Adult Blogger: MIKEINBRAZIL MIKE IN BRAZIL received a call from Tori. She told me that the presentation grades had been announced and we had both gotten an A+ in our presentation. She asked whether everything was all right and why I was not coming to school? I told her about my father and started crying on the phone. That evening Tori came to visit me at my place. We had a long chat and I told her about my past and all.
"Jess ¡K" She held my shoulder and looked at me in the eyes. "I understand what you are going through right now. But you know you are an adult now. You are eighteen years old! You don't have to move in with those guys. You can find a part time job and live on your own. You can move in with me if you want. We can share the rent and it would be cheaper for both of us."
I embraced her and cried on her shoulder.
Three days later I had moved in with Tori. She lived in an apartment building built on top of a shopping plaza. It was a lower middle class area inhabited mostly by Hispanics and Puerto Ricans. Almost all the shops and plazas on the ground level were owned by them. I stood on the balcony of my new home and looked down at the shops. There were a lot of stereotypes about colored people back then and as I looked down at all these people, I felt a little intimidated. It seemed like a different country altogether and I was the only "white girl" living there.
