Friday Night Lights.

Naomi wasn’t quite sure what to expect when she arrived in New York City. Yes, she had visited once or twice before, but those were visits . This time when she arrived—it’d be permanent. New York City was now her home. That’d take some getting used to.

Home for Naomi was a 3 bedroom bungalow on Magnolia Street, where every morning, she—and the rest of the neighborhood—would hear the loud whistle of the trains from the train track. So to call 1 5th avenue her home was quite foreign to her. She wasn’t complaining though, not one bit, she’d be crazy to. You could easily fit Naomi’s previous apartment smack dab in the middle of her new one. It was a complete dream, and only a few blocks from Broadway itself. Where Naomi needed to be—where she dreamed to be.

“Are you still in here unpackin’?” Bambi asked, appearing in Naomi’s bedroom doorframe. Bambi, or known to the government as Bianca Lyles, was now Naomi’s roommate. Naomi and Bambi were cousins, Bambi being just a few years older than Naomi—3 to be exact. Bambi had gotten the nickname like most people did, from her childhood. As a baby she had the biggest and doe-like eyes anyone in their family had ever seen. Thus, the nickname Bambi was born.

Oh she was like the sister Naomi never had. They were nearly inseparable until Bambi moved away to New York 2 years ago; they kept in contact, but not as much as before. Still, when Naomi had let it slip during one of their conversations that she wanted to move to New York, Bambi had all but ordered her to move in with her. Bambi had to constantly reassure Naomi that there was more than enough room for them both--boy, was she right.

Naomi paused her folding, a bra hanging limp from her hand. “Are you sure you’re not a drug dealer or something? This apartment is crazy.”

Bambi rolled her eyes as she crossed into Naomi’s room. “I told you I’m a bartender,” she said plopping down onto Naomi’s bed. “And a damn good one.”

“Whatever you say,” Naomi walked over to Bambi, yanking a shirt from underneath her thigh. “Keep your butt off my clothes.”

The older cousin groaned as she dropped her back flat onto the bed. “Naooomi,” she cried.

“Whaaaat?” Naomi mocked with a grin.

Bambi sat upright, a strange gleam in her brown eyes. “It’s your first day in New York,” she said. “We need to go out.”

Naomi tossed another folded shirt into her drawer as she let out a soft snort. “It’s not my first day in New York,” she retorted. “I've been here before.”

Bambi was now up on her feet. “Yes, but you didn’t have me there as your guide.” she showed off her pearly whites as she grinned.

Naomi snorted again but this time louder as she turned away from the dresser to look at her wild haired and wild scheming cousin. “Yeah? What’re you gonna show me?” she asked, crossing her arms.

“Everything.”



“Why couldn’t we have just taken your car?” Naomi questioned, her arm linked through Bambi’s.

Bambi only laughed, which caused Naomi to raise an eyebrow in curiosity as to what was so funny. “Oh sweet, sweet cousin,” she said in an almost-patronizing way as she giggled. “You’ve got so much to learn. People don’t need cars here. Even the richest cats here are ridin’ in style in taxi’s ‘n cabs.”

Naomi groaned at this. “So I have to walk everywhere?”

Bambi nodded. “Precisely.” She giggled as Naomi let out another groan. She unhooked her arm from Naomi’s to grab ahold of her hand, tugging. “C’mon, this way. I wanna show you where I work.”

Naomi was dragged down the extremely crowded sidewalk. This many people in one place was also another thing Naomi would need time to get used to. She was dragged all the way down toward the corner and then pulled around said corner where she walked 5 more blocks with Bambi.

“Do you walk all the way here each day?” Naomi asked louder than usual, the noisy bustle from the streets making it difficult for Naomi to hear her own-self speak.

“No. I usually take a cab.” Bambi responded as she turned around to grin at Naomi, who in return glared back.

Just when Naomi was certain she’d be 50 by the time they reached Bambi’s workplace, they abruptly stopped in front of a door.Bambi waggled her eyebrows at Naomi before pulling her inside. The absolute first thing Naomi noticed was the stripper pole.

Correction, stripper poles .

They were smack dab in the center of the rounded stage, which was smack dab in the middle of the place.

“You work at a strip joint?” Naomi asked after taking the whole scene in.

Bambi scoffed as she entered further into the building. “It’s a club—that just so happens to have female dancers.”

“Who take their clothes off?”

Bambi turned around quickly, her wild curls bouncing around. “I didn’t bring you here to judge, Naomi. This is where I work. This is how I make my money, ok?”

Naomi put her hands up surrendering. “I’m not judging. There’s a stripper everywhere in the world—make that money, honey.” Naomi proceeded to do a little jig.

Bambi rolled her eyes, but a smile had already appeared on her face. “C’mon, come meet the girls.”

Naomi scurried behind Bambi, following her to another door that was beside the stage. “Knock-knock, bitches!” Bambi exclaimed poking her head in the door and then opening it all the way.

Cheerful greetings came right back to Bambi as a duo of women approached them, more-so Bambi. Naomi hung in the back.

A blonde came forward and embraced Bambi in a hug, while another girl, whom looked Middle-Eastern, stood behind her. “What’re you doin’ here so early?” she asked as she released Bambi. She had an accent, Spanish.

“I could say the same for you two,” Bambi responded. She then glanced at Naomi to motion her to come forward. “Rosaline, Mina, this is my cousin Naomi.” Bambi gestured as she introduced names, the blonde, Rosaline, Mina was the other by default.

“Aye, hola Naomi.” Rosaline greeted.

Naomi readied herself to say hello back. “Rosa must you always do that when you first meet people?” Mina asked, there was a slight hint of an accent, but it wasn’t as thick as Rosaline’s. “We get it—you’re Mexicana.”

“Oy I’m Colombian you bitch.” Rosaline spat.

“Girls, girls, you’re both pretty,” Bambi interrupted with a laugh. “Before you claw each other’s eyes out, you mind tellin’ me where Heather’s been?"

Rosaline flipped her hair over her shoulder. “No idea, last time she came in here was Friday.” Today was Tuesday.

“Shit,” Bambi muttered. “Say, I’ll see you two tonight, ok?” Mina and Rosaline both nodded. Naomi guessed that this was the end of Bambi’s little show ‘n tell. Naomi retreated toward the door as Bambi hung back to give the two quick hugs.

“It was nice meeting you!” Both Rosaline and Mina exclaimed simultaneously.

“Hopefully we’ll see you around another time.” Mina said.

“Oh, I’m sure of it,” Bambi grinned. “She just moved here today. Isn’t that right, Mi-Mi?”

Naomi rolled her eyes at the nickname but nodded nonetheless. “Yeah that’s right.”

“Oh! So she speaks.” Rosaline teased, smirking. It was a friendly smirk however.

Bambi said another goodbye and the two of them exited from the room and then the club as well. Naomi was pulled in close by Bambi, her arm draped over her shoulder. “Aren’t those two the most big-hearted strippers you’ve ever met?”

Naomi snorted. “Yeah, big hearted.”



“We need to throw a party.” Bambi stated, her hands on her hips.

Naomi was in the midst moving another one of her boxes into her room. She gave a short laugh to Bambi’s statement. “We already went out today, B. I think we can hold off on,” she adjusted the box in her hands. “—I think we can hold off on parties for a hot minute.”

Naomi was pooped, exhausted, tired, anything that represented wanting to fall asleep—that’s what Naomi was. After the strip club, Bambi decided to drag Naomi to every other place she could think of. Naomi was used to being on her feet; she danced, so it was inevitable. However, New York City was humongous, and they covered so much ground today that she thought her feet might possibly fall off.

“It wouldn’t be a huge party,” Bambi argued. “Just a couple people—a house warming party.”

Naomi entered her room dumping her box on the floor with a slight grunt. “It’s only a house warming party if the place is new. It’s never not a huge party, and, I’m in my pj’s. I’m not partying tonight, Bam.”

Bambi huffed, defeated as she leaned against Naomi’s doorframe. “Fine,” she sighed, crossing her arms. “What do you wanna eat? I’m ordering take-out.”

“Chinese is always a comfort food.” Naomi said.

“Fine,” Bambi repeated, pushing off of the doorframe. “I’ll be back in 15.”

“Okey-doke.”

Bianca Nicole Lyles was a big fat liar. She was notback in 15 minutes, she didn’t even buy Chinese food. But, she did bring back 15 or so people into the apartment. They all filed in, taking their places on one of the couches, or at the kitchen’s island counter which doubled as a bar.

“Bam!” Naomi squealed jumping to her feet, rushing over to her cousin. She was in the middle of watching TV, Pretty Little Liars to be exact. She was just about to see the fate of Mona when Bambi and her crowd of people bombarded in through the door.“What are all these people doing here?!”

“Surprise?” Bambi grinned holding up two bottles of what looked like over-priced booze.

“Bam.” Naomi stated deadpan.

“Hey, I didn’t know this was a pajama party. I would’ve worn my onesie.” One of Bambi’s guests commented.

Naomi immediately tugged at her shorts to make sure they weren’t riding. “Bamb— ”

“There’s a red romper in my closet. I know you haven’t unpacked everything today, well, your cute stuff anyway. Go put that on.” Bambi interrupted.

“Bamb—”

“Unless you wanna keep wearing your nighty night clothes.”

Naomi huffed but hurried into Bambi’s room, shutting the door and quickly stripped down and dressed herself in the romper. She snatched the hair-tie from her hair and messed about with her hair so that it’d be acceptable for her to be seen. She slipped on a pair of Bambi’s tan heels—they fit perfectly. Thank God Bambi’s feet hadn’t grown over the years. Naomi blew out a slight huff, almost as if it were a preparation before stepping out again. She twirled around in one fast paced turn in front of the full sized mirror Bambi had in her room.

“Go get ‘em tiger.” she rolled her eyes and exited from Bambi’s bedroom, catching sight of Bambi's large and toothy grin.

“Naomi!”