Uber Stories

I moved to Los Angeles the day I turned twenty-one, I would've done it at eighteen, but my mother managed to convince me otherwise way too many times to count. She doesn't believe I can be an actress, but I know that deep down, she doesn't want me to experience failure, just like she did when she met my father. My father was going to make her a star, but he ended up given her me and running away with another girl from his "casting agency." I know people don't care for that, but I feel like it gives me an edge whenever I go to an audition. I often play "my childhood was horrible card" whenever I go to one. It hasn't worked out yet, but I'll land the role of someone with a mother like mine. I believe my story is worth telling; that's why I mention it so often.

I have an audition today, and I decided to take an Uber since the bank took my car. You have to pay for it every month. My mom never had a car when I was growing up; now I can say I did something she hasn't. The Uber guy keeps staring at me through his rearview mirror; I'm auditioning to be a 15-year-old girl in a commercial. My closet is minimal. Yeah, let's call it minimal, that is a word people in California use; I'm minimal. I put on some shorts, a pink shirt, that now that I look at it, it's too tight on my body and some black tennis shoes. I decided to go with a half updo style on my hair to make myself look younger, but I mostly feel like my mother. She used to dress up like this when I was younger; she would pick me up at school with clothes that were not made for a woman her age and flirted with my teachers. I wish I could flirt like her. She dated so many men from my small town. I only dated a loser I met at church camp one summer. He took my virginity and also my best friend.

"We're here... hello? Miss, we're here." The Uber driver keeps saying that. Where exactly is here. Is this here where I am meant to be, or where I'm trying to be? Should I be doing this?

"Miss?" The Uber driver was exasperated now; I should not have an existential crisis right now.

"So, sorry. Thank you, I'll leave a good rating and tip." I stepped out of the car and looked around at the place where I thought my audition was. It looked like an abandoned building, smelled like urine, and there was graffiti all over the almost non-existent buildings around me.

"Fuck!"