitarist of The Daggers, a name that had probably seemed like a good idea when they formed the band in high school. We lived in the heart of Hollywood; close to all the money thirsty agents who swore would take The Daggers to the next level of fame.
I exerted all my energy on painting my fingernails an aqua blue while a fruit roll up hung loosely from my lips. On the floor was my best friend Benny, short for Bernice, who laid a foot away from the TV absentmindedly watching Keeping up with the Kardashian’s and reapplying Chap Stick.  She basically lived at my house to escape her strictly catholic, Mexican parents. Her boyfriend Dan was in the corner fiddling with the blender in attempt to create his “World Famous Vanilla Milkshake of Champions.” This consisted of putting vanilla ice cream and milk in the blender and waiting thirty seconds, but we gave him the recognition he thought he deserved. Unsurprisingly Benny’s parents didn’t approve of Dan so just like the Pilgrims came to America for religious freedom they came to my house to escape persecution.
Dan was gorgeous. Even walking around the streets of Hollywood was a liability for him since all the tourists would tug at him and beg for a picture with, “Brad Pitt.” The soccer moms, teachers, (male and female) all flirted with him. Remarkably, he was either to modest to care, or clueless too notice. He was captain of the soccer team and tested at the top of our class and yet still he watched trash reality shows with us on the weekend like any other high school kid, which he was not. He was a local celebrity.