Moment of Reflection

Chapter 4

Relief was an understatement when it came to how I felt, laying in the guest room at Audrey's.

Being, what kids my age would call, the 'suck up' or 'good kid', I constantly worried about Alek driving under the influence on our way back to Audrey's. But what did surprise me was how neither one of them had asked me where I was or what I was doing tonight. But frankly, I didn't want them to know either.

Lying on the Tempurpedic Mattress, I couldn't help but think about how the night went. Overall, I was very happy. Besides the part where Alek and Audrey left me within ten minutes of being there, I had a good time.

Today was a long ass day and I was ready to finally get some sleep.

I closed my eyes, falling into a deep slumber.

***

They approached the building, her father having mixed emotions of his daughter beginning her senior year. Nevertheless, he was proud.

When they walked in, the halls were completely empty. Something that never occurred when they usually arrived to begin their day of education.

She looked one way, but when she turned in the other direction, Audrey was gone.

She tried to yell for her, but the building seemed to be silent, her voice echoing off of the walls.

She grew nervous, feeling lost. When she pulled out her schedule, the wrinkled paper was blank. She was sure it wasn't anything like that when she put it in her pocket.

Pacing down the halls, she began to remember what her schedule had read and headed towards her first class, only to find the door locked. There were students inside, but they wouldn't let her in.

Attempting to head off to her next class, the same result occurred.

Her heart began to race and she didn't know what to do. It wasn't until she heard the bell ring three times which signalled the school was going into a hard lockdown.

She didn't know where to go but she continued running to class after class, begging them to open the locked doors. She didn't know if there was a shooter or what was going on, but she knew she needed to get to safety.

Room after room, she was denied access. It wasn't until she heard footsteps in the hall that she began to panic. She had to find an open room.

She noticed a room at the end of the hall, the light was off, but she grabbed the handle, giving it a successful twis-

I gasped awake, my heart pounding. Part of me wanted to return to bed, to finish the dream, but it always seemed to have a negative effect. I took the blinding sun as a signal for me to get up anyways.

I sat up, stretching my arms and pulling the duvet off the lower half of my body. Planting my feet on the floor, I was reminded that I didn't take off my socks last night.

Padding across the room, I noticed all of my bags from the mall were right where I had left them.

I didn't know how long Audrey would be asleep, but I didn't let that stop me from preparing breakfast.

I searched through the cupboards, pulling out the necessary ingredients and equipment needed for waffles. I didn't cook that much, but from what my dad had taught me, it helped me be a good cook, almost like he was.

The only waffle and pancake recipes I used were my dad's. But while I was measuring out the dry ingredients from memory, I couldn't help but think about him.