waiting for superman | book three

four

She's been locked up inside her apartment a hundred days

The next day, Chloe has her mom call her into school sick so she doesn't have to go. Mrs. Lukasiak has never been a great mother to Chloe. She will disappear for weeks at a time without telling anyone in advanced. Chloe will wake up one morning and find a note on the kitchen counter saying that her mom will be in Las Vegas for a week, or New York, or Orlando, or wherever it is that she feels like jetting off to with a one fifty dollar bill attached to it. 

That is why Chloe became so close with the Hylands next door. They would let her come over for dinner once she ran out of money for food and help her with laundry or cleaning dishes when she was too young to know how to or too short to reach the buttons on the machines. So Mrs. Lukasiak being the irresponsible mother she is didn't question her daughter's request to stay home that Monday.

Or that Tuesday.

Or that Wednesday.

Or that Thursday.

Mrs. Lukasiak didn't even notice that Chloe refused to leave her room unless it was to grab a bite to eat in the kitchen.

On Thursday evening, at around 5, there is a knock at Chloe's bedroom door. She looks away from the window she is staring out of and turns her attention to the door.. Knowing it is not her mother checking up on her, Chloe has a fleeting moment of hope that it is Josh. That hope vanished when a familiar black haired boy entered.

"Hey Chloe," Zach, a teammate of Josh's, says.

"Hey Zach," she replies. She has always liked Zach. They've been in the same classes for as long as she could remember and was one of the only people that noticed Chloe before she started dating Josh.

"I have your homework and classwork from all of your classes," he explains, dropping a stack of papers on her dresser.

"Thanks." She flashes him a slight smile before turning her attention back to the window that looks over to Josh's. His curtains are drawn tightly.

Zach turns to exit the bedroom but turns around and begins to talk.