The Awakening: The Truth about Order series, Book One.(Part 1, En Garde)

"2..." (Part 2/2)

Melissa slowly opened her eyes, finally awakening from her sleep. There was no alarm going off, no loud noises. Her apartment was completely silent. Her body had just naturally decided it was time to awaken. She attempted to throw the covers off of her, but they were tangled all around her body. She kicked and threw her arms furiously to free herself and was eventually successful. The dream she had been subjected to was weird, though it was the extent of what she remembered about it. Must have been extra weird to make her toss and turn enough to get so tangled up. Slowly she sat up, but the motion caused her head to start hurting again. She braced herself in a sitting position with her arms, looking down at herself, and noticing she was still in her work clothes. She was even still wearing her thick jacket with the airport logo on the chest. Yet somehow her black work shoes were off and neatly placed under bed.

            She tried to remember exactly what happened when she had gotten back to her apartment, but it just made her head hurt more. She shook her head gently as she reached under her pillow for her phone. Pulling it out, the first thing she noticed was that it was blinking. Missed calls, obviously. Turning it on, she saw that there were four missed calls, to be more specific. The first two were from her boss, no surprise he was angry about her leaving early. She deleted the voice mail before she listened to it; she would deal with it later. The next two were Katie.

            Shit. It was her birthday. It was also four in the afternoon. Melissa instantly knew what the messages were about so she deleted them. She swung her legs off the edge of the bed and cradled her head in her hands. Her left hand was still tingling, like it was just waking up from being numbed. She looked at it, expecting to see some kind of mark, or at least swelling or any indication that she wasn’t going crazy. There was nothing, her short trimmed fingernails looked plain as ever, though maybe her veins did stick out a little more.

            There was suddenly a thunderous banging on the door that made her jump.

            “I know you’re here!” A muffled yell sounded from the other side of the apartment’s door. She recognized Katie’s voice instantly. Oh shit, she was coming for her already. Melissa sat perfectly still and held her breath, hoping Katie would go away.

            “I saw your shit car out front, I know you’re here! You come open this door right now or I’m breaking it down!”

            If it was anyone other than Katie, Melissa would have taken the statement as hyperbole. Unfortunately it wasn’t the case, so Melissa sprung up from the bed and threw her bedroom door open. She almost tripped over her small sofa as she reached the door and pulled the chain off. She yanked the door open quickly to find Katie, her most ferocious face already prepared.

            “Did you really think you’d get out of tonight?” She seethed, her eyes ran down to Melissa’s body and shot back up, “what the hell are you wearing. Did you just wake up?”

            “I’m really not feeling well, Katie. I had a long night last night.”

            Katie’s gaze didn’t soften even slightly. “You promised me, Melissa.”

            “Ugh.” Melissa sighed.

            “You don’t want to let everyone down, do you? Everyone is waiting for you.”        

            “Everyone? You mean all your friends that just want an excuse to drink?”

            Katie huffed loudly in protest, “that’s ridiculous. They want to see you, a few of them have even been texting me saying they can’t wait to see you finally come out!”

            Melissa wrinkled her nose in disbelief, “like who.”

            “Trish, Mac, Rose, Erica,” Katie started listing off the names that were completely meaningless to Melissa, “and that cute guy, Tony? Remember him?”

            “Yeah, he’s a creep.”

            Katie stomped her foot on the ground, hard enough that Melissa was surprised her high heel didn’t pierce the tile. “We’re going. It’s final.”

            “Ugh.” Melissa sighed again. “Let me get changed.” She turned around to walk back to her bedroom and Katie pushed in past her, the mood instantly lightened.

            “It’s going to be awesome! We’re getting dinner at Mickey’s first, just me, you and Rose, ‘cause I know you like her.” She was already tearing into Melissa’s closet, tossing shirts and blouses aside as she searched for something she deemed acceptable. “After dinner we’re going to head down to that bar Yule’s, you know, on 6th?”

            It was going to be a long night.