I Don't Really Know...

Chapter 20: Disturbances

I lay in my bed, with my head feeling like someone is bashing my skull.  

 

Why does everything have to go terribly wrong?  I always knew she had troubles with her parents, but...I never realized it was this bad.

She would always tell me when something went wrong.  I felt like I couldn’t help.  She would cry and I would try to tell her to just wait for a little longer.  That in a couple years, everything would be working out for her family.  

But waiting is never easy.  

I roll on my side, and my eyes start to flutter shut.  Until tomorrow…

 

“Wakey - wakey… “  I hear a singing voice.  I groan and roll to my side.

 

“GO away.”  I return a cold, muffled reply as I smash my face into my pillowcase, snuggling up in the covers.  If I ever hate something in my life, it would be getting up in the morning.  I’m not the most energetic morning person.

 

“You know, you can’t just sleep all day.  GET UP!”  Someone smacks the top of my head with their palm.  I almost growl, thrusting my hand out in front of me, hitting something soft, like skin.  I hear a giggle, and someone grabs my arm with delicate fingers and shakes the life out of it, irritating me to death.  

 

“STOP!”  I wrench my arm away from the claws and burrow underneath my warm, fuzzy blanket, covering my face and body from the intruder.  

 

“Look, I know how painful this is, but YOU HAVE TO GET UP!”  I sit up on my bed and shield my eyes from the light in my room, streaming through the windows like liquid gold.  I wish I could say I was enjoying it.  Instead of liquid gold, it felt like the fluorescent light that people use while interrogating criminals being shoved into my eye sockets.  

I pat my feet against my carpet, finding my slippers and slipping my feet into the pillow-like shoes.  If only I could wear these to school...I could feel like I was walking on clouds all during school.

 

“Who is this?”  My hopes get higher as I open my eyes, squinting from the sun.  

 

“Who do you think?!”  I see Steffanie in the hallway, waving.  Her pajamas are my shorts and the t-shirt that she was wearing yesterday, and her hair was dripping-wet.  I smile, and sluggishly drag my feet to her.  I give her a tired hug in the hallway.

“You had me so worried!  Is everything ok?!”  I grab her shoulders and stare at her, letting her know that if she tries to lie, I’ll know.  

 

“I’m fine...I didn’t drive after it started raining for more than five minutes.  I stopped by a sidewalk in your neighborhood and waited there for the night.”  She shrugged her shoulders and walked to the bathroom, grabbing a new toothbrush.  She squeezed out toothpaste onto the bristles and started vigorously brushing her teeth.

“Uh….why didn’t you come back to my house?”  I raised my eyebrows.  “And whose toothbrush is that?”  I grab it and study it.  Her mouth hangs open, drooling toothpaste and spitting in the sink.  She grabs a towel and wipes her mouth, grinning at me.

 

“I have no idea.  I need to have fresh breath, you know.”  She takes it out of my hands and washes it off with cool water, and puts in….Ms. Lasdon’s cup.