Isolation (Book #1 of the Taylor Series)

Eleven

"You don't bring someone like that into this house! Do you have any idea what she is? You've invited evil into this house!" Mom's voice wakes me up from my slumber, and I glance at the digital clock on my nightstand.

7:03 A.M.

Are you kidding me right now? Who screams this early in the morning? Especially on a school day. Oh god. A school day. As in, seeing Sienna Valdes again.

You know, the girl who is supposedly my best friend. The best friend whose birthday is in three days. A birthday at which I'm supposed to deliver a speech so heartwarming and sentimental, it'll bring tears to her entire family's eyes even though most of them don't know English that well. The birthday that I'm probably uninvited to. Yeah, that one.

"It's not that big of a deal, and he's not evil! He's a person just like you and me." The scratchy voice of Lauren rings through my ears.

I groan and sit up abruptly in my bed. Nausea still present in my head leaves me hunched over. I run to my bathroom before dry-heaving into the toilet. After accepting the fact that nothing is coming out, I gradually stand up and lay down in my bathtub.

Sighing contently, I look around the bathroom, and my eyes land on my faded shower curtain. Getting so comfortable that I nearly fall asleep, I immediately acknowledge that there's absolutely zero possibility of me going to school today. Dealing with Sienna's drama, and Graham's over-the-topness or him making out with Stella is bound to make me actually vomit.

"Lauren Ruth Nicholson, don't you dare walk away from me! If you walk through that door, you're grou-- Don't slam the door!" SLAM!

I'm surprised that I could even still hear her considering I'm two rooms away from her. I can only imagine how Dad feels after having such a rude awakening. It'll probably lead to even more screaming bright and early this morning.

"Eve!" Lauren shouts, and my bedroom door slams shut.

Oh please don't come in here. The door to my bathroom opens, and I curse my life.

"Eve, what are you doing?" She pulls the shower curtain open. My eyes fall on her. I cross my arms despairingly. She taps her foot and huffs.

"Mom's being a pain this morning, not to mention that you're not even dressed. Hurry up or we're going to be late." She demands and turns towards my mirror.

Pulling at the creases under her eyes, I lean up and instantly feel like vomiting again.

"I'm not going today," I mutter.

She laughs, "Like hell, you're not. You've had perfect attendance since the 8th grade, you ruin that now, there's no way you can go back or get into one of those awesome colleges that you applied to."

I lay back down, and accidentally bang my head on the tub. She rolls her eyes and sits down on the ledge.

"Fine, if you're not going, then I'm not going. Get dressed and we can go do something fun instead of staying here all day and dealing with Mom's garbage." She says.

My attempt at ignoring her fails, and she hits me in the shoulder, "I feel sick Lauren, I don't want to do anything today."

"It'll be fun, we can go shopping for art supplies or something. You know you want to spend quality time with me."

I narrow my eyes at her, which inevitably ends up turning into a staring contest. I blink first, causing her to smile. She grabs my hand and helps me out of the tub.