In An Instant

Chapter 3

To say that Sidney was merely annoyed would be an understatement. Even though it was through text, I could sense the anger in her writing. The words were more rushed; she had more mistakes, as though she were typing quickly and stumbling over the keys as she went.

        You didn't even notice that I was gone until after the party ended. Why do you care now? I sent to her in mounting frustration, a pile of words growing out of the seed in my stomach.

        Youhad us worried we thought that you had triped or killed yurself we didn't know what to think! she was quick to reply. I decided not to point out the spelling mistakes.

        Well I'm sorry, but it's not like we can take back the past. I didn't even want to go anyway.

         The pause was noticeable. My heart jumped to my throat. It was almost impossible to beat Sidney in a fight; she didn't just give up. She was as determined as a hawk searching for it's food and as conniving as a fox. But what else could explain the momentary lapse of fiery messages? For a moment, I thought that she was going to admit that she was wrong or confess that it had been a difficult night for her too. Who knew? Sometimes Sidney could be unpredictable. Sometimes she surprised me.

        Whatever.

        And that was it. That was it. Done. No explanation, just classic "whatever". I let my phone land on my pillow, the screen going blank. It wasn't like I expected anything more from her anyway. Maybe it was good that the argument ended before we said things that we couldn't take back. We'd been friends for a long time; there had been fights, but they had always been resolved. Sasha's face popped up in my mind briefly. All the text messages we could never take back....

        I brushed the thought away. It didn't matter. Sidney and I wouldn't let it get that far.

        Part of me wondered if it was Ally that stopped her. She hated conflict; she liked things to be mellowed out. She was mellow. It wouldn't surprise me if it was her. But still, something was gnawing at my mind, eating away the insides. Sure, it was a minor disagreement, but this one felt different. Something felt broken.

        "Leah? Your uniform arrived." It was my mom, her head peeking through the crack in my door.

        I hopped out of my bed, happy for the distraction, and snatched the grey plaid skirt and the navy blazer out of her hand. One thing I was not looking forward to was wearing that piece of junk. Sighing, I tossed them onto my dresser, having done with inspecting them. I had hoped that they might have been better, once they were sized and altered to fit right.

        It didn't matter. None of it would matter for two more months anyway.

        My ears perked up when I heard my mother calling from the basement. We were leaving to go to our cabin on Okanagon Lake. I cursed under my breath. I forgot about that. Throwing all of my clothes into an ocean blue duffel bag, I practically tumbled down the stairs. The door swung open as if on cue and I threw my pack into the trunk. John was waiting in the back seat already, acting all superior because he was "technically" a grade 12 now. I knew that it would take a whole lot more than being one of the oldest kids in his school to truly be king. For one, he would have to get off his laptop for more than a few hours a day. It took all of my willpower not to smack his arrogant smirk off of his face. He would probably get really angry anyway; he was very protective of his "stache".

        Yes, the invisible one.

        "Hey moron."

        "Hey stupid."