Mannequins | completed

One

Thank you to Becca for editing! Cover on the side made by Jade.

THE WEATHER WASN’T HELPING my mood at all. It was nearly summer, but even the pre-summer in Calinton was so scorching that you could burn. Even in the least, though decent, amount of clothing I had—a tank top and a skirt that fortunately let my legs breathe unlike jeans—I was still sweating like crazy. The sun’s rays were grazing my shoulders, leaving trails of blazing fire that had my skin burning like there was no tomorrow.

Another factor that wasn’t helping was that Carlie was taking so long from wherever she was coming from. The air-conditioner in my car suddenly stopped functioning, so I had to take my car to the repair shop. According to the guy I talked to in the repair shop, repairing the air-conditioner in my car wouldn’t take much time, and I would be getting my car back tomorrow. So today, I didn’t have a car, which was why I had asked Carlie to give me a ride home.

Unfortunately, Carlie had an in-between class break when I contacted her, and so she had wandered elsewhere. Now she was taking very long to come back to the university to pick me up, even now that my last class—Architectural History—was already over. Frankly I was thankful that she was doing me a favor, Carlie was not the one to do favors, but I was literally burning under the sun. I felt like I was a vampire as I sat on the bench by the university entrance, where Carlie was supposedly picking me up like she’d informed me. I hated the sun. I hated the heat. All I wanted was for winter to come already.

An hour later, the sound of a honk startled me. I looked up from my game of Flappy Bird, which was a game that no one seemed to care about anymore—I think I was the only person in the world who even played the game. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw a grinning Carlie, in her banged up hand-me-down Jeep from her brother, Wyatt, and the windows of her Jeep rolled down as she gesticulated at me rather dramatically to enter her car. My hands flew up to my forehead to cover my eyes from the sun’s rays in a position that made me seem like I was saluting with both hands. The rays seemed more prominent than they had been minutes ago as I headed to Carlie’s Jeep and pulled the door open.

After slamming the door shut, I made myself comfortable in the passenger seat next to Carlie, who was obviously seated in the driver’s seat since she was driving. I mentally thanked God for the air conditioner in Carlie’s car, and on account of that heavenly air conditioner, I could finally feel my lungs again and the beads of sweat had stopped trickling down my back like a never ending waterfall.

“Took you long enough,” I huffed, a bit perturbed.

Slipping a pair of sunglasses on, Carlie replied with a sheepish smile, “Sorry, Lynn. I went to buy frozen yogurt and the line was kind of long.” In evidence, Carlie pointed at the cup of frozen yogurt which was perched near the shift knob. Turning her head to glance at me, Carlie added, “Huh. You look annoyed.”

“I wonder why,” I stated dryly. “I didn’t stay under the sun waiting for an hour, did I?”

I turned my head to the side to look at the view past the window. The weather was sunny, like it had been for the past few weeks granted that summer was so near. As much as I’d prefer much gloomier and colder weather than this, the weather was admittedly a comforting sight to see.

 “So,” Carlie started, “Jamie’s throwing a party tonight.”

I ran a hand through my hair and scrunched my nose up. “I can’t come,” I groaned. Jamie Schmidt’s parties were the best. “It’s my first day of work, remember?”

For the past few months since my first day in university, my parents had been nagging me to get a job. I didn’t blame them; their daughter—me—was quite the lazy person. Even at the age of nineteen, I hadn’t moved out yet and was constantly depending on them financially. Yes, I was a freeloader.