A New Meaning to the Night

Chapter Two: Disrupted Plans

A/N: I want to thank everyone for reading. Please know, I have completed this entire book, so there will not be any delay in updates. Due to a very full life of work and children, at this time, my updates will be twice a week; Sundays and Thursdays. Comments are encouraged to help me improve. If you enjoy my work, please consider voting.

The phone call woke her up before she would've liked. Blinking blearily at the sunlight shining in through the window, she threw the covers off and sat sleepily up on the couch. Picking up her cell phone, she noted the three missed calls from her mother displayed on the screen. Setting the phone down, she got to her feet, intending to make her way to her bedroom. Before she'd made it more than a step, the phone began to ring again. Sam turned with a sigh and picked it up. "Hello?"

"Sammy, there you are," Kaitlyn said on the other end of the line, relief fresh in her voice. "I've been calling all morning. Where have you been?"

"I didn't hear it go off," Sam replied, uninterested in offering much more of an explanation than that.

"Where were you last night? I got worried when you didn't answer my call or call me back. I spoke to your grandmother and—"

Annoyance surged to the forefront. "I can take care of myself, but I appreciate the concern."

"Samantha," Kaitlyn spoke sharply, "I'm not concerned with your ability to take care of yourself, I'm telling you—"

Sam cut her off with a scathing laugh, "I don't think you have the right to tell me anything. I would suggest that you don't waste your breath. There's no need to complicate your life worrying about it." Her thoughts wandered to the night before with a new sense of unease, but she wore an emotionless mask and kept her voice level and careless. Those were abilities she'd perfected at an early age. "I'll tell Grandma you called."

Kaitlyn's voice was abnormally commanding in response to her daughter's reply. "You will listen to me, Samantha. I have your best interests at heart and I'm trying to keep you safe. I'm taking the next flight out to come see you."

Though it was concern that her mother showed for her, Sam remained as cold as before. "I won't wait up. If you wanted to rule my life, you should've tried harder to be a part of it."

"Don't you—" Sam ended the call before Kaitlyn could get the next word out and set her phone aside.

Rebecca stepped into the room, a dishtowel in hand, and raised a brow. "She's concerned about you, Samantha. You should cut your mother a little bit more slack. Don't think I didn't hear the way you talked to her. I raised you better than that."

"You raised me," she snapped back, running an aggravated hand through her hair. "She's had plenty of time before now that she could have tried to change the outcome, and here I am, being raised by my grandmother. She doesn't get the benefit of the doubt, she doesn't get understanding. When has she ever given them to me?"

At the age of eighteen, with graduation a week away, Sam couldn't wait to get out of her hometown. She loved her grandma and she loved her best friend, Cori. She didn't know how she would've gotten through life without either of them. Still, she hated it here. The entire town was a constant reminder of the mother who'd wanted nothing to do with her. Sam had a way with people when she wanted to; charming them with a simple ease. Her circle was small because that was how she preferred it. There was no part of her life that she wanted to share with other people. Nothing she wanted them to know or hear. The fewer connections she had, the easier it would be to leave.