She wasn’t lying when she said we were leaving early. After Nik finished yelling at me to get out of bed, she stole my pillow and strode out of my bedroom.I struggled to keep my eyes closed against the blinding sunlight. I opened one eye and looked down my tan stomach only to have the sun refelct off of my diamond belly button ring, nearly blinding me. I groaned and sat up, immediately squinted again and grabbed my throbbing head. I had a monstrous hang over and it didn’t help that I had just gone to bed four hours earlier. It was our last night before our move to San Diego and I had stayed up late in our North foothills apartment,snorting coke and drinking rum with two other young strippers. They snored on, sleeping on our couch which was an island amidst a sea of boxes.
Nik was my best friend and roomate and always a somewhat devious but beautiful blonde.I was very impressed with her. She had the boob job I so desperately wanted, the daughter I adored,lots of material items I longed for. We had met in the dressing room of “the boat” , a large vessel shaped strip club in SE Tucson called Raiders Reef. She had barrowed a barrette from me 
and sat naked on the managers desk. As he looked at her in shock, she reached over and grabbed the scissors out of their holder and cut off the white string dangling between her shapely thighs. She looked at the manager and shrugged ,said” Don’t want a tampon string hanging out of my Tbar.”I remember her saying she always made more money on her period, that guys could unconsciously react to hormones and womens fertile cycle. I had laughed ,intrigued..Later we worked together at Sunset Strip and bonded over a long drunken coke talk at a club called Wildcats on a girls night out . Since that day, we were inseperable, each of us young and hungry, each of us wanting more from life than just what we could wring out.
Two hours after we left the sleeping girls in our apartment, we turned off of I -10 and onto 8 west and my spirits were looking up . I had downed two aspirin with a pepsi and half of a joint and we were finally on 8 ! Heading through Yuma the sands turned white and I kicked a long tan leg out the window, the ragged threads of my cutoffs rambling in the wind and tickling my thighs. We counted Joshua trees and laughed about our first trip out to SOCal, that glorious vacation where we dined on the beach and got our vaginas tattooed.
The drive was only six hours, but we were bursting with anticipation. We couldn’t wait to see the apartment her stepdad had signed for as we had begged,couldn’t wait to cruise Del Mar and La Jolla and dream of living there.I wanted so bad to be a part of the awesome glamour and energy of Southern California and somewhere along the desert highway outside of Calexico I began to vibrate all over, feeling the luring land of opportunity waiting for me.I found California very sexy.Stripping in Tucson was good money but not good enough and besides, I was getting in too deep, partying too much with all of the wrong people,drowning in a viscious sea of drugs and parties and boys whose names I have forgot. I was exhausted and I wanted a change, I was tired of swimming.When we finally arrived at our luxury apartment in Mission Valley on the RiverWalk I nearly fainted with happiness.
Two pair of twin green eyes took in the sights of our new complex. The parking lot was full of Mercedes and BMW’s. There was a lobster restaurant across the street. I loved lobster. Palm trees surrounded the regal gate and security booth and beyond that bronzed bodies lay scattered around a gigantic pool, soaking up sun. The hallways were open and the courtyards filled with luxurious fountains and flower gardens. It was everything I ever wanted. There was no possible way we could afford it.I felt like I was someplace I finally belonged, this is what I had been searching for. Past the fountains I could see rows of high end fashion stores that paved the way into fashion valley.Drunk from the golden hills I was depserate for THIS. This life.I knew we could swing it, there had to be a way.