Possessed

Chapter 11: The Stayover

“Take care while we’re gone, okay? Don’t stay up too late,” as she put on her beige coat and wrapped a scarf around her neck. She pulled the small suitcase bag towards the door but turned at the last moment. “And you might invite Odette or Elaine over for a sleepover if you don’t want to be alone or feel scared,” she added.

“Mom, I’m going to be fine,” a little irritated at being treated like I was nine years old.

My parents had been invited by my Aunt Adele for the weekend. She’d wanted me to go too, but I had politely refused, using my homework as an excuse. Aunt Adele had no children of her own and was almost in her fifties. In all honesty, her place of abode, where she lived with her equally aged husband, was absolutely soporific and had nothing to offer as an entertainment to a seventeen year old such as myself.

My dad gently tugged the baggage from my mom’s hand. I walked the two of them to the car and waved them goodbye as they slid into their seats and drove away.

I strolled back towards the house, now seeming a bit unfriendly. It was almost twilight and none of the lights in the house were lit yet. The entire residence loomed up over me menacingly. I was alone in this house once again. Was it just me, or did this keep on occurring all too often since having moved into this house?

Trapped in my bedroom with barely anything to keep me occupied, I decided to call Odette up. No one picked up. I, instead, dialed Elaine’s number. She answered on the fourth ring, just as I was about to change my mind and hang up.

“Hello?” she was whispering for some reason.

“Hi,” I also felt the need to whisper back, “Why are you whispering?”

“My brother is- Aaaaahhhh-,“ I heard her yell. A clutter immediately followed and the line went silent for a few minutes. I was momentarily lost at the uproar on her side of the phone. What was going on? Bored, I picked at my nails until statistics resonated in my ear. I held the receiver away from my ear, a look of annoyance on my face.

“Hey,” Elaine’s breathless voice sounded moments after and the look vanished off my face. “Sorry to keep you waiting. My big brother was being a jerk, as usual. So, what’s up?”

I told her about my parents being away for the weekend and asked her if she wanted to come for a sleepover.

“I’d love to!” she exclaimed jubilantly. “Though I do need to ask my mom first.”

“Sure, go ask her. I’ll wait on the line.”

“Hellllooooo?” I heard an unfamiliar deep voice pick up the line. Whoa, who was this? Probably one of her brothers. I wasn’t sure; I hadn’t met any of her siblings yet.

“Umm….hello?” I repeated, uncertain of what else to say.

“This is not Elaine’s phone number. You’re actually on the hot line for picking up male hotties for a date. Now, what’s your type exactly? We have various species-“

He was cut off and I assumed, the phone was snatched from him by Elaine. A murmur of voices later, Elaine was back on.

“That was my brother, trying to be funny,” she said, disgust dripping in her voice. I laughed.

“You’re brother’s hilarious,” I answered, trying to hold myself back from erupting into a burst of giggles.

Elaine snorted. “Yeah right. Anyway, my mom said I could come over,” she brightened up.

“Okay, how about now?”

“Yeah, sure. Give me ten minutes. What about Odette? Do we call her?”

“I’ve already tried her phone, she isn’t receiving my calls.”

“Uh-huh, fine. I’ll try her cell once more.”

“You do that. Bye.”

“Bye.”

I hung up and hurried to the living room to make it suitable for guests. Well, technically they weren’t really my guests, but still. I prepared a bowl of chips, complemented with dip, and brought it to the coffee table in front of the plasma TV in our drawing room.

I was wiping my hands on a kitchen towel, when the door bell rang.

I opened the door to see Elaine and surprisingly, Odette as well, standing on my porch.

I greeted my friends delightfully and let them in, motioning towards the couch.

“What do we do?” Elaine turned to me once we’d comfortably settled down.

“Watch a movie?” I suggested.

Elaine and Odette nodded their approval, and the latter of the pair went on to say, apologetically, “Sorry my cell phone’s battery was probably dead when you called, Aries. I had a hard time attempting to figure out where the charger was.”

I shrugged off her apology dismissively. “It’s okay No big deal.”

I strode over to the DVD player and plopped in a new movie that I’d rented recently. It was titled ‘Seventeen Again’, starring Zac Efron, my favorite actor of all time. The three of us concentrated on the TV screen, our hands occasionally reaching out for the chips. Elaine was sprawled next to Odette on the big black sofa and I was on the plush floor rug, a white cushion just as soft, supporting my propped up elbow.