I looked out the window and past the thick cream curtains in my small apartment. It was snowing and had been for the past three hours. I was enjoying the sight of the whitened side walk while people bustled back and forth on the ground below me. I was lucky, sitting in my baby blue easy chair, because I had the weekend off of work and school. A weekend off of responsibilities and due dates. If I was honest with myself, I could have probably stayed inside for the whole weekend reading my favorite books over again and drinking Twining's Earl Grey tea, if my best friends Brynn and Grace would let me. Apparently the only thing we had to do all weekend was 'have fun' which was supposed to be a big thing for me. I had argued and argued but it was useless. They had won in the end, and I had never been one to be stubborn.
I took a sip of my dark colored tea and glanced down at my phone to see if either of my friends had texted me. I had met them at the University of London two years ago. We were all in the same program together, getting our Bachelor's in Education and have been friends since I spilled soy sauce on them at our now favorite sushi restaurant.
Typing in my password I realized I had missed three calls from Grace, so I called her back afraid something might have happened on her way here.
The phone rang only once before she picked up. She had been waiting for me.
"Goodness, Audrey, check your phone more often," she sighed into the phone, more frantic then not.
"Sorry, what's going on? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, but Brynn is running late as usual so I'm going to her place first and then we'll be over," she was breathing heavily into the phone and I heard someone yell her name along with a car horn in the background.
"Grace, what was that? Where are you?" I was starting to get worried.
"I'm on my way to Brynn's, don't worry about it," she brushed it off quickly as she does when she's trying to keep something from me. She must've heard the quizzical expression on my face over the phone because she added, "We'll talk about it later, yeah?"
"Okay," I said. "I'll see you in a bit. Remind Brynn to bring the cupcakes."
"Done, see you later."
"Bye," I replied quickly, knowing she would hang up before I got a chance to say goodbye. What was going on?
I shrugged it off quickly but made a mental note to ask her about it later.
I turned my phone off and threw my head back onto the cushiony chair. My mother had bought me this chair for my apartment when I had first moved to London from New York. She said the blue chair had reminded her of my father and that I should have it for when I moved far away. A little piece of us, she had said quietly before leaving my newly furnished apartment for the first and last time. I hadn't seen her since.
The sigh I let out was loud as I pushed myself off of the chair and pulled my dark cardigan closer to my body. I had to get this place cleaned up before my friends arrived. If they came in and saw the place like this they would know something was up, and I was just not ready to tell them.
I grabbed the soft blue blanket off the floor and quickly walked to the open kitchen to put away the dishes from a week ago. Yuck, that's disgusting. After finishing with the kitchen, I moved on to my bedroom, picking up clothes and tossing them into the hamper. I looked over at my bed and seriously considered climbing in and cancelling the weekend all together, but I knew Grace and Brynn would throw a fit. This is going to be a weekend you will never forget, they had said, smirking at each other. I groaned at the memory of them trying to convince me to go out, how I had caved so quickly because I didn't want them to know about my mother. I didn't need their "that sucks" when I could barely handle my own "this sucks."
