Hiding In Humanity

[3]Rolling Down the River

Mackenzie

A week before

"- Are we out of the woods yet?Are we out of the woods yet?Are we out of the woods yet?Are we out of the woods?Are we in the clear yet-"

I rolled over, eyes still shut but searching for my stupid phone. I found it and quickly answered the call putting the device to my ear. "Yello?" I mumbled into the speaker.

"Girl! Wake up! It's like noon, and we have to hang out today!" Carmen screeched into the phone. Some days I swore she was part banshee, or siren, because girl had a pair of lungs. I didn't have any stones to throw in my glass house because the same could probably be said for me.

Though even with her loud persona I've still stuck with the girl for almost all my life. We met when my family moved into this suburban paradise. We ended up living just across the street from each other. Her family brought us muffins the first morning after the moving trucks had left, and she snuck me information about the chocolate muffins being under the blueberry.
Since then, we've been friends sneaking secrets all through the years. We became the sisters neither one of us had.

"Are you even listening!?" She bellowed again through the speaker. I quickly pulled the phone away for fear of busting a fricking eardrum!

"Hey, I'm half asleep not deaf. Just please repeat what you said without breaking my ear drum. That would be nice." I sat up and looked around my room, awaiting her reply. One. Two. Thre-

"OK, so what I was saying was since it's your sweet eighteen in a week, we should try finding you a birthday bash dress! You have to be the best dressed since it's like your party. It's totally a rule in like Girl Code 101 1/2." Us being stupid, when we went into high school, we made the Girl Code 101 1/2 to make sure we survived high school. It was pretty comical looking back at it now, and I hide the monstrosity of a book in a place no one would ever find. An empty tampon box under my sink in the very back.

I walked into my attached bathroom and flicked on the lights, temporarily blinding myself. Frickle- frack. Carmen started rambling about colors and sequins and what 'brought out my eyes'; honestly any cool colors brought out the blue. So, no big shocker on what colors I'll look at. I had just put her on speaker and set the phone on the counter when someone knocked on my door. Probably just mom, she'll walk in if she needs me.

Not two seconds later, I heard my door creak open; and there my mom appeared, popping her head in my bathroom. Her blonde curls were in a whirlwind, and she was wearing a smock with fresh paint skewed across the chest pocket. She smiled, her eyes crinkling and dimples drilling deep into both cheeks. She had a youthful face for someone her age, and, being an artist, I think it made her feel as young as she looked. She motioned her eyes to the phone where Carmen could still be heard talking about gems and earrings, and did a swiping motion across her neck. Kill the call basically.

"Hey. Hey. Carmen!" I tried getting her attention, but the girl just would not stop talking. She could carry on a conversation with a darn brick wall. "I'm hanging up now. Meet at my house in an hour, and we'll go do something. Okay bye!" I drug out the 'e' until I knew she'd heard me and just hung up.

"I'm all yours, Mamma." I said, spinning back around to look at my mom. She just stared at me as if I'd just appeared, and she held her fist to her mouth as if stopping herself from telling a secret. We never kept secrets. I started to worry something was wrong when a lone tear ran down her cheek I only feared for the worst. I started to walk to her, arms open.

But then she smiled. It was an almost painful looking smile, but a smile nonetheless. Was mom okay? She walked carefully into my arms and just held me. It reminded me of the way she held me as a child, and I melted into the embrace. My mom still stood over me by a few inches, and the only thing that would imply we were related is the shared hair and eye color and button noses. She whispered something into my hair that I couldn't quite understand. I went to ask her to repeat herself when she pushed me back, holding me about arms distance away.