Chapter 4 Surprise (2)

"Open the message," I received the response from the university, but I don't dare to open the email, Ariana, my best friend, has invited me to have coffee with chocolate cake at a bar in Paris, I only have a few minutes before heading to the next house I have to clean. "I can't do it, it would just put me in a dilemma, regardless of the answer," I say while eating a piece of chocolate cake. "You have to look and if you passed, we will find a solution Gia, opportunities like this don't come every day, you have to take it, you can't let it go," Ariana has always said that I will be the only one who can go to university, but soon I will turn twenty"two and four years after finishing high school, I haven't been able to achieve it." "It's useless," I stand up,"I have to go to work," Ariana's arm moves quickly and her hand takes mine. " You're not going to move from here until you read the stupid email." She tells me, I had never seen her so serious." I have faith in you and I'm sure you got in, so stop being a coward and open the damn email." She takes the phone from me and tries to manipulate it. " You don't know the code." I tell her and she smiles. " That's what you think." she moves her fingers quickly and then stops, I watch as her pupils dilate and then she gets up from the chair and starts shouting." You passed, you passed! Friend, you're amazing! My friend is going to the best medical school in this damn country! You're a genius!" She keeps shouting and I die of embarrassment, the café customers watch us for a moment, then continue with their own business. " Ariana, sit down, you're embarrassing me." I whisper to her and pull her arm. " You have to go, please Gia, I need a pediatrician to take care of my future children, for free." I smile, I've always wanted to be a pediatrician. " I can't right now, Ari, if I go to university, I wouldn't have time to work and I don't want, for anything in the world, anything to happen to Emmanuel." Ariana looks at me and furrows her brow, I know this is an incredible opportunity, but unfortunately, it's not the right time. " I have an idea." Actually, Ariana's ideas are incredibly crazy and out of touch with reality, so I watch her and smile sadly, I love her, but her ideas are a waste of time, besides being dangerous at times." Come work with me at the club, they're looking for a girl to clean on the midnight shift, it's the most complicated shift, but the one that pays the best and by two in the morning, you're done, they send you home in a car and you just have to be there at eight on the dot." " I look at her as if she's gone mad." " When do you think I'll study?" Ariana started working a few months ago at an exclusive club in Paris, only very rich and important people go to this place, she's a waitress and earns good tips. " Do it during these months, take advantage of the summer to save money, before you have to start classes, I assure you they'll pay you very well and then you'll figure it out." I watch her, because for the first time her idea doesn't seem so crazy to me. " I don't know, Ariana." She shows me the email and taps the phone with a finger. " This is your only chance to get out of the neighborhood, what you've always wanted and fought for Gia." She's right, but sometimes that's not enough." Come on Gia! You can do it, just like inexplicably you've been able to keep your virginity at your age and in this day and age, especially with the idiot Enzo trying to deflower you." I put my hands to my face, hoping no one heard her, because for some reason that I don't understand, being a virgin at twenty"two is not considered a source of pride." " I have to go. Thanks for the coffee and cake, it was delicious." I walk away from my friend thinking about the teenager I was, the one who shouted that she would study until she burned her eyelashes in order to become a doctor and get her mother and brother out of the neighborhood they lived in. I walk without looking back, tears sliding down my cheeks, it hurts to have the opportunity you fought so hard for right in front of you and let it slip away, it hurts to see how life throws obstacles at you with every step you take to move forward and you have to adapt to whatever comes, survive. When I was a teenager, I dreamed of traveling, studying, and working in a large hospital, buying a house with a garden for my mother, and paying for my brother's higher education. I stop in front of the impressive Haussmann"style building where the apartment I have to clean is located, I feel my soul crumbling, this was not what I planned or expected for my life; however, now I am here and I must move forward, I wipe away the tears and walk with determination." I am Gia Santos, a young woman with an immigrant mother who is still a virgin at twenty"two. A girl who never suspected that her life could change in just one night and forever."