Three years ago:
I was sitting in my room playing my mother’s old guitar when my phone started ringing. Immediately I knew who it was. Amy, my best friend. I immediately answered her, not knowing why exactly she was calling.
“Hello?” I answered. Amy was my best friend for the past two years. We had met the week I moved here. She knew everything about me by know, my old friends who I hadn’t talked to for the past two years, my family problems, and everything in between.
“Sara!” she said. I could practically hear the smile on her face “the girls are coming over for a sleepover in an hour! Can you come?”
I looked over at the clock on my nightstand. It was already seven thirty, and I knew it would take at least half an hour to get to Amy’s moms house. She was usually at her dads, since he had a stable job and lived five minutes away, but her mom was back from Europe and was spending the next two weeks with her.
“I don’t know” I said unsure. My mother wasn’t the type of parent to typically pick up everything and go just because a friend invited me over.
“Just ask her” Amy insisted, and so I did. I ran down the stairs to see my mother and grandmother sitting on the couch. My grandmother was reading and my mother, watching TV.
“Mom?” I asked softly. It was the tone every child used when they wanted something badly, and I knew my mother knew the voice of by heart.
“Yes?” she asked, though I knew she knew I was going to ask something of her.
“Amy invited me for a sleepover tonight, can I go?” I asked, putting on my best puppy face, even though I knew my mother wouldn’t buy it at all. She looked over at the clocked and looked back at me.
“Its almost eight Sara” she said. “Not tonight honey”
“But mom all the girls are going!” I said softly, knowing if I whined she wouldn’t let me go at all. I just had to stay calm and maybe then she would be willing to drive me to Amy’s
“Well that’s good for them Sara” she said, turning her attention back to the television. It wasn’t fair. How come everyone else could go and I couldn’t? And it wasn’t like she needed to pick me back up tonight! She wouldn’t have to until the morning anyways. And I knew for a fact she didn't have anything planned for tonight or tomorrow, so she had no reason to not let me go. Maybe I was being stubborn, but I really wanted to go.
“Please?” I asked again, hoping she would change her mind.
"I said no" my mother said sternly. "Don't make me have to repeat myself again"
"Oh Rachel just let the poor girl go" my grandmother said smiling. She closed her book and looked up at me smiling. If there was one person who could always convince my mother anything other than what was going through her mind it was my grandma. She could do anything for me.
"If you're so relaxed about letting her go, why don't you take her, mom?"
"I would" my grandmother said "but frankly my legs don't want to move from this couch"
My mother sighed and turned the television off. Shaking her head, she turned to me.
"You have ten minutes to get your stuff together” she sighed “and you better hurry up before I change my mind Sara"
A smile grew on my face and I turned to my grandmother giving her the ‘thank you’ look. She nodded and I bolted into my bedroom, trying to pack everything into my overnight bag as fast as possible. Molly walked into my room and sat on my bed, watching as I carefully through everything into a bag.
