Annihilation - h.s.

Chapter Ten.

I'm woken up by the morning sun spilling through the blinds and stretching itself to every corner, crack, and opening of my room. I squint my eyes to see my mother opening the blinds and windows, something she does every now and then 'to get some fresh air into my room'. I groan and lazily cover my face with a pillow.

"Great. You're up!" She says with a smile, her voice is too loud for my listless ears. "Good morning, Butterfly."

"Oh yeah, you know me. I love getting an early start to the day." I reply lethargically, lifting the pillow slightly from my mouth so she can hear me.

She sits down at the edge of my bed and I feel her silently straightening the blankets around me. This is a constant habit of hers; she loves seeing a room perfectly laid out as if it's sole purpose is to be on display for the queen.

"So, how was work?" She questions me after a moment, trying to distract me from the fact that she just stole the pillow covering my face so she could put it back in it's proper place.

"It was..." I hesitate, thinking about the events that took place last night. Harry left me at a loss for words - something that doesn't happen to me often - and then went home with my best friend. "Not what I was expecting."

My mother lay on her side across the bottom of my bed. "I was driving by late last night and I noticed someone else's car in your parking space. How'd it go?" She's enthusiastic as she quirks an eyebrow at me; she loves re-living the good parts of her teenage-hood through me.

"His name is Liam. Sorry to disappoint though, Mother, nothing happened."

She stares at me for a moment. "He was here until three o'clock at least, and you want to tell me that nothing happened?"

I laugh at her eagerness and then explain with further detail. "I tried actually, but he said he wanted to get to know me better before anything happened. He was more of a friend type anyways. We ended up just watching movies all night."

"So there are absolutely no juicy details?" She looks disappointed, like she was looking forward to this all morning.

I laugh again. "No, Mom. He's seriously not my type. It was Jade..." I pause. Jade went home with Harry. A pang of jealousy - so small it is almost undetectable - pinches at my stomach as a few nerves spark down my neck again, the way they did when Harry's hot breath toughed my ear. I use all of my strength to push it away, but it doesn't leave.

Did anything happen between them? My mind sorts through all of the possible outcomes that could have been when they left together, none of them being something I would like to hear. Something had to have happened; Jade is the rebellious type and Harry, well; he had me pinned against a wall nearly a minute after he met me.

"Jade...?" My mother's voice pulls me back to reality.

My eyes snap from the quilt that I somehow began to pick at, back to her. "Yeah. Jade wanted to go home with some guy so I got stuck with the best friend. I'm going to call her actually - to see if the plan worked. Close the door on your way out, kay?" I wave her away before unplugging my phone from the dresser beside my bed.

"I get it, don't worry. I'm gone." She laughs while walking towards the door.

There's really no reason behind me wanting my mother out of hearing distance for this conversation. It actually doesn't faze me if she hears what happened or not - It's nothing she hasn't heard before. I wait a moment after the door closes, nonetheless, before I unlock my phone and click the 'call' button beside Jade's contact name.

The stretch of silence seems to grow between each ring that goes unanswered. I breathe, thinking about how happy Jade must be right now in her morning after glow, and try again to rid myself of the envy growing in the pit of my stomach while I wait for her to pick up.