I'm New York City

twenty nine

Lily messaged me that her, James, and a few other friends from school were going out into the city for a little get together. I've never been out with friends like that before, so I already knew that Mom would never let me go. 

Mom was currently in her room, reorganizing her closet for probably the hundredth time this week. She had gotten a more packages of clothes again today which meant she had to reorganize where everything went. Ivy was hidden away in the game room where she's been stuck on Roblox for hours now. Mom and Dad were trying to limit her time on it, but times like this, Mom didn't have the energy to stop her.

I finished getting my outfit for tonight on and sent a picture to our group chat. I was wearing mom jeans with a baby blue tube top and my white high top Converse. I just know if Dad saw me going out in this outfit, he would be furious, but he isn't here!

"lookin good sage!" Lily texted. 

I smiled and threw everything I needed in my little hand bag. I was going to be meeting the girls at the next block over from my place, so it wouldn't be a far walk alone. I quietly opened my window, getting onto my little balcony and climbed down the small ladder to the back of our building. It was already past 6 PM, so the guards wouldn't expect us going out anymore, so I didn't need to worry about them being out here. 

I felt like I could feel my heart beating out of my chest as I made my way over to the next block, just thinking about how my mom could call me any minute. I needed to stop overthinking it and just get on with my night. Once I saw my friends, I've never been so excited to see them. I felt like I haven't seen them all in ages and was finally glad that we would get to spend time together. 

"I can't believe you had to bring the kid your baby sitting, Aubrey," Lily said, looking over to the girl that looked just a couple years younger than us. I felt like I've seen her before, but didn't know exactly where from. 

"Hey, we aren't going anywhere dangerous, so I needed to bring her along. Unless y'all wanted us to stay at my place," Aubrey mumbled. 

"Sage, this is Erica, her parents are out for the night, so she's staying at my place," Aubrey said and I smiled at the girl. She kept glancing at me every now and then, so I was really curious from where I knew her from.

We first went to this really nice Italian restaurant where James got a reservation at. I was glad that I was just around the girls because no one seemed to notice any of us and it all just seemed casual. 

While we were looking at the menu, I felt my heart stop when my phone buzzed. I decided to look at it later, since the girls were all talking and catching up. When we all got our food, we started laughing at how we almost all ordered the exact same thing, spaghetti. 

"I need to use the bathroom," Erica told Aubrey. Aubrey sighed, too busy typing away on her phone. 

"Hold on, my boyfriend's being stupid," Aubrey replied. I looked over at Erica who looked like she could start crying any minute. 

"Here, I'll take you," I said, reaching my hand out to her. Erica grabbed a hold of my hand and we walked over to the bathroom. She gave me a shy smile as I led her into the stall and I told her I'd be waiting for her outside. 

"Thank you, Sage," Erica smiled. 

I nodded my head, "No problem," I smiled back.

All of us finished our dinner pretty quickly, wanting to move onto the next activity of the night. We were going to be walking around Soho to do a little shopping. It was still a touristy place, so I felt safe to be around lots of people at this time of night. At this point, I had already forgotten to check my phone from the first time and kept feeling it buzzing every now and then. Well crap.