Chasing Lights

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Kendra's POV 

I bury my face in the soft cushion, letting it sink slowly while my eyelids are gradually starting to become heavy. Just when I’m about to decide to shut my eyes for the rest of my life, a buzzing vibration startles me. I groan in frustration as I realize it’s coming from my phone. I pull it out of my pocket and almost press “ignore call” but then I notice the name flashing across the screen.

Mom.

If I pick it up now and tell her the truth, she is definitely going to be ballistic and scream her head off and at the moment I’m not in the mood to buy a hearing aid. But if I ignore her and tell her tomorrow, I may have to sit in a wheel chair for as long as I live. I can never win.

Hell, I may as well pick it up instead of contemplating whether I should pick it up or not.

I press “answer” and hope for the best but expect the worst.

“Hey sweetie, I haven’t heard from you all day! How did it go?”

I pause for a moment, searching for the right words on how to explain I completely blew it off. What am I supposed to say? “Oh it went fine mom, I just pulled a pussy move and ran out of the building, no biggie.” Yeah that will definitely not turn out well.

“Umm, what?” I decide to play dumb.

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your audition today!”

“Oh yeah…. About that…I…kindascreweditup”

“What was that?”

I close my eyes and huff, “Look mom. I failed the audition. It’s over. The end. Die ende. El fin.”

“Honey I think you should calm down, you don’t even know the results-“

“No mom! I was so nervous that my hands started sweating and they slipped off the keys so I hit the wrong notes, then for some reason I just ran out of the building! I know that was stupid okay, I was just….”

I stop in the middle of my rant to take a deep breath and wait for her outburst, and to curse at me, but all I hear is

Beep.

She hangs up on me. Of course.

I can’t help but to smash my phone against the cold tiles, secretly hoping it would shatter in a million pieces, though it doesn’t. 

Why am I even disappointed of her reaction? I know she only listens to what she wants to hear, not the actual facts.

I can take yelling. I can take derogatory words. But this? The fact that she doesn’t even want to face reality? Forget it, I’m done with her.

I pick my phone off the floor to check if I’ve received any new messages from Bri or anyone else, but I don’t bother as soon as I see the distorted colours appearing on the screen. Well done Kendra, you truly smashed it. There’s nothing else I can do except collapse on my bed as fatigue takes over me.

~

“Kendra, your parents are here,” I feel someone pulling my blanket away, “you need to wake up.”

Still closing my eyes, my hands wander around my bed looking for anything to cover up my freezing body.

“Leave me alone Beth, please.” I yawn, “I didn’t get enough sleep and I’d appreciate-“

“There’s no time for that right now! Your parents are in the living room at this exact moment dammit-“

Out of the blue, I feel a wave of cold liquid hitting my face. “I’m up alright! That was completely uncalled for, Beth.” I manage to choke out the words.