Tough Love

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I awoke to the screeching sound emanating from my alarm clock. As I hit snooze, I caught a glimpse of ‘7:45 AM’. My eyes widened as I looked back at the clock.

7:45. School was starting right now.

Yanking the blankets off of me, I rushed down the hall. “Why didn’t you wake me?” I said once I got to my parent’s bedroom. Looking around, I found the room was empty. Scrambling down the stairs, I found the living room also empty. “Mom? Dad” I called out.

There were no responses back, just a deafening silence the stretched throughout the house. When I walked into the kitchen, I found a note stuck to the refrigerator reading…

                               Emily,

                        I’ll be with your dad at the store today. I left my car for you to get to school. The car’s low on gas so I left money in it for you to put some gas in. You are to go straight to school and back. Try not to do anything careless of idiotic.

                              Love, Mom.

P.S Keys are on the kitchen counter.

Looking to the side, I grabbed the keys from the counter and went back upstairs to get ready. I wore an easy red full sleeves shirt and skinny jeans. After that, I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I pulled my hair up into a messy bun, not feeling like doing anything else with it. My chest felt heavy and I walked lifelessly down the stairs. Automatically, I went to the kitchen and poured myself some Cheerios.

It’s a good thing I woke up late enough, I thought. I don’t have to see Holden for the whole morning. Just the thought of the rejection made my heart feel even heavier. A dreading feeling settled in my stomach as I ate the Cheerios individually to buy more time. Stop trying to fight the inevitable, I told myself. Sighing, I got up, put my bowl in the sink, and headed outside.

Right when I opened the front door I realized there was a downpour. Great, exactly what I want. The rain hadn’t helped with my already upset mood. I pulled on a raincoat before running outside and to the car. Once I got in safely and not wet, I blasted the heat. Reversing slowly, I started to drive down the long road. I put on the radio, listening to some radio channel called the ‘JamSkam.’ It was just the radio talkers that’d prank call people. A friend had to call to radio station to set their friends up. It was pretty funny and got my mood off Holden surprisingly.

The road was jammed with hundreds of cars. Everyone was beeping at each other. I’d be stuck here for at least another thirty minutes. Looking around, I found a street. Maybe the street was a short cut and would save me from all the traffic.

I made a sharp turn into the street. For every minute that passed by, I saw less and less houses. The windshield wipers were on and I squinted through the glass. The rain was thick making it harder to see. Looking through my side window, I saw there were no houses now. I was just driving on a dark empty road surrounded by forests. I drove slowly so the car wouldn’t skid.

The radio signal started to waver and the talking of the radio talk show hosts started to have cracks in it, making what they were saying indecipherable. I kept driving, not realizing the car had slowed down since I couldn’t even see where or how fast I was going. Loud noises sounded from the front of the car before it stopped completely. I smelt smoke and quickly glanced at the gas gauge to find it empty.

“Dammit!” I yelled, punching my fist into the steering wheel. I instantly regretted in when I punched the steering wheel. The ‘beeeeeeeep’ sound wouldn’t stop and I soon realized I’d broken the steering wheel. I covered my ears before dialing my mom’s number. “MOM?” I yelled over the loud beeping.