She Got Lost

- 25 -

"Mom!" I yelled.

It was 3:26 in the morning and I had just thrown up for the fifth time that night. I had the flu. I didn't know the flu sucked this back until I got it.

My mom quickly ran into my room. She ran over to the side of the bed and held my hair back. I continued to throw up as she rubbed my back, whispering that everything was going to be okay.

After a few minutes, I had calmed down. She helped me up and get to the bathroom to brush my teeth. She ran downstairs to get me more water and some more crackers.

I was laying there staring at the ceiling when she walked back in. She had gotten a cool wash cloth and put it on my forehead. "How does that feel, sweetheart?" She asked.

"Feels amazing." I said.

"Good." She sneezed my hand and started to walk towards the door.

"Mom?" I called out. She quickly turned around. "Will you stay with me?" I asked. She stood there for a moment then nodded her head.

This event happened two months after my dad passed. Me and my mom having very different ways of dealing with it. She would let me people in, and I would shut more people out.

We walked over to the other side of the bed and got in. She wrapped her arm around my shoulder and pulled me in to her. She kissed my forehead. "You'll always be there for me, right mom?" I asked.

"Always and forever, sweet girl."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Mom?" I asked.

"Hello? Yes Sweetie, what's wrong?" She asked on the other end of the phone worried.

"Eh I don't want to make you get in trouble or anything I just really ne-" I started to say but she interrupted me. Well, not really meaning to.

On the other end of the phone I hear her say, "I have to go something's happened." I heard her good friend Shelly yell out an okay and something else.

"What's wrong?" She asked, now talking back to me.

"It's hard to explain can you just meet me at the house?" I asked her.

"I'll be there in five, love you."

"I love you too ma."

"Is she coming?" Caroline asked from the back seat. I nodded my head yes. "We shouldn't have listened to Brandon." She says, "We should've went straight to the police."

"While we are now." Lia said. "Are you okay, Gen?" She asked. She hasn't called me that since freshman year. I knew she was worried and that worried me even more. I nodded my head yes, but she gave me the look back like she knew I was lying but understood.

"That creep was following us." Caroline said at loud. How she said it though, made me think she wasn't talking to us, but she was letting herself hear it.

"We'll get to Gen's house and talk to her mom." Lia said the plan again. I nodded. I knew it. We needed to tell my mom about what was going on.

There was a part of me that was worried to tell her because I didn't want her to worry. I didn't want to make her miss work and get in trouble. I knew my mom, though, and she would want me to call her.

"Are we going to tell the boys?" Caroline asked.

"We will." Lia said.

"Let's not worry them right now." I say, "They are at that big dinner and everything and I don't wan-"