The VIRGIN STRIPPER

59

*****Lisa Michaels *****
There are things that will always be out of our control.

And learning that is one of those things.

If life had a pause and rewind button, mine would have been long worn out. There were many things that I'd lost and wanted to take back.

My mom for instance,  she was gone too fast.

Placing the papers Vin had left on my desk back on his desk, I smiled at the receptionist and walked out of the building.

Vin was going to pay me for finishing his work since he ditched it for a date.

I took my phone out to call for a ride but it rang before I could pull up the app.

"Hey," I sang delightfully into the phone.

"Hey," Harris called back and I smiled. "I'll pick you up at eight."

"Sounds perfect. Cant wait to meet your mom," I told him.

"Be ready," he warned and I let out a chuckle. " I wont wait for you to do your mascara. "

"As if you don't like waiting for me," I teased.

"I really don't, " he affirmed and I laughed.

"But you wouldn't leave me behind," I told him and I heard him sigh.

"Fine,  I'll only wait for a couple of minutes," he conceded.

"See you in a while," I told him and hang up ordering a cab afterwards.

The rush I was in when I got home slowly vanished as I checked on Ella who had apparently stayed home since she wasn't feeling good.

"Heey?" I called gently into the room and pushed the door a little wider.

Laying sickly in the bed, she turned her head to smile at me but came up short when a sensation of pain hit her.

"We should go to the doctor's, " I stated and walked further into the room, picking an empty bottle of liquid chocolate off the floor.

"Ca-n you call mom fi-r...st?" She asked through a dry cough and I nodded reaching for my phone.

"Hello?"

"Mom?"

"Darling are you okay?" Edith's voice worried over the phone and I tried to calm my frenzied heartbeat.

A weak cough left Ella and I stared absently at the space between us. How had she become so sick in a few hours?

The doorbell rang and I left the phone beside her only to yell through the railing for the person to come in and then rushed back into the room.

"Take her to the hospital!" Aunt Edith was yelling through the phone in a frantic cry before shouting to her husband in the background and the reality hit me like a ton of bricks in the face.

I was definitely missing a piece of the puzzle.

****
Harris had been the one at the door when I shouted for the visitor to invite themself.

Now staring at the white walls as my aunt spoke frantically on the phone to the nurse to explain Ella's condition better I felt sick myself.

How did I miss it?

The signs were out in plain sight and I missed them.

The sadness in her eyes when we made future plans, the blood stains that were supposedly from her irregular monthly flows, the hostile reception at a doctor's visit suggestion....