Royles Pt. 4

 I woke up the next morning in my tiny bed at Sydney's beach house and for a moment I forgot where I was. Then I remembered. She invited me here under the guise of wanting my company and then stowed me away in the maid's closet. 

 I lay in bed a few minutes staring at the ceiling letting my discontent simmer but then another thought popped into my head. Maybe I was being unfair. Sydney probably had this trip planned for months with a lot of her close friends and I was a last minute addition. Her house, even though it was large, still only had so many bedrooms. Perhaps it was selfish of me to expect her to have a room set up for me and not her previously invited guests. 

  I contented myself with this reasoning and got up, slipping on one of the dresses Sydney gifted me the day before. It was dark blue with small powder blue flowers and hung down to right above my knees. Sure it was last season's fashion but flowers never go out of style. 

  I smiled at my reflection in the mirror on my wall and hurried from my room downstairs to see what Sydney's maids had cooked up for breakfast. When I got down to the kitchen I looked around confused. 

No one was there and no food was being prepared. The coffeepot wasn't even on. It was ten in the morning. Was it possible that no one was awake yet? 

"Are you back from breakfast already, miss?" said a voice behind me. I turned to see Rita, the maid, standing there still in her pajamas. 

"Back from breakfast?" I repeated. 

 "Yes, miss. Miss Sydney and Mister Zach took all of the guests to the brunch restaurant down the street," Rita told me, her look changing from one of surprise to one of pity as the truth of the situation set in. I put on a fake smile and nodded, not ready to lose face in front of Rita. 

  "Right, of course. I forgot to set my alarm last night and I guess I overslept. Silly me. I'll just toast some waffles," I said, walking over to the freezer.

  "I can do that for you, miss," Rita offered. I grabbed a box of strawberry Eggos and shut the freezer door.

 "It's ok, Rita," I said with a real smile this time. "I got it. You go enjoy the morning off. Take a bath."

 "Really, miss?" Rita said with a huge grin as if I'd just offered her the opportunity of a lifetime.

 "Yes, really. I'm alright," I assure her, feeling anything but alright. Rita disappeared quickly and I put my Eggos in the toaster, grabbing syrup from the pantry. My good mood from just a few moments ago was quickly disappearing and I was attempting to mend it with preservatives and sugar. 

  Sure Sydney may not have had a bedroom for me but there was definitely enough seats at the brunch restaurant for me to have been included. Was I giving her the benefit of the doubt when she didn't deserve it?  

   I pondered this question as I consumed four Eggo waffles and just as I was mopping up the rest of the puddle of syrup on my plate with the last piece, I heard the front door open and a cacophony of voices. I finished my last bite and stuck my plate in the sink. Sydney walked into the kitchen surrounded by her posse of friends. They were all talking about some latest TikTok trend. When she saw me, Sydney stopped in her tracks and a look of surprise and what I hoped was regret spread across her face. The other girls got quiet too and I could see them looking from my plate to the syrup still on the counter and piecing it all together. 

  "Oh my gosh, Robin. Did I forget to tell you about brunch?" Sydney gasped. A couple of the girls smirked and some others got suddenly busy on their phones. 

  "It's fine," I replied sweetly. "I found some waffles in the freezer." 

  "Oh well I'm glad you've eaten because you'll need your energy. We are going shopping and someone has to be there to judge our fashion show in the dressing room," Sydney crowed, trying to make it sound like a great opportunity when really it would just be me watching while her and her friends had all the fun. 

  "Unless you'd prefer to stay here with Zach and his buddies while they play volleyball," Alice cut in. 

  "Sometimes they take their shirts off." 

    In all honesty, the thought of seeing pretty much any man shirtless for several hours sounded more fun than watching Sydney try on dresses with her friends but I couldn't exactly say that out loud.

  "Sure, I'll go with you," I told them. 

   Sydney smiled, picking up the syrup from the counter and putting it back in the pantry.

  "That's so good to hear," she said happily, her eyebrows creasing in frustration as she realized two of her fingers were now clinging to each other thanks to a sticky breakfast condiment. 

  "And of course, when we are done we'll get icecream and you will order first to make up for missing brunch," Sydney continued, wiping her hand on a wet rag in the sink. 

  "That sounds great," I replied, feeling slightly better even though sprinkles and hot fudge didn't quite make up for not being invited to a whole meal. I followed Sydney and her friends from the house listening to their idle chatter and wondering if I made a mistake.

   An hour later I was sure I made a mistake and that watching shirtless guys read the phone book would have been more fun than watching Sydney and her friends parade around the dressing room in a fancy shop taking selfies. True to her word, we did get icecream after and Sydney let me pick first but that was where her kindness ended because as soon as we all had our treats, she was lost back in conversation with her friends and I once again ceased to exist. 

  When we got back to the house, the girls disappeared to take showers and get dressed in their new clothes for dinner and a night out. I walked up the stairs too, empty handed and struggling at this point to not let my disappointment show. Zach was going the stairs and smiled when he saw me.

  "Hey, Raven, how was shopping?" he asked, looking down at my hands and seeming confused that they weren't full of bags. 

  "Oh ya know, couldn't find the right fit for me," I answered, ignoring him once again getting my name wrong. 

  "Ah better luck next time," he said, patting my shoulder and giving me a wink. "See ya at dinner, Rachel?" 

  I nodded at the back of his head as he continued down the stairs and then plodded back to my room. I shut the door behind me and sat on the bed staring down at the floor between my feet. Could I handle another four days of this? 

  Before I could decide, my phone vibrated with a message from Sydney. 

  "Dinner in an hour. Wear the nicest thing you have please."

  I read the message over and over not believing my eyes. We had just left a shop full of endless amounts of fancy dresses and I'd not been permitted thirty seconds to shop for myself and now Sydney had the nerve to be passively aggressive about the quality of my clothing? 

  I rummaged through the clothes I brought which were still in my duffel because my tiny room had no closet and picked out a form fitting black dress with shoulder sleeves. I slipped into it and found a pair of sensible heels, threw on some mascara and lip gloss and made it downstairs just as Sydney and Zach were herding their friends out the door.

 "It's gonna be a wild night," Zach was assuring everyone. "There's a new club I've been dying to go to and I can confirm all of you guys will pull tonight."

  This got a rousing cheer from his group of bros in their collared shirts. sleeves rolled to the elbows and shorts looking like they coordinated outfits for family pictures. All of the girls were wearing dresses similar to mine although theirs had the distinction of being this season's while mine was tragically old. Hopefully no one at the restaurant or the bar would notice and add to my shame.

  I caught Sydney's eyes on me as I moved outside with the group. She gave me an appraising look and then a genuine smile. I smiled back instinctively and felt a little better. My good mood continued through dinner where Sydney actually made somewhat of an effort to include me in the conversation. We talked about current events, obviously whatever was hot on TikTok and how excited we all were for the club. I was starting to feel excited too and then after dinner, Sydney pulled me aside as everyone was piling into several Ubers.

 "Hey, Robin. I know clubs aren't necessarily your thing and I want to let you know that if you decided to not come with us, it wouldn't affect your pay at all."

  I stared at her for a second, my mind not comprehending. 

 "My...pay?"

  Sydney nodded. 

  "Yes. The pay I gave you to be my little helper this week. Did you forget already?" she asked with a laugh.

  "The three thousand? I thought that was just to pay my bills so I wouldn't have to work and I could hang out with you instead." 

  Sydney raised her eyebrows so high I thought they might fly up and off her forehead.

  "You...oh, you're such a jokester," she said, putting a hand on my arm and laughing harder this time.

  "You really got me for a second. Imagine me of all people needing companionship so badly that I was willing to pay someone's bills."

   "Yeah, how silly," I agree, fake laughing nervously with her but internally smacking myself for being so stupid. Had I really been naive enough to think that Sydney was paying to hang out with me like I was her favorite celebrity? 

   I got in the Uber behind her and sat silently as it carried us all to the club. All the events of the last two days made sense now. Why I was in the tiny bedroom, why Sydney let me sleep through brunch, why I wasn't shopping with the rest of them. I wasn't a friend, I was an employee. 

  At the club, I climbed out of the Uber feeling awkward and out of place. The music inside the bar was loud but the voice in my head was louder. What was I doing here? The bartender asked if I wanted anything and I absentmindedly ordered a vokda cranberry with lime. She made it and set it in front of me and I stared at it as if it held all the answers to my questions.

  "Hey, I recognize you," said a voice behind me. I turned to see a short blonde girl with glasses and a shoulder tattoo standing there. She was wearing a red dress and black heart shaped earrings. 

 "You're the girl Sydney posted on her story the other day. The poor one." 

  "That's me," I said, holding up my drink and finally taking a sip. "The poor one." 

  "And now you guys are friends and hanging out at the club," she continued. "That's awesome!"

  I looked over at Sydney who was in a VIP area with her friends, completely unaware and uncaring that I wasn't with her.

  "I would pay anything to be friends with her," the girl said, gazing dreamily at where Sydney was seated like a queen amidst all her followers. 

  "Save your money," I told the girl, chugging the rest of my drink. "This is on Sydney," I told the bartender, sliding down off the stool. 

   I took my phone out of my bag and ordered an Uber, then opened my messages to Sydney's and my conversation. 
  I'm Ubering back to the house to get my stuff and then to the train station. Going back to the city. 

I looked at the VIP area where Sydney was sitting to see if she would look at her phone. She didn't and I left the club to wait on the sidewalk for my Uber. As it pulled up, my phone vibrated. I thought it would be a message from Sydney but instead it was a Venmo payment of six hundred dollars. The tagline read "two days of work." I shook my head and put my phone away as I climbed into the back of my Uber. 

  The radio was playing some song by Lorde about people with gold teeth and Cadillacs and I thought how easy it was to be so enchanted by the lifestyle of the rich that you didn't see the person behind the money. Someone who couldn't remember your name or who shamed you for wearing a dress that was perfectly fine just because it wasn't new. I might have been jealous of Sydney before but now I was happy to be myself and content that I'd never be Royle.