We Were Here

4: Ready Or Not, Here I Come.

*Listen to the song up ahead while you read*

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"I'm so bored!" I groaned, leaning back on the long cotton sectional. A slice of pizza hangs loosely in the palm of my hand, threatening to fall on the floor.

I've been watching Georgie study her Trig notes for the last hour.

"Stop complaining already." Georgie remarks, closing her notebook and shoving her pink, floral designed, pen in the spiral. "We have plenty to do."

"Like what?" I ask, lazily rolling my head back on one of the uncomfortable couch pillows.

"Well, we can watch The Wizard Of Oz, or...bake a batch of cookies." she suggests a smile playing on her lips.

I roll my eyes and throw a pepperoni her way. I miss and the pepperoni lands measly on the ground. "What are we old women? You wanna knit too?"

She shrugs. "I actually like knitting. It relaxes me."

We stay quiet for a moment listening to the sound of Fiona pull the groceries from their assigned bags. Fiona is the maid my aunt Nadia hired to keep the her antiques polished, and the fridge stacked, when she's out away on her business trips.

It's still hard for me to get used to this kind of lifestyle. Back home with my mother, the closest thing we had to a maid was me. I cooked, cleaned, a brought all the groceries. But now, living here, there's someone to do everything for you. Even the small, simple things, like washing your sheets, or folding up your t-shirts.

And what still baffles me, is that the whole time my mother and I were in Colorado, barely making ends meet, I had family California living life without a care in the world. Why didn't my mother tell me she had a sister? Why would she push away somebody who could have helped us?

"Earth to Tatum." Georgie says, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Any ideas to cure this everlasting boredom?"

"We can go to The Sprinkle Shack, or the mall." I suggest now.

She groans in response.

"Excuse me for trying to suggest something fun." I say, throwing my hands up in surrender.

"The Sprinkle Shack is fun every once in awhile, but you've wanted to go every day this week."

I smirk. It's the truth, The Sprinkle Shack has turned into a safe haven for me, such a great vibe. Just being there makes me feel like I'm in a movie, the kind where the main character ventures off on some sort of self journey to figure out who they are. Plus, the ice cream is really good too.

"Oh- how about we go to Sasi's house?" she sing songs. "She's probably not doing anything either."

Georgie introduced Sasi and I on the first day of school. The first thing I noticed upon meeting her is that she's incredibly sweet. So sweet that at one point I thought she was pretending. She smiled, hugged me tightly, then introduced me to her boyfriend Eli. Not knowing that I'd already met him that morning on the roof during photography class, or that I'd drunkenly freaked out on him at the bonfire. Or maybe she did know I freaked out on him and just pretended not to.