Where The Road Ends

(( 2 )) Joy

May's POV

The sun greeted me by shining through the glass of the slender double doors that led out to my tiny balcony. It was big enough for one person, with white railing and flowers growing around it from flower boxes on either side.

It forced me to open my eyes and face away from it. After a few minutes of extra sleeping, I turned off my sound machine that played rain forest sounds--it soothed me into sleep--and trekked to my bathroom with half open eyes. A shower and a new outfit laid out--more like thrown messily--on my bed later, I jazzed to the music playing from my phone in my bathroom while doing my makeup. A new song by The Chainsmokers came on and I was full on dancing, using my hair brush as a microphone as I want off key.

In the middle of putting my foundation on, my cell rings, cutting off the music. My heart jumps when the caller ID reads 'Babe💞'. I answer the FaceTime call with giddiness.

"Hellooo ?"

"Uh, oh I'm sorry. I seem to have the wrong number. I apologize deeply," Emory says in a strange accent. He doesn't show his face on screen, the camera pointed to the ceiling.

"Emory !" I giggle.

"How's my baby today ?" He asks normally now. He fixated the camera on his face now. He looks so cute with his sleepy eyes and growing stubble. Emory and I have been dating for 2 years, beginning the summer before year 8. One of his friends was having a big party at their house for their birthday, and he or someone else let it slip that Emory had a crush on me. Of course, I was instantly hooked even though I'd never talked to Emory. When someone older, even just by a year, liked you, it was one of the best things in the world at the time.

I hadn't seen him for most of the party, but he approached me as it was winding down. We talked on the couch in the living room for a little while then he leaned over and kissed me. From then on, I was hooked.

"Just getting ready. What about you ?" I asked. I continued to pat the nude liquid onto my tiny, plump cheeks.

    "Dad has me working on the boat today. He's damn obsessed with that thing." Emory scratches his chin, the sound of the stubble scraping against his fingernails like a broom on pavement. Tch-tch, tch-tch, up and down, up and down, up and down. He's looking at something off screen that I can't see, most likely looking for a tool. From the background, I can tell he's in the garage with the doors open.

    "It wouldn't be the whole day if you got off your damn phone," his dad calls from the background. A shuffling occurs, cutting Emory off from what he's about to say next.

    "I'll call you back later, babe," I mumbled, blending out the eye shadow on one of my eyes.  He's in the middle of telling me he loves me when I hang up on him. My phone pings with a text a minute later.

    Aye, you gonna leave me hanging like that babe ? I giggle at this, sending a message with three heart emojis.

    My magic show is done soon after, a perfect concoction of eye shadow sitting atop my highlighted cheekbones and contour. I let my hair away from its hold, the mess of wavy hair flopping around my jaw and collarbones. It only takes a few strokes of my hairbrush and a slight untangling trick with my fingers before its in its naturally smooth state.

    Mother calls me from downstairs, interrupting my chance to get dressed. I skip down out of the room, a single hop across the short walkway, and down the stairs. My giddiness only takes me a third of the way when my foot betrays my pattern and slips off the edge of a step. My skipping turns into sliding on my ass the rest of the way down.