The Hostages (ON HOLD)

Chapter Three

Waking up to the sound of that annoying ass ringtone; I roll over and snatch my phone off the charger, and hit the answer button without even glancing at the name.

"Hello?", I said with a raspy voice.

"About fucking time! I've done called you about a million times. Why haven't you been answering?", Connor said with an aggravating tone.

"I was asleep! I took a nap and I'm just now waking up. What is it?", I said while looking at the time on my phone.

"Christina Winston said she had some sort of bone to pick with you. She mentioned something about Eric?", he said.

"That bitch always has something to do with me. Is she still jealous that Eric likes me more than he likes her? She should stop spreading her legs to every football player that comes at her then maybe she could have a chance with Eric. Besides, I don't even like Eric like that. We are just friends with benefits! She needs to take a chill pill.", I said as I was rolling my eyes.

"Damn! You just went the fuck off on her! I can already tell this school year will be hectic as fuck!", he said.

"You just got my blood pressure so high right now. I got that bitch when I see her. I'm so sick of her talking shit about me. She's been talking shit about me since freshman year. Do you have her number?", I said.

"Yeah. Hold on real quick. It is 234-555-0099.", he said.

"Thanks boo! See you later at open house.", I said as I hung up the phone.

She will be at the open house tonight, so I will see that bitch there. No reason to waste my unlimited calling on a basic bitch like her. Throwing the covers off of me, I walk into the bathroom and put toothpaste on my toothbrush, and start brushing my teeth. Mom always told me dental hygeine is second to body hygeine. I turn on the shower and take off all of my clothes and slide in the shower through my dolphin shower curtain.

I sit down and let the hot water roll through my hair and down my back as I think about my life after high school. What I want to do with my life is the biggest question? Everyone already has their life planned out and I'm not even sure what I want to do with mine. Hell, I can barely even decide on what I want to wear to sleep. How am I supposed to decide on what I want to do for the rest of my life? My mom knew when she was fourteen that she wanted to be a nurse and Devon knew he wanted to be an accountant. Stressing over this will literally be the death of me!

I pour some of my body wash onto my rag and start scrubbing my body as the stress weighs down on me. Rinsing off, I jump out of the shower and throw on a towel, and run to window. Throwing the window up, I take a deep breathe of the fresh air because I felt a major anxiety attack coming on. Shutting the window, I hear my mothers alarm going off. She has one of those rooster alarms and she said it reminds her of her childhood when she stayed on her grandparents farm in Georgia.

My mom is a complete bitch in the morning before she has her morning coffee, so I avoid her at all cost until she has coffee in her system. Thirty minutes later, I walk downstairs to greet her before she leaves for work. I always giggle when I see my mom in her work scrubs. She looks like a smurf because she loves dark blue scrubs for some reason. I swear she has like thirty of them in her closet.

"Good morning!", I shouted as I gave her a light smile. "Did you sleep well?"

"Good morning baby. I did sleep somewhat well. I keep having the reoccurring dream but it's probably nothing.", she said as she sipped on her coffee.

"What time will you be off of work tonight? Will you make it to open house?", I asked.

"I'll be home a little late but I promise I will be at the open house. Here is twenty dollars if you decide to go anywhere today. I love you so much!", she said as she brought me into one of her tight hugs.

"I love you too! Drive safe!", I shouted as I watched her walking to her car.

Running upstairs to my bedroom, I throw myself on the bed and called Connor. Of course, he didn't answer and he knows I hate leaving voicemails.

"Connor, get your ass to my place now! Let's go to the mall and get something nice.", I said before hanging the phone up.

Scanning the items in my closet, I decided to go casual today. After getting dressed, I walk over to the mirror and just stare at myself. Pointing out all my imperfections that I have and wondering why I couldn't have been born without them. Shaking my head, I turn to my pile of bags on the floor. Rummaging through the bags, I finally find the biggest bag I have, and throw in some of my things in there.

Laying in my bed, I hear a knock at the door. I grab my things and rush downstairs and peep through the curtain to see Connor and Rex standing outside. Rex is Connor's other best friend. Connor introduced us in freshman year and we didn't start off good but we finally worked out all of our differences. He's one of those geeky-popular type of kids. Rex is tall with a tan complexion and has messy jet-black hair. He is very picky about everything from his clothes, how his hair looks, and who he associates with.

I open the door and we all greet each other, and walk to Connor's car. Rex always puts me in the backseat because he knows I hate it.

"Fuck you!", I shouted.

"Don't hate babygirl. You know I sit in the front.", Rex said as he gives me the side eye.

"Please don't start arguing today!", Connor said.

"Let's just go to the mall and get our stuff and leave.", I said.

Rex turns up the radio to drown me out. He always pushes my buttons when we are together. I punched him in his shoulder with all my strength but it didn't really phase him.

"You hit like a girl.", he said as he flicked me off.

I rolled my eyes and turned to look out of the window. Checking my phone, I see that I never texted Olivia back so I shoot her a quick text saying that I want her to come hang out with me on my birthday.

"What mall are we going too?", Connor asked.

"The one on Webster Blv. I hate going to the other one with the parking levels.", I said.

Rex and Connor laughed at me. They think I'm stupid for being afraid of the parking levels but I always brush them off. We finally pull into the crowded parking lot without much luck of finding an empty parking space. Finally, after ten minutes of circling the parking lot; we see a car backing out and we waited for them to leave.

We walk into the mall and head for our favorite store. Once we reach our favorite store, we walk in and act casual. Connor and Rex goes to their side of the store and I head for mine. After finding about three cute tops, two shorts, and a dress. I slip them into my bag, and walk over to Connor and Rex. They start putting their items in my bag and then we hear an employee running up to us. We start running for the exit but another employee jumped out in front of us. They took my bag and seen all the merchandise that we just stole, and they escort us into the back room. We hear them talking to the police and all I could think about was how my mom was going to react.

When the police finally arrived, they started to question us on why we decided to shoplift. I told them because I liked their clothes and just wanted some. I have no clue on what Connor and Rex said because they separated us. We all seen each when they put us in the back of the police car. We all shook our heads in disbelief but I guess that's what we deserve. The drive to the station was nerve-racking to say the least. I had so many emotions going through me at once. I was mainly scared as to how my mom would react when I called her from the station to tell her I got arrested for shoplifting.

We pulled up to the station and the officer in the passanger seat opens my door and drags me out. They put me into booking and start taking my fingerprints along with my mugshot. After everything was over, they said I could make my one phone call. I had no choice but to call my mom and I was not ready for what she was about to say.

**A/N: Publishing early since I didn't publish last week. What are your thoughts about Erica shoplifting? What do you think her mom will say? Don't forget to vote if you enjoyed this chapter.**