Road Trip

Chapter 3

•kind of on a writers block atm so sorry I didn't update sooner•
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We never encountered Johanna again the entire time Christy and I remained at the Goldvale Park mall. On the bright side, I got two shirts from Forever 21. Shopping isn't my favorite thing to do, clearly because I'm not the most fashionable person, but I was getting pretty bored of the same wardrobe. After a while all my clothes look bland and boring on me, making me not want to wear them. Obviously I still do because it's clothes, but I still want to look good.

I sigh. It's not like I have anyone to impress but whatever.

I sit on the couch by the window with a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in my lap. It's 7:00 p.m. according to my phone and I am dreading going to work tomorrow. I wish I didn't have to; I'd love to sleep in the whole week like most kids my age would.

I see my phone screen light up out of my peripheral vision.

Jo: hey

I jump up and nearly spill my bowl of cereal. Where the fuck has she been. I put my bowl on the small table next to me and scramble to type a message.

Me: WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN

I stay staring anxiously at the screen, anticipating the reply. A grey bubble with three pulsating dots form.

Jo: riiiighht about that...

Me: SPILL THE TEA HONEY SPILL IT ALL.

I turn my head to the sound of knocking on the door. Kaitlyn pokes her head from behind a wall.

"You gonna get it?" She asks.

I nod and yell, "Who is it?"

A stern voice on the other side calls back, "It's the GPD open up!" Goldvale police department.

Oh fuck me.

I try to get up as quickly as possible and stumble to the door. I open it to an officer holding my mother in handcuffs. What the hell did she do now?
"Do you recognize this woman?" The officer asked.

I look at the woman he holds, with her disheveled hair, heavy eyelids, and the strong fragrance of alcohol she seems to be carrying. Oh, mother dear.

"Y-yes I do. She's my m-mom." I stutter.

The officer, Miles as his badge reads, pulls out a key to unlock the cuffs.

"I am so sorry." He leads my mom into the house and sits her down in the same spot on the couch where I was before. She rests her head back and falls asleep almost instantly. Attractive.

"Thank you for bringing her back officer, but may I ask why she was in handcuffs?" I almost didn't even want to know.

"Well, your mother-"

"Patricia." I interrupt.

"-Patricia, well, let's just say she started quite a bit of conflict at the local bar." Miles says with a bit of hesitation at the word conflict.

I bring my hand up to my face in embarrassment. "What kind of conflict?"

"Something along the lines of started a fight, breaking a few glasses, yelling out obscenities while standing on the counter, and vomiting several times around the location. She was handcuffed so she wouldn't do anything crazy."

As if she wasn't already doing crazy shit. I keep my face covered by my hand, not saying a word.

"Hey, at least the owner didn't press charges. He just requested to have her removed from the premises."

"Yeah," I nod. "Yeah I guess so. Thank you for bringing her home."

"No problem."

And with that, officer Miles left the apartment, leaving me with the clearly unstable woman sleeping on the couch.

Johanna.

I completely forgot about our conversation. I pick up my phone to see paragraph upon paragraph of detail. She really did spill all the tea.

Me: sorry mom issues

Jo: did you read the messages?!!

I scrolled up a bit to start from the very beginning. Johanna came through; she began by telling me how she was texting an old guy friend/crush that she hadn't talked to in a while. Then he mentioned how he was in the mall so they made plans to meet up, which is when she left Christy and I.

Jo: we were really enjoying each other's company so we ditched the mall to go do something more fun. Naturally we went to an arcade. I beat him so many times at air hockey and skee ball. After that we went out for food and he brought me home about half an hour ago at like 6 30ish and we were standing outside the door and HE KISSED ME OH MY GOOODDD. IM STILL FREAKING OUT.

I laugh and shake my head. Johanna Jensen, who has never been the boy obsessed, girly type, is acting like a total thirteen year old girl. She's almost a legal adult, but her childish nature is why I love her.

Me: that's great Jo but I'll have to get back to you tomorrow.
Just mom stuff

Jo: ok bye!

I glance over at my mother again. Not really feeling in the mood to carry her to bed, I decided to bring a blanket to cover her with and call it a day.

It felt like I was her mother sometimes; always having to take care of her, worrying about where she was at night. I wish she'd get her act together, for Kaitlyn's sake. I'm almost eighteen, I can handle myself, but heaven knows she can't. I worry that not having the heart to leave my sister with the woman who birthed us will prevent me from getting the hell out of here. I already have my eye on a university but it just so happens to be pretty far from humble little Goldvale. Maybe I should think about other options; I still have my senior year left of school, though it wouldn't be wise to wait so long.

I rub my temples, feeling a headache start to spread. I stress too much. Even though it isn't very late, I decide to go to bed in hopes of temporary relief from everything wrong in the world.

"Kate?" I yell from the hallway. "You gonna be okay tomorrow?"

The was a slight delay before she answered. "Yeah Liv, we do this every week I think the answer's obvious."

"Sorry, just checking geez. Night."

"You're going to bed this early?"

"Yes I am. Is there some rule that says I can't?"

"No?"

"Good, then there shouldn't be a problem." I walked into my bedroom and shut the door.

Crawling into bed when all you want to do is sleep for days is one of the best feelings in the world. Something about the sensation is very relieving, and exactly what I need. I'm telling you, my face hit my pillow and I was out like a light.