Westwick Ball

Chapter 1: I Was That Little Kid Being Told That Vacation Was Canceled

Update: 5/1/2021 This story is currently being updated on Radish twice weekly. Links in my profile! Thank you :-)

Chapter 1: I Was That Little Kid Being Told That Vacation Was Canceled

Eight, twenty-five.

I smiled down at my phone before looking back up at the mirror in front of me and smoothing down my hair one more time. I had just finished blowing out my hair and all that was left to do was to wait for Karly to finish taking her shower.

"Perfect," I whispered to myself after one more once-over.

Class started at nine so I was going to be early once more.

I walked out of the shared room Karly and I used and scurried over to the bathroom where I could still hear the shower running... exactly like always.

"Karly, hurry!" I called while knocking on the door.

I waited for a moment until I heard her yell something from the other side of the door. I wasn't quite sure what exactly she said but I knew that it was something in between the lines of "Go without me".

"Are you sure?!" I called once more.

"Yeah! Buy me some coffee on the way there!" Karly screamed back through the sound of the running water.

"Okay!" I responded as I rolled my eyes.

I told her to go to bed early last night but she was too busy watching the newest episode of her favorite Investigation Discovery show. I didn't really know at what time she had decided to go bed. All I knew was that at some point in the middle of the night I had heard her shuffling into bed without even so much as changing into her pajamas since all I saw when I woke up in the morning was one of her jean-clad legs sticking out from under her comforter.

We had two weeks left before semester finals so I had spent the entire afternoon last night studying while thinking about how exciting Christmas was going to be this year. I had everything planned for the Holidays.

My mom and I were going to have so much fun this year.

I was sure of it.

I left the dorm Karly and I shared with our roommates: Gloria and Brandi. They were almost never there since Gloria spent her days in the library while Brandi was off doing god-knows-what with all of the people from the millions of clubs she had joined the minute she started university. They were cool the few times we actually crossed paths.

I always ended up doing the morning run to the Starbucks on campus on my own since Karly was always late... always. Whether she needed to shower, do her makeup, or quickly finish an essay she was supposed to have done days ago... she always had a way of being late. But I guess I couldn't complain, Karly balanced me out like no one else could.

I checked the time once more and once more I was doing perfect timing. Since I knew I would reach class earlier than usual I decided to waste some time by calling my mom. I usually called her at night but since I knew for a fact that Karly was not going to get to class until the last minute and I spoke to no one in English class, I had the perfect opportunity.

As I waited for my mom to answer the phone, I prepared myself for the pang of homesickness that was going to come as soon as she answered the phone. I missed her so much. Going to an out of state school had been a difficult decision on my mom and on me... we were all each other had throughout the years, after all. She had worked her ass off to make sure I was raised to be a responsible human being that would be a good adult when the time came. My father had never been in my life before and to be honest, I never felt like I missed out on a parent since my mom was just so good with everything. Well, I did have to give credit where credit was due.