W*tch

Chapter 7: MIA

ZOEY

Zoey sat up in a shock. Her head was pounding, as if she had spent the night partying with Nova. Though that was not what made her head hurt. All night, she'd spent time resetting her phone over and over hoping to hear from her best friend, but there was nothing.

Last night had consisted of, first, spending time with her grandparents after getting off the phone with Nova. Her grandfather on his chair in the corner already nodding off even though it wasn't that late and her grandmother flipping through channels trying to find something family friendly while jostling her knitting supplies out of the way. If it wasn't something she would show a nine year old, then there was no way she'd show it to her 25 year old granddaughter. Once she finally landed on a random sitcom, Zoey pretended to watch although she was not a fan of their mandatory family time. It had always made her feel so young, but she'd never tell them that. If she'd try to say something, her grandmother would throw a fit which always ended with Zoey hearing that her parents would not be proud with how she was acting. 

After two hours of sitting on a puffy couch in the family room watching a show she didn't want to watch, her grandmother finally released her from her sentence. Zoey took a deep breath and hurried out of to her sanctuary before she could get caught in another hour of awkward silence. Part of Zoey wished she could move out and be the adult she so desperately wanted to be. She'd tried when she graduated with her master in Psychology, but her grandmother said she needed to stay and continue her education. It was never a discussion. It was never her choice. 

Zoey sat on her bed, staring at colorful walls, wishing that she could change her life. She never dated anyone to keep the peace at home and would pass it off as her wanting to focus on school. But to her, it all seemed so minuscule. Pulling her phone off the charger, she checked it for messages from Nova. Expecting to have message after message about how weird Hayden was. However, there was nothing of that sort. Part of Zoey worried that Nova had killed the boy for being annoying but she would've heard about it. If anything would've happened, she'd know. Her life revolved around her best friend. 

This led to hours of her convinced that her phone was broken. She was dead set that her signal was messed up and spent time in different parts of the room hoping that the signal got better. It wasn't until 3 AM when she finally crashed from exhaustion.

Which led to her current predicament. There still wasn't a single message or call from Nova. She body was tense as every scenario ran through her mind. Was her best friend okay? Those terrible thoughts were what pushed her out of her warm bed. Opening her curtains, bright light filled the room and caused her pounding head to still her for a moment.

After allowing her head to steady, she opened her closet, looking for something to wear. She wasn't the kind of person who liked stepping out of the house in sweatpants, even it was just to watch a movie at Nova's house. Taking a little time to piece together an outfit that would hide the worry she was feeling. She had an image to uphold and that meant hiding her feelings away to focus on more important things. Those things being predominantly her best friend. This wasn't about her. She finally setting on a similar sundress to the one she wore yesterday and headed to her escape. Taking very soft steps down the stairs and through the house. Each step sounding to loud and feeling her body tense in anticipation of getting caught. However, her capture never came and she was able to grab her car keys in absolute silence. 

She knew it was odd that she had to slip out of her house in the middle of the day, but that was how her grandmother operated. If that lady had her way, Zoey would never leave. There were times she was allowed to go out without sneaking, but those were typically the nights where her grandfather was with his friends playing poker and her grandmother was off at some gardening meeting which would take hours to finish.