Chapter I
Some things are not easy to forget. I know that extremely
well. Sure, you can forgive someone else for what they have done to you, and
how they have treated you in the past, but there still is the pain that lingers
long after you attempt to bring closure. Cassie had a feeling she would never
be able to truly forget what her friend and lover, Mark Cohan, had done to hurt
her. She was so glad that she never got married to the dude, the more that she
thought about it. Mark Cohan was a prominent pimp, and he was known for being
the guy to go to on
the tough streets of New York
City. Of course, there were other rough
men and guys out in the streets of New York City, but Mark was the one that
everyone looked up to. Mark made them like him just by the way that he
presented himself. There were millions of girls who would’ve killed for the
chance to be with Mark—literally. Not that it mattered a lot to Cassie. Cassie
was a simple girl, born and raised in New York City. She had never really been
one of the roughest girls or most prominent girls of the street, but she had
secrets and an attraction that all of her down that simply could not be denied by
anyone. All the people who were around Cassie agreed on this point.
Sometimes, Cassie wished for a lower status in the streets
of New York City. For many years, Cassie had kept away from men for that very
reason—they demanded so much of her that it made her crazy, and seldom was it
worth it in her eyes to be with someone who just made her status bigger. There
had been a time in Cassie’s life when giving some of her power up to a guy,
which she had done with Mark. As long as it was her choice, she did not mind at
all. She felt misunderstood by many of the guys. Cassie had accepted that she
was going to be watched after she chose not to be a snob like some of the
people around her were, but now that everyone was growing up, people were
continually coming back and seeing her real worth. That made her laugh, as she
had acquired some great people around her that loved her for who she was, and
that truly cared, compared to the friendships that they had made for themselves
most likely. Mark had been one of those friends to her, but he had also
betrayed her. By lying, Mark had gotten her to have sex with him, and Cassie
was understandably furious about it. Why not just tell the truth?? Was she not worth
that much?? Cassie snorted in derision. Perhaps not. After all, she was merely
a girl, a simple object to many men and boys that could easily be manipulated.
She had thought that he was different, that he would never lie to her. She put
him on a pedestal that he never deserved to be on in the very first place. Now she could hit herself. How could she have
been so stupid? She was clearly another option, just for when he got bored. She
was pushed and pulled in every direction, wanting so badly to be able to
forgive and forget, but alas she could not.
The circumstances would truly never allow for it. Otherwise,
she would be a total fool. And Carrie was anything but a fool. She wasn’t about
to let others make a fool of her either. She was a strong, independent woman
who had the Irish spirit of the O’Connor’s in her. She took a lot of pride in
that, and of how far her family had come.
Cassie sat on a brown sofa by a window inside her apartment,
where she was living by herself at the moment. The walls around her were plain,
a basic white color painted on them. Cassie had a sofa by her small bedroom,
and had a small kitchen for cooking. The place was not much, but it was
something, and she was proud of every last thing that she had because she
worked for all that she had, including all of the cooking utensils, pots, and pans
that were needed in the kitchen. Cassie sighed aloud, and stared out of the
window, watching cars go by her small apartment complex in the city. She did
not have a lot of time to waste before she had to get to her movie shoot.
Cassie had recently acquired a job playing the role of Titania in Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer’s Night Dream. The Warner
Brothers © were attempting to use this classic play in order to get their big
comeback. The Warner Brothers © had not had very many successful movies out
lately, and they were hoping that doing a modern version of the Shakespearean
play would help them to make more money making their movies. Roger Collins, the
director, was one of Cassie O’Connor’s friends from way back. As way back,
actually, as high school. Inheriting The Warner Brothers Studio ©, Roger
Collins had taken it upon himself to create movies for the studio for as cheap
as possible.
Of course, that meant that Roger had to do the directing for
the studio’s movies. He seemed comfortable doing this, and had done this for as
long as he had full control of the studio, up to the present day. The studio was
doing well under Roger, but had lately put out a movie, Kissed In Seattle, that had not done as well as had been hoped. Cassie
had been a shoe-in for the leading part, as she was experienced in acting in
Shakespearean plays. It also did not hurt a bit that she was small and petite,
with pretty blue eyes. For all it was worth, Cassie could have been a fairy and
not realized the fact. Cassie had a lot of competition during the tryouts,
however, each person also appearing to be appropriate and good for the role of
Titania, but luckily, since Roger knew her personally, he had been inclined to
pick her for the part. As a struggling actress, Cassie was glad that she had
this aspect to her advantage. It was sorely needed. The bills for her house
needed to be paid soon, and Cassie had been out of work for a while. She had
taken up odd jobs just to make sure that she could make ends meet. Not that
this was desired, but it had to be done. You would not hear any complaints
about it. However, it did depress Cassie that she had to work so very hard and
for so very little pay while looking for another acting gig. Jobs were almost
impossible to come by in the economy anyways.
Cassie had always dreamed of being on the stage and
performing for other people, but she also found her dream one among thousands
and even millions of other people who had the same dream that she did. This
gave her a lot of competition, sometimes exceptionally fierce. Getting any
advantage on the rest of the competition was not an easy thing to do, but it
was what kept careers from failing or succeeding. Cassie took a look at the old
wooden clock that was up on one of the walls of the apartment’s house and her
eyes widened quickly as she realized that she would be late for work if she did
not get in her car and head to work soon. The car that she had currently was an
ancient, ruby red color. It functioned, but only to the point where it got her
to one point to another. Right now, that was enough. Money was tight, to the
point where purchasing a grander, better functioning car would be phenomenally
expensive. Cassie snapped quickly to attention, and walked outside to her
parked car. She got inside and put her keys into the ignition and started to
drive. The weather was great outside,
not too hot and not too cold-one of those rare and precious days that did not
come around all of the time. The clouds were not gray or stormy looking at all.
Unfortunately, the oncoming traffic was a different story. New York City
traffic was always a hubbub. However, the amount of traffic that was currently
on the road was massive. Too massive, truly, for Cassie’s actual predilection. At
this rate, she lamented to herself, I will be too late for my job! Cassie had
only so many days off and days that she could be delayed or else she risked
losing it. Taking a deep breath, she attempted to calm herself down a little.
Fortunately, Cassie was able to. It would have been a bad situation otherwise,
as time was ticking by at a lightening pace. Oh well, Cassie thought candidly
to herself, I’ll have to use one of my sick days or one of my days that I can
be late…
The thought
repulsed Cassie to no small degree, but as she sat through the next grueling
hours of waiting for all of the other cars to get to where they also wanted to
go, it became a firm reality that she had no other choice but to accept.
Without her encouragement, the situation would have to simply be embraced. It
was happening, whether or not she cared for the situation to be occurring
momentarily. Cassie felt queasy to her stomach. She was not sure that she would
be able to accept peacefully in her subconscious that she was going to be tardy
for work. She wished with all of her might internally that she could, but it
just was not going to happen. Simple as that. The inner strength that Cassie
had was just not strong enough for it. Call it a bad habit, but there were
definite reasons for her train of logic. Even if, as she admitted to herself,
the logic itself was cooky.
(c) Kelsey Harris
No comments:
Post a Comment