I stared blankly at the phone in my hand, scrolling endlessly through memes, fake news, and photoshopped idols.
Through name brand headphones, rap boomed, nearly breaking my ear drums in the best way possible.
I was sitting on my bed, minding my business, when my music was replaced with my mother screaming instead of the Artist.
"Julianne! I've been calling you for 10 minutes! Why didn't you answer?" She yelled. I let the fact that you could hear the cursing clearly when my headphones were out speak for itself, yet she still awaited my answer
"I couldn't hear you, Ma," I rolled my eyes. "What's up?"
"What's up is that we have company. Put on a decent shirt and come down for dinner." She huffed, grabbing a pile of dirty laundry off my bed and putting it in my hamper. "And afterwards, clean this zoo you call a bedroom." I protested, but she ignored me and turned to the door.
"Wait, Ma, who's here?" I asked, annoyed that I had to actually leave my room during summer vacation and clean it
"The Sullivans. I've invited them for dinner. All you do is talk about that boy Thomas, I wanted to meet the kid's family." She answered angrily, slamming the door behind as my jaw dropped to the floor.
Thomas was a friend of mine from freshman year. I wasn't new to Reston High, since I went to middle school there too, but he was new to town. He was adopted from France as a baby, and grew up in Arizona. For a small town like New Brook VA, this was like having Jay-Z be your music teacher.
His hair was a mop of curly black perfection, and his eyes a shade of light brown I didn't know existed, like a cup of coffee that's half creamer. He was taller than me by a good few inches, which was normal since I'm 5'2" on a good day. We've been friends since the first week of high school, where we both realized we were the only kids in school still sitting at the "First Day" table, where all the incoming freshmen eventually broke off into their own cliques. All except for us. After months of inside jokes and wholesome friendship, I'd come to the painful conclusion that I'd fallen for him.
And now, he was sitting next to me in a button-up white shirt and I couldn't even look at him
"Julie, aren't you going to say hello?" My mother asked, in a voice recognized as sweet by strangers, but dangerous to me.
"Hello, Mr and Mrs. Sullivan." I smiled, looking up only for a second to see their greetings before staring at the table again.
"And Thomas?" My mother warned
"Hey..." I squeaked, giving him a tight smile
"Hey Jules. It's great to finally see your house from the inside after walking you home almost everyday." He teased, and I laughed awkwardly
And he did... even though it was out of his way
"I'm sorry, I don't know where her manners have gone." My Mom laughed, the same sugary tone
She said more, but I zoned out. All I could do is wonder what he was thinking about. Was my hair okay? Was my house messy? Did he want to see my room? Oh, I knew I should've cleaned it before I came down!
"Isn't that right, Jules?" My mom asked suddenly
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" I shook my head to come out of my daydreams
"I said," she gave me a warning glance, "that we are going hiking this weekend. Shenandoah Valley."
"Oh! Yeah, I forgot about that." I said, disappointment trailing my words
