Only One Cup of Coffee

Chapter 7

Walking home is a miserable time to dwell on your deepest thoughts is what I believed.

The sky appeared to be a blue-gray that fateful day as I trudged on the wet path with Laila's ex-boots. I scrambled up the driveway as soon as it came in my sight but immediately stopped with my hand on the brass door handle.

I couldn't possibly show up in front of my parents. Not after the disrespect they showed me. I sighed and sat on the concrete steps leading up to my pale parchment yellow house and grabbed my French textbook.

Cause, why not?

--

After about one hour of trouvez la question, I decided that French was becoming insufferable. I couldn't stand the cold air that seeped through the hood that Harper offered me but I also couldn't stand the thought of approaching the two scare crows armed with tridents of cruel words inside my house.

I picked up my lavender backpack and brushed off the dirt on my yoga pants as I looked up into the brilliant pink, orange and red sky.

Sometimes, everything turns out good after all. At least in some ways.

I walked up the familiar streets, past the maple trees and down to the little gray house at the end of the avenue.

If I was going to crash, I would have to crash somewhere other than my house.

I rang the doorbell and Laila's familiar grinning face greeted me.

"Hey Caroun! What can I do for you?" She asked me, cheerfully of course. Sometimes I don't get how teens can have so much energy. Or maybe I question it because I lack it.

I gave her a half, forced smile. "Hey Laila. Do you mind if I... Crash here?"

--

"So what you're saying," she stated with a laugh. "Is that you have his hoodie and you want to wash it before you return it? By no means will I stop you but I think you need to wind down a little first, girl. You are the epitome of teenagers who are stressed."

Laila hooked her arm around my elbow and dragged me to the living room of her house, decorated in a black and white theme.

A large, flat screen tv was mounted on the main wall, surrounded with ivory black speakers on two sides and a chestnut white cabinet au dessous de la télé.

A tall vase with plenty of monochrome flowers sat on a side of the room and the tv was surrounded by three white upholstered couches and finished with a shiny black coffee table in the centre.

Quite a master piece, I could hand that to her parents.

She dragged my mesmerised butt to the creamy couches and set herself down gracefully, while flicking on the tv with her remote.

"So," she said, her Spanish accent thick. "Would you like to watch Teen Wolf?" She asked me.

"What's that?" I asked her.

She gave me the most incredulous look ever at that moment.

"A tv show, duh! Come on we've got to see it now." She gushed.

"Girls! You must remember that you have school tomorrow!" Her dad called.

"Sure, sure dad." She replied, eyes glued on the screen.

--

My eyes shot open as I threw myself off the white couches, only to realise that I was in Laila's house.

The nightmares had come back and had left me in a layer of cold sweat.

I lifted myself off the ground and picked up Harper's hoodie from where I left it on the coffee table.