Blame it on September

Chapter 7 (Leila)

 My phone vibrates in my back pocket and I am not willing to answer it with all of this pizza in my mouth so I let it go to voice mail.

“Who was that Lei?” Annabelle said wiping the grease from the corners of her mouth.

“Umm..” I swallow the cheesy food and pull out my cell-phone. I read it and look up at my sister. My eyes are open as wide as they can get before bursting open, my mind goes blank and all I can make out is “It’s umm, uhh, you know, it’s” 

Annabelle takes the phone from my hand and her mouth drops open and her eyes dart to mine not knowing what to say.

The phone starts to vibrate again and Annabelle forces it at me.

“You answer it, it’s your phone.” She says.

“So what does that have to do with anything, you answer it,” I say giving it back.

“No,” Everybody’s eyes in the restaurant are glued to us watching us play hot potato with a phone before my finger accidentally slides open the call bar on the screen.

“Hello? Leila are you there?” I hear come out of the speaker while me and Annabelle fidget with the phone to get it up to my ear and finally answer the caller.

“Umm, hi?” I reply, saying hi as more of a question than a greeting.

“Where are you?”

I take the phone away from my ear and end the call. Not continuing the conversation was probably the best decision I could make all day.

“What did she say?” Annabelle asked wanting to know what was said.

***

“Wait, you’re mom?” Shay said while drying the last couple of dishes.

“Yeah and I answered and she asked where I was so I just hung up. I had no idea what else to do. And Annabelle was just sitting there staring at me trying to hear over the loud chatter of people. You would think that since she is older and more responsible she would want to be the one to talk to her, but no.”

“I can’t believe it, so has she called again?” I was wondering the same thing.

“I don’t know, I turned my phone off and left it with Annabelle. I didn’t want to have it if she did call again.”

“But what if it was something important?”

“Like what? She wants to come visit?” I say adding too much sarcasm it wasn’t even funny.

“No, what if one of your parents is sick or they are getting a divorce?”

“My mom would be glad for my dad to go; the only reason why she is still with him is because he makes all of the money. And she sounded perfectly healthy to me," Saying this out loud was kind of refreshing, I never actually told anyone that before. But in my head I took in consideration what Shay had said. Even though I dislike my parents, I would be hurt if one of them was lying on their deathbed and I was across the country having the time of my life.

“I don’t know, maybe they want to solve everything and become a family again. I know that if my mom came back I would be more than happy to reunite with her, even though I hate her guts for leaving us.” What Shay said was true, she always says how she hates her mother, but she would love to have her back. But for me it wouldn’t be all that easy to let my parents into my life again. It would take time. Lots of time.

I help her by putting the bowls and plates away while she packs away the silverware in their drawer. We grab our drinks and head to the table and are in deep conversation about our parents when the door opens and hear the loud roar of laughter fill the house. It must be Shay’s brother. I turn my head to look at who is walking through the hallway.