acetone

003

When I woke up the next morning, I changed into clean clothes. Finding clothes of such sort was difficult seeing that I never did my laundry. I would have to go to the laundromat if I wanted to do such a thing and that wasn't something I enjoyed doing.

I lost socks every time.

I went into the kitchen and poured myself a bowl of cereal. Raisin Bran was all that we had, so that's what I ate. Well the plan was to eat it, until I poured sour milk all over it. I gagged and threw the carton in the garbage, and the cereal down the garbage disposal. I turned back to the refrigerator that had betrayed my trust and felt myself raise an eyebrow. There was a note that warned me of the milk, and a 5 dollar bill. The note wasn't in Corinthia's handwriting. She dotted her i's with hearts, there were no hearts to be found.

I suddenly felt very uncomfortable. My apartment was quiet. Very quiet. Too quiet. I couldn't even hear Corinth's snoring. I looked at the analog clock that hung above the kitchen sink. It was 7am. She should've still been here. Her shift didn't start until 8.

I felt like I had forgotten something but I couldn't remember what. There was a lapse in my memory that sitting on the counter and thinking couldn't fix. I climbed off of the counter and walked to Corinth's room and gripped her doorknob with uncertainty.

The door opened easily, too easily. She always kept her bedroom door locked. I slowly opened the door and prepared myself for the worst since the worst always seemed to happen when I opened the doors of bedrooms.

I stepped into her room and was greeted with light. The curtains above her bed had been drawn back, casting a spotlight on her perfectly made bed. No, they were casting a spotlight on her car keys which laid on her perfectly made bed. This wasn't right. Something was wrong.

I approached her bed, only to grasp the metal ring of her keys in my hand. Something was terribly wrong.

From what I knew about Corinth, her keys should've been hung up by her door. When she left her bedroom door open it was usually a mess of scattered sheets and crushed cans but at this moment, everything was perfectly pristine. There was no way that Corinth had done this. If she had cleaned things up, her keys would've been put away. I would've heard her.

Something was wrong. But when was it not?

I walked around my apartment, checking to see if anything else happened to be out of place. In the kitchen, there was only the note and the money, in her room there was the cleanliness and the keys, in the bathroom the shower was wet as if it was used. There was golden hair on the sink indicating that it wasn't Corinth that had been in there, it had been someone else. In the living room, blankets were folded and placed on the couch which had been pulled out into it's bed form.

I ran out of the apartment, with keys and shoes in hand. I had finally remembered. I climbed into the driver's seat of Corinth's car. It was still here. Maybe she had walked and what I believed I had remembered was not true. I hoped that it wasn't true. I sat there, pulling on my candy cane striped shoes and then put the keys in the ignition and turned it on. I hadn't driven since the funeral but it appeared that I had not choice.

I felt safer in this car, if push came to shove I could run over the person I blamed for my sister's disappearance. In all honesty I was hoping for that chance. That boy had pushed every last button I had and I was not letting him get away with it.

I placed my foot on the brake and took the car out of park. I looked into the street, no one was coming. I put my blinkers on, was I supposed to do that when I pulled out of a parking spot? In all honesty I couldn't remember. I put the car in reverse and inched back as far as I could without hitting the fender of the car behind me. I put my foot on the brake and checked the road again. A red car passed, the car behind it slowed. I took this opportunity to turn into the street.

I was on the road.

Oh god.

Why the hell did I do this?

This was a bad idea. A really bad idea.

I took deep breath and placed my foot on the gas. I could tell that driving 10 miles an hour was pissing off the kind person that let me out of my spot. I knew what I was doing. It had just been a while. I was going to be fine. Everything was going to fine.

I drove.

Sure I was always exactly at the speed limit, annoying more confident drivers but I was still in one piece while I pulled in the parking lot at the back of the Starbucks so I was okay. I pulled into a parking space and put the car into park as soon as I could.

As soon as I had freed myself from the death trap on wheels, I ran into the the Starbucks. I ran to the counter and a curly haired beauty smiled down at me. "Good morning Coraline! What can I get you?"

"My sister." I replied. She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Corinthia called out sick last night. Isn't she with you?" I shook my head and stared at her.

"She left last night, and never came back." She continued smiling. "And I think Romeo had something to do with it." Her smiled disappeared, as I continued and she fiddled with her hands.

"Um I'm sorry Cora, but I don't know how to help you..." I flinched. That was not what I wanted to hear.

"Alright, I'll just come back by at closing to see if Corinth comes back."

"Alright, I'll be waiting." Her smile was real and her voice was somber "Everything will be okay, I promise" She reached out and placed her hand on mine. She had succeeded in being reassuring. I took a deep breath and ran my fingers through my greasy locks. I had about 100,00 hair follicles and as it turned out, each one of them desperately needed to be washed.  

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Author's Note:

I might go back and add more hints to this? But I could also make the next chapter about realization and remembrance so maybe not??? We'll see I guess.

3/26/2017:

After months of staring and being angry, I rewrote the ending of this in a way that satisfied me. So please disregard whatever I originally wrote because it was bad buddies