Behind Close Doors

Chapter Twenty-One

THE WEEKEND WENT BY A LOT FASTER THAN I EXPECTED, and before I knew it, I was falling back into my morning routine for school again on Monday. The weather was supposed to be in the sixties today despite the fact that it was the beginning of November, prompting me to wear my black leather skirt and white lace top. I tied my red flannel shirt around my waist to cover my mid-riff so I wouldn't get scolded by my father.

When I went downstairs for breakfast, I saw my father drinking a cup of black coffee and watching the daily news. I remember him telling me black coffee was good for the heart and that I should try it, but I didn't like the bitter taste. I would choose tea with a little bit of coffee creamer over coffee any day.

I walked into the kitchen and fixed myself a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal before joining my father in the living room. He was so enthralled with the morning news report that he didn't even notice me sitting down on the couch. It was only when I began loudly slurping the milk from my cereal that he noticed my presence.

"Morning lemon," Dad said with a smile. "How did you sleep?" He asked.

"Just fine," I shrugged as I set my empty bowl down on the glass coffee table. "How about you?"

"I barely got any sleep at all," He sighed while rubbing his lower back. "I think I need a new mattress."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What's wrong with the one you have now?" I asked him curiously.

Now my father was the one to shrug. "I don't know. It's pretty old. Your mother and I had it for nearly a decade," Dad replied. "I read somewhere that you're supposed to change mattresses every ten years because of the buildup of bacteria."

I cringed at the mention of bacteria. Whenever someone said that word, I couldn't help but picture bedbugs and dust mites crawling on the sheets and laying their larvae. I shivered at the thought and stood up immediately, grabbing my empty cereal bowl.

"Well, good luck mattress hunting. I've gotta head to school," I told him as I walked into the kitchen.

"I want you to put that shirt on before you leave the house," My Dad ordered, referring to the flannel wrapped around my waist.

"Alright," I sighed before complying with his request.

I placed my dish into the sink and texted Sia to see if she was close by. She replied by telling me to come outside in five minutes. When I entered the car with her, it suddenly hit me that by the end of the month I was going to have to make new travel arrangements to get to school. I think I was going to miss our car rides together the most.

As usual, Sia and I tuned into Elvis Duran's morning prank calls and listened to a little bit of the radio. By the time we reached the school parking lot, we had only ten minutes to get to our first period class, but Sia was having trouble finding a parking space.

"What the hell? It's like everyone decided to purchase a car overnight," Sia complained as her eyes looked at each row of cars we drove past.

I squinted my eyes and looked over the parking lot for empty spaces. The only vacant spaces that I could clearly see were the handicapped lanes, but then my eyes landed on an empty space in the second lane of the sixth row.

"There," I pointed to the sixth row as we drove past the fifth. "I'm pretty sure that second spot is open," I told her.

"On it. That parking space is mine," Sia said with a look of determination on her face.

Another silver car had been approaching the parking space too, but Sia drove the fastest I've ever seen her drive and managed to snag the spot before the other vehicle could. The two of us giggled when the window of the silver car rolled down, revealing an unhappy Alice Sexton glaring at us with with scowl.