Alexandria Tarbell lives in Essex, Vermont. With her parents at their busy jobs and Cobey, the one friend she has. Alexandria's life isn't the most glamorous.
She spends her time reading books beneath the great green and yellow trees and makes her m...
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I think we take showers for granted. They give us a sweet moment to spend time with ourselves, cleanse our bodies and minds.
The hot steam relaxes my buzzing mind and allows me to just be present. These last two days have been a non-stop rollercoaster, so it was nice to just stand still and think about myself for a little.
I step out of the shower and change back into the fresh change of clothes. I clean up after myself, making sure there wasn't a single piece of evidence that I showered.
I quickly and quietly make my way down to the kitchen. Dakota and Gerard are chilling at the table, Moki and Kellan are working on dinner and Anika is leaning against the door frame scrolling through her phone.
I step inside the kitchen, with my arms crossed over and decide to stand next to Anika.
She smiles when she sees me and flips her phone my way, "I see you are friends with this guy".
Her phone shows an image of Corbey and I in the cafeteria last year captioned "Senior Year with my best pal". My heart cracked a little, the sight of that image bringing nothing but a sadness. Knowing that I won't be seeing him for a few weeks until we started college.
College. The thought of it completely swept from my mind until now.
I breathe out and snap out of my thoughts to look at Anika. My eyes are sad and the thought of Corbey and college sent a bit of a sick feeling in my stomach.
Anika notices my body language, and tries to change the topic, that's when Kellan jumps into the conversation.
"Show us the picture"
Anika gives me a face which reads 'sorry' all over. "It's just a picture that came up on my recommended of Alexandria and her friend". She says casually turning the phone to Kellan.
As soon as Kellan catches sight of the image, I notice his jaw clench a little. He nods, says nothing and goes back to the cooking.
The air becomes thick and awkward, and I try to breathe through it. "Uh, need help?" I ask, trying to push past the awkwardness.
"Yes, please Alexandria, could you dress the salad?" Moki intervenes, his face pleading for help.
I nod, happy to help out as I grab the dressing for the salad which happened to be in the cupboard just above where Moki was working. He smiles and grabs the dressing for me, "Here you go, thanks Alexandria".
I grab the dressing with a smile, just realising that everyone calls me by my full name. I thought now was the appropriate time to tell them what I prefer. "You can call me Ria".
"Ria? That's short and sweet" Gerard pipes up from the dining table.
I laugh a little, "Ah, yes. It's what my...friends call me" I say stuttering a little.
