Famous Last Words - Lyn-G

Chapter 7: Tomorrow's Money

The sound of my phone ringing wakes me up. I jolt awake from sleep and reach into my pocket for my phone. My hand tightly curled around the phone, I fish it out of my pocket and look at the caller ID. 'Main Bitch' it reads. Once, when we were drunk, Jimmy got his hands on my phone, and changed his name to Main Bitch instead of just Jimmy. Now every time he calls or texts me, Main Bitch flashes on the screen.

With numb hands, I answer the call and press the phone to my ear.

"Hello?" I mumble into the phone sleepily. My voice sounds tired.

"Lyn? Where the fuck are you at?" Jimmy screams into the phone. I blink. What does he mean where am I? I'm at home in my bed, in last night's clothes, smelling like cigarettes and misery, obviously.

"What do you mean?" I ask Jimmy and rub my eyes. As I pull my hand back from my eye, I see it's dyed black with the remains of mascara and eyeliner.

"What do you mean, what do you mean? It's fucking ten o'clock and you're supposed to be at school with your friends! Lyn, what are you doing?" Jimmy yells. His words shake me wide awake. Ten o'clock?

"Fuck! Shit, I was sleeping! Why didn't you call me earlier, I ordered a wakeup call! Jesus, Jimms, I'll be there in twenty minutes," I holler into the phone as I scramble up. With the phone still on my ear, I run to the bathroom and dig out a makeup wipe from one of the cabinets above the sink. I begin scrubbing my eyes rapidly in an attempt to get rid of some of the eye makeup.

"Good. We'll tell your teachers you had a family emergency. Hurry the fuck up," Jimmy says and ends the call. I throw my phone somewhere and continue scrubbing my eyes. Four makeup wipes and five minutes later, my eyes are clear of makeup.

Once I've taken care of my hair and am wearing some red lipstick and a dash of mascara, I all but stumble into my room and throw on a leather jacket. Sometimes it's okay to wear the same clothes two days in a row, right?

Stuffing my feet into Converse, I gallop downstairs and come across my mother who is sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and reading the paper. Surprisingly, she is wearing work clothes, a black blouse and her light brown khakis. Her hair is up in some fancy new up-do and she has on a full face of makeup. Not drunk makeup, real makeup that took time and effort. As I stumble into the kitchen, she looks at me and scrunches her brow.

"Lindsey? I thought you were at school, it's already 10 o'clock," she says and checks her watch. I notice the watch is new, gold plated, completed with some fancy engravings.

"I slept in. Thanks for waking me up," I say sarcastically. My mother sighs and closes the paper she was reading.

"Lindsey, I'm really sorry. About everything. I was hoping we could talk..." she suggests and looks at me wearily. I shoot her a glance as I grab a banana from the kitchen counter.

"I'm late," I mutter as I tie my shoelaces. My mother gets up from her chair and walks over to me. She leans against the refrigerator door and watches me grab my school bag.

"Honey, I'm going to work today. I've decided to change, for both of us," Mom announces. I look up at her and clap slowly, the way you would when someone announces they can recite the alphabet.

"Change doesn't happen overnight," I note and with that, run to the door. My mother is calling after me, asking me to tell her what I mean, asking for a goodbye hug. I ignore her and run outside. My car, crappy and old, is sitting outside in front of the house, looking older than my mother last night. I unlock the car and climb into the driver's seat. Once I'm all buckled up and ready to go, I shove the car keys into the ignition and drive away to school.