The Shy Girl

Where Am I

I wake up on a soft, tan colored couch with a faint TV noise in the background. This isn't a place that I've ever been before. I didn't recognize the smell or the looks of the room.

"Maddie, just- just lay there." Brad panics, standing up from a red colored rocking chair.

"What happened?" I lift my hand to rub the top of my forehead, but instead I feel wet spots on my cheeks.

Brad gives me a disappointing looks then faces his shoes. Almost as if he's bashful to tell me something that I don't recall.

"Don't look at me like that." I mumble. I was already shaken up because I couldn't remember anything. My memory was still hasty.

"Maddie, your house, remember?"

All the memories come back and hit my brain like a rock, the moment when I found out my dad died, my house burning to nothing, my mom loosing her job and got burnt with the house.

She was right, she would find a way about paying the house off.

"I... I want to go look." I slur my words a little bit so Brad will understand me.

"No, the policemen and the firemen both told me to keep you away, as far as possible. I can't take you back there."

"Where? Where are we?" I ask.

"We're at my house."

I glance around his house and it was about as dirty as his car.

Trash everywhere, empty pizza boxes that had grease stains on them, balled up napkins scattered around, stinky shoes spread out.

"Your place is nasty." I didn't want to think about my house, so I changed the subject.

"Yeah, well, I usually don't bring people over to my place." Brad shrugs with a blush of embarrassment.

I sit up off the couch and get a better view of the messy living room that needed some Frebreze.

"Is every room messy?" I chuckle.

"Pretty much."

I was about to speak, but my phone rings, breaking the tension between the two of us.

Luckily, I always keep my phone in my pocket, so it didn't get burnt in the fire.

"Hello."

"Hey, Maddie, it's me, Aunt Michelle."

"Yes ma'am, what can I do for you?" I ask.

Aunt Michelle was my mom's sister and stayed out of everyone's lives.

When she got married, her and her husband ran off and we never saw them again.

"I'm sorry about what happened to the house and your mom." This made me more angry than I already was.

When my dad died, she didn't bother to call and apologize.

"Anyway, meet me at Walgreens tomorrow at seven o'clock."

"Why?" I ask.

"You can't stay by yourself." Aunt Michelle says, clearly smiling even though I couldn't see her.

"Where are we going?" Brad must have heard me. He perked up when I asked the question.

"Hawaii, that's where I've been."

"I can stay here, I have a life here. I can stay with a friend."

"I'm not about to argue, now you heard me, tomorrow at seven." Aunt Michelle repeats.

I don't even say bye, I hang up and stay still.

I was traumatized, my life is here, my school, Brad is here.