Bella angrily threw her phone into her bag. Éva cancelled the morning gathering, so now she had to go with Kriszti alone. However, the girl could hardly get on with her. As in Bella’s presence, Kriszti felt an irresistible urge to talk about money without stopping. She added to everything: Dude, this is no money for this. Or: Wow, dude, this is really cheap. Or perhaps: Dude it’s free of charge.
The word “dude” sounded unbearable even from someone else’s mouth. And she would have preferred to push it back to Kriszti’s where it came from.
Dude… she was shivering. Now she would listen to this for hours. If only she could excuse herself from drinking coffee together!
The four girls, Bella, Kriszti, Éva and Timi met in the gym. They all went to the same fitness trainer. Kriszti and Timi by bus, Éva in a ten-year-old Volvo, Bella in a new BMW. She was pigeonholed immediately. In the group, Bella was the rich girl, Kriszti the funny mother of three, Timi the good girl and Éva the mysterious single.
Bella simply loved beauty. It was not her fault that she herself was beautiful, too. Because of her hard features, women generally considered her cold and did not dare to approach her. The loud-mouthed Kriszti, however, had a word with everyone. If it was not for her, the four girls would not have started seeing each other outside the gym. Bella was not working, she was on unemployment benefit, although no one knew this about her, not even her boyfriend Tibor. Her cover story was that she was writing her thesis. Tibor was a kind of a businessman; he dealt in everything he could. Sometimes he went to Germany, where he collected discarded stuff on Dump Days and sold it back home. He sometimes sold fake perfumes or electronic devices that had fallen off a truck. Tibor was particularly happy that Bella was not working. So, they could give the impression that they simply did not need two salaries. In addition, he liked the fact that he could show off not only a beautiful but also an educated girlfriend to his friends. She was supposed to be studying interior design at the University of Applied Arts, but in fact, she was just pretending it. She could not find her place in the world. She would have preferred to work as a nurse, but she was afraid that in her circle of acquaintances this job would be identified only with changing bedpans. She often imagined herself in a white coat, rushing from patient to patient to help. In a way, she also liked the role that others had chosen for her, but at the same time it was a huge burden. To keep up appearances, she only wore fakes of big brands. But she had to make quarterly trips to the crowded Chinese market across the border for good quality replicas. Since she did not dare to go on a long journey alone, and Tibor could not stand such things, she had to take the bus. At those times, the crowded vehicle left at four o’clock in the morning and she arrived home late at night from the shopping trip. Her companions eagerly threw themselves among the vendors, pushing each other, lest they miss something.
However, she was more worried about the large personal loan, which she had no idea how to pay back. And then, Kriszti comes up with this “really cheap” line. She would prefer to scream in her face: Nothing’s cheap, dude!
Anxiety simply paralysed her. She would have liked to have a job, but she did not want to be in an unworthy situation. How, for example, could she be a shelf stocker when she wears the best designer clothes and drives a luxury car, and she could not do it with Tibor, either. Tibor was about to give up paying the lease fee and return the car. A friend of his offered to get him a twelve-year-old model with new plates. They have already started saying among friends that old BMWs are much better and more reliable. At each gathering, they mentioned at least once how unhappy they were with the new car, they were considering changing it to a better one.
Bella spared the girls from this. Kriszti needed the money for a school bag and braces, Timi needed it for her disabled sister, and Eva needed it for rent. Bella and Tibor lived in the property he had inherited from his grandparents, luckily for them. They would not have been able to finance rent or instalments while maintaining such a pretended standard of living. All Tibor’s money went to the lease payments. But at least he realised that he should not keep pushing it any further. Bella loved the boy because he was the survivor type. He was inventive, bold, and always open to new possibilities. However, he felt also compelled to play a role.
Bella felt more comfortable with her friends because no one wanted to pretend to be more. Kriszti was the only one who felt like she had to be someone else. It was as if she was afraid that if she admitted she didn’t have the money to go to fancy cafés every other day, she would have less. Moreover, she pretended to be doing it for Bella’s benefit. As if Bella’s favorite pastime was to throw money around while shouting, “Wow, buddy, this is cheap!”
– Did you know that the gym owner went bankrupt? – Kriszti asked with sparkling eyes and dilated nostrils.
– And are we happy about that? – Bella raised her eyebrows. – I thought we liked going there.
– We did, of course, but you see, it’s just turned out he’s not doing so well! But he is very good at showing off. The little chick he’s hanging out with is too pompous. As if it was her merit that her boyfriend is loaded – she laughed stupidly –, or not. I can imagine how devastated she must be about having to take back the brand-new Mercedes that was handed to her to the salon.
Bella was shocked. So, that means that if she got into trouble, Kriszti would also be cheering. This woman is so happy when things go wrong for someone. Especially financial things. She stared at her, puzzled.
– The owner has put quite a lot of work into this gym. If it is true that he has gone bankrupt, he will lose what he has worked for years.
– He’s deserved it – the judgment broke out of Kriszti.
– Why? – Bella could not believe her ears.
– Because he’s a stupid, pompous, rich, redneck, that’s why. Don’t tell me you can earn so much money doing a decent job that you can buy a luxury car for your girlfriend, too!
– But you know that not all luxury cars cost a fortune, right? And anyway: Why not make a lot of money doing a decent job?
– Then I would be a millionaire too. But you know what, I’d rather be broke than a freeloading bitch spending my guy’s money – presumably she knew she had gone too far, but it was already said, there was no going back.
That was all. That was all the girl had to say. If she cannot do it, no one else can. In fact. It would be best if everyone were a little worse off than her. So that’s why she was trying so hard to please Bella. She was jealous. Of her, her unemployment benefit, and her huge personal loan, for which she had to pay back almost twice as much. She should have thought. She asked for the bill and tipped more generously than usual. At most, she will not buy food for a day or two. Kriszti reached for her bag, but Bella shook her head.
– Leave it, you’re my guest. Tibor had a particularly good week.