Haven Hills

Chapter 4

  “ Sage!”

 My eyelids were too heavy, I heard something ringing but exhaustion won over and my eyes stayed closed.

    A loud bang followed by a thump, echoed through my room. My door cracked against the wall as my dad threw it open, scaring the hell out of me. Hence the accompanying thump of me falling out of bed. For the second time in two days I was on my floor.

   “ Sage get up. It's 6:30 and Erik will be here to pick you up any minute.”

                    “ Hmm?”

Peeking at my alarm clock with one eye open, my internal clock had a spaz attack. I pushed myself up into a sitting position leaning against my bed.

                                      “ What day is it? “

A sigh spewed out of my dad’s annoyed mouth.

“ Its Monday. There’s this thing that teenagers have to go to during the day. It's called high school.”

Both my eyes finally opened and checked my clock.

                    6:38

                                                      “Holy shit!”

  Scrambling off the floor, and almost taking a nose dive on my fluffy, navy blue rug, I ran for the bathroom.

  “ Language! Now hurry up you've got at least ten minutes before Erik comes to get you. Which means I better go hide my toast.”

As I hoped into the shower that was pelting me with freezing ice, I heard the click of my door close as dad left to protect his beloved toast. Sneaky butt, he probably knew I was dead to the world and took the first hot shower this morning. The exhaustion ebbed away as I went through my mental checklist of all the things I finished and what was due today.

                                Today will be better than the last three days.

Snatching some clean jeans from my bureau, I shimmied and lunged my way into them.

                            “ Alright closet. What to wear today?”

   My closet was absolutely trashed, I couldn't find a piece of clothing.

“ Ughhh!”

Stomping down the stairs in my jeans and a bra I went to the laundry room. My choices were a fishing shirt that belongs to dad or a tight tank top? Dad's long sleeve was my best bet if I didn't want my ass to get dragged back home to change.

 I slipped the T-shirt over my head and pushed the sleeves up to my elbows. I was ready to go to war. Oops I meant high School.

                                            “ Sage! Your boy is back.”

 And right on schedule a horn blarred from outside signaling E's arrival. My chucks were already by the front door with some toast dad left for me to take to go. Grabbing my stuff so fast I looked like a tiny UFO as I sprinted out of the house. Our house was one out of five on the last cul-de-sac before all the rolling farmland started. The sheriff’s house had stood in the same spot for generations, but as old as it might be it always stood during the summer storms.

I moved swiftly down our stone pathway and through our hydrangea laden archway, brushing my fingertips over the stone and ivy wall near our kitchen door. The front of our house was covered in greenery, it didn’t matter what time of year it was. Flowers bloomed from the ground to the top of the archway, it was like a cheesy picture out of a home magazine.