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Chapter Four
“You’re telling me they fired you for falling asleep during a meeting?” Kylie’s mother looked up from the onion she was dicing and waved her knife in Kylie’s direction. Her parents were finally home long enough to have a proper talk, and her mom wasn’t pulling any punches.
“Yup,” Kylie said, keeping her head down while peeling the potatoes.
“Because it was highly unprofessional and a really important meeting?
“Yup.”
“So, you understand why they had to fire you?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Good.” Her mom nodded. “Now tell me why on earth you fell asleep during the meeting.”
“I had been up late the night before.”
“Working?”
Kylie sighed. “No, out with friends.”
Her mother looked up at the ceiling and put down her knife with deliberate care. “You fell asleep during an important meeting because you were tired from partying?”
Kylie didn’t respond, but apparently her silence spoke volumes because her mom huffed then picked her knife back up to chop the onion a little more vigorously.
“I know, Mom.” Kylie’s eyes filled with tears, and not only from the onions. “It was horribly stupid. I’m an idiot for putting a night out with friends ahead of work. Friends I haven’t even heard from since.”
“You haven’t heard from them?” Her voice softened.
“Most of them not since that night.” Kylie hadn’t said this part out loud yet. “I told Veronica when I got home from the meeting. I’m assuming she told the rest of them since it’s been nothing but radio silence. She was sympathetic at first, but the next morning when I got out of bed, she’d left a note saying if I couldn’t pay the rent in a week, she was renting the room out to someone else.”
“Ouch.” Her mom flinched. “That’s cold. But you really didn’t even have the money to make rent?”
“No.” Kylie braced herself for a stern talk from her mom about financial responsibility. Her mother faced the sink and began rinsing off the carrots.
“I know I was stupid,” Kylie said. “I had no reason to think I was going to lose my job, and Toronto living is expensive so saving money was really hard.”
Her mom turned and scanned her head to toe. Kylie squirmed and crossed her arms in an attempt to hide the lululemon tracksuit she was wearing.
“Okay,” she said. “I wasted a ton of money. And I guess I tried a little too hard to keep up with my friends.”
“You keep calling them friends. As if they did anything positive for your life.”
“They were a good group of friends, Mom.”
“Were they really?” Her mom huffed.
“I don’t know. I thought they were. We were always hanging out and having fun. They were nice to me.”
As Kylie defended her Toronto friends, the arguments were bitter in her mouth. They had stopped treating her like a friend the moment she no longer had the money to hang out with them.
“Hey kiddo.” Her mom came around the kitchen table and embraced her. “I don’t blame you for falling in with the wrong crowd. We’ve all done it.”
“But you do blame me for losing my job.”
“Well yes.” She went back to her carrots. “You absolutely messed up there.”
They had a quiet family dinner, and afterward Kylie’s dad helped her bring the rest of her stuff up to her room from the car. It was mostly designer clothes, shoes, and purses, a few books, some bedding, and towels. She also had a large train case holding all her makeup. Seeing it all together at once knotted her stomach, so she shoved the duffle bags and shoes into her tiny closet. There was so much it filled the closet to the ceiling, and she had to push with her shoulder to get the door closed.
