Birthmarked

6-What a Girl Wants

I kicked off my boots and traded my jeans for a pair of sweats. I walked down stairs and cleaned the kitchen. Twice. When the counter tops were spotless and the floors were clean enough to eat off of, I moved on to the rest of the house. When there was nothing else left to clean, I went back upstairs to peruse through my diminishing cd collection.

    I gave up quickly; my cd collection sucked. I stood and headed to Missy’s room. She had to have better music than I did. I was sadly disappointed.

    I headed towards Derek’s room. He was my last hope. Ha ha, I knew he wouldn’t let me down. I found a Shinedown cd and hurried back to my room, placing it in my stereo. I sang along to the Sound of Madness, one of my favorite songs from this band.

    Slowly, my singing got louder and soon, I found myself dancing around the room, singing at the top of my lungs. When the song ended—and my lungs couldn’t take anymore—I fell backwards on my bed and stared up at the ceiling.

    I lifted my hand and stared at my palm. The numbers were slightly distorted. I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed the numbers before pressing call. It went straight to voice mail. I left a short message before hanging up and placing the phone back into my pocket.

    I sighed. I looked over at my alarm clock and realized that Missy and Derek would be home soon. They wouldn’t be surprised to find me home. I always beat them here.

    Becoming bored again, I headed downstairs and pulled out all the supplies to make a deluxe ham and turkey sandwich. I poured a glass of coke and plopped down in front of the TV. I turned on the DVD player and let whatever movie that was already in play. To my surprise, The Notebook began to play.

    I was a little disappointed in Kristi’s taste of romance movies, but by the time Missy and Derek came through the door, I was completely engrossed in it.

    “Ugh,” Derek groaned, entering the room and plopping down beside me. “I see mom’s idea of a good movie has rubbed off on you.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not so bad when you actually watch it.”

    The scene where Ryan Gosling and Rachel Adams share their first night together began and Derek covered his eyes. “Oh, gross, Penny, I thought you were above all this,” he teased.

    “Hardy har har, Derek, like you’ve never done the same.”

“And if I have, I wouldn’t be letting you in on it.” He took the remote from my hand and changed it back to satellite.

    I smacked him in the ribs. “I was watching that!” I reached for the remote but he pulled away, making me fall into his lap. I blushed furiously and sat up quickly. He laughed triumphantly. “Derek one. Penny zero.”

    “This isn’t over,” I said, narrowing my eyes. My phone in my pants began to vibrate and I jumped up, pulling the phone from my pocket hurriedly and heading upstairs, taking them two at a time. I closed my door behind me before answering.

“Hello?” I said into the receiver. I tried to slow my breathing so he couldn’t tell I had been running.

“Hey, Penny, right? I’m glad you called. I wanted to make sure I gave you my number instead of the other way around. I was a little afraid you’d give me a phony number.”

    I laughed out loud. Edon didn’t seem like the type to be worried about receiving a phony number. I said this out loud.

    He chuckled. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about me yet. Hey, there’s this place called Lloyd’s House of Music. You want to check it out some time?”