The Friend by Mary Jane Clark Read Free Book Online Page B

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right, thanks for coming in,” the casting director said without looking up from
his sheet. His eyes were already scanning his list for the name of the next
actress.
    Piper forced a smile as she left the audition room.
“There goes that one,” she thought. Another commercial wasn’t going to happen.
At least not this time. The audition hadn’t gone well at all. She’d gone too
fast, stumbled, asked to start over, but had gotten flustered. Her second take
wasn’t much better than the first. Her delivery of the copy she’d been asked to
prepare had been stilted and wooden. As many auditions as she’d been on, who
knew why some of them still didn’t go well?
    Well, there would be others. Lately, getting
auditions hadn’t been the problem. Booking was. There was the enormous
competition of so many actors vying for the same part. The subjectivity involved
was also overwhelming. First, the casting director had to think you could be
right for the role. Once you made it past that gatekeeper, the director’s vision
still had to be met, and, with commercials, the advertising execs had the final
say. She couldn’t begin to count the auditions she’d gone on only to leave
deflated because she sensed she wasn’t what they had in mind.
    Why did she continue to put herself through
this?
    She had two choices. Keep planting seeds in the
hope that some would grow—or quit. When she presented herself with those
alternatives, Piper still found the answer inevitable. She had to keep going and
trust that eventually something would give.
    While she walked to the Port Authority terminal,
Piper fought to shake off her frustration. As the biting wind whipped at her
face while she crossed Forty-Second Street, tears came to her eyes. Settling
into her seat on the bus headed back to New Jersey, Piper was comforted by the
thought of her parents and the home waiting for her in suburban Hillwood. Though
she sometimes felt uncomfortable about being twenty-seven years old and living
with her mother and father, this was one of those moments when she was reminded
of how consoling it was to have people who loved and bolstered her when things
weren’t going her way. Piper felt sorry for people who didn’t have that
support.

    F inishing her shift at the supermarket, Splendor took off her smock and
went over to the grocery store’s bakery section. She selected a box of cookies
from the half-price display, paid for them and then headed to the parking lot.
She trudged across the slushy macadam, got into her salt-caked blue Toyota and
turned the key in the ignition of the old car. While she waited for the heater
to kick on, Splendor opened her package and began to munch. The cookies were
slightly stale but they still tasted good.
    She was trying to save money where she could.
Splendor knew she was going to have to budget carefully if she was to be more
like Piper Donovan. A dollar or two off here and there would add up. Whatever
the cost, she was going to find the funds to pursue her goal.
    The Best Little Hair House was on Hillwood’s main
thoroughfare. As Splendor parked out front, she noticed Pompilio’s restaurant
across the street. She shivered involuntarily as she imagined Piper striding
into both establishments, happy and self assured. Splendor wanted to be like
that.
    While she sat in the waiting area of the beauty
parlor, Splendor flipped through a few magazines, hoping to find a picture of
someone with a haircut and color like Piper’s. She found a few that were
similar, but not quite as good. Piper’s was perfect.
    “Splendor?” A young, attractive woman stood in
front of Splendor, beckoning her to enter the rear of the salon. “I’m Kym. Come
on in.”
    Splendor sat down in the styling chair and looked
in the mirror as Kym draped a giant nylon cape around her.
    “What are we doing today?” asked Kym as she ran her
fingers through Splendor’s dark, tangled locks.
    “I want to go lighter,” said Splendor. “And I want
a