CHAPTER SEVEN
I awoke to the sound of my cellphone ringing, and squinted my eyes at the sunlight. Jen's name was lit across the top of my screen.
"Hello?" I answered in a hoarse voice, rubbing my eyes with the palm of my free hand.
"Are you up for a girls weekend?" My friend asked me with a bubbly tone.
"What?" I was still half asleep, struggling to keep my eyes open.
"I already asked my mom and she said yes. How does noon sound?" She continued to ramble on quickly, despite the fact that my brain was only picking up half of the information.
"Where are we going?" I wondered as I stared at the ceiling.
"My mom is going to drive all of us to the mall, we can shop, go see a movie and then have a sleepover!" Jen exclaimed.
"Oh, that's... Wait. All of us?"
"Yeah Casey is coming too."
I rose my eyebrows. "What time is it?"
"Ten o'clock." She responded enthusiastically.
I sighed.
"I wanted to call you earlier but I waited until ten. Ask your mom!"
"Fine." I said, sitting up.
"Alright, tell me what she says! Bye!" Jen responded, hanging up the phone quickly.
--
Driving to the mall only took about ten minutes. When we arrived, Jen, Casey, and I were hungry so we grabbed pizza at the food court.
"Are we ready to shop 'till we drop?" Jen said with a huge smile on her face.
Stepping into Aeropostale(R) Jen immediately saw a pair of jeans she liked, and went over to them. Casey and I followed.
"These would look so cute on you!" Jen said to me, pulling out a pair of light blue skinny jeans. "I should buy them for you!"
"No, don't. I still have babysitting money from a couple weeks ago." I told her, examining the pants.
"I'm surprised you have any left after that expensive carnival." Casey asked. "I spent way more than I wanted to."
"Oh, Jack paid for me." I said, then realized what was going to happen.
They both looked at me and together said, "Awww..."
"That's adorable." Casey commented.
"Such a gentleman." Jen raised her eyebrows at me.
"Is there something you aren't telling us?" Casey nudged my arm with a grin.
I felt my cheeks turn red. "No! I was going to pay for myself but he insisted." I narrowed my eyes at the both of them.
"Sounds like he's in to you." Jen said, over exaggerating the last word in her sentence.
"I'm going to go try these on." I said, glaring at them before I turned to walk away.
. . .
"I saw Safe Haven a little while ago and it was really good. I don't mind seeing it again if you guys want to." Casey said as the three of us stood in line to pay for tickets at the movie theater. Jen and I nodded as we stepped up to the counter.
"Does anyone want popcorn?" Jen asked, handing Casey and I the tickets.
"Sure. I'll get it." I insisted and began walking to the concession stand. The smell of popcorn and candy filled my nose, causing my stomach to grumble slightly.
"What can I get you?" The employee asked me.
"Three small popcorns please." I responded in a pleasant voice.
He grabbed three paper bags and began filling them with popcorn, then asked if I wanted butter on any of them.
"Thank you." I said when he finished, handing him the money from my pocket. Jen and Casey stood by the theater entrance while they waited for me. I quickly spotted the two of them and handed a bag of popcorn to each of them.
We sat in the very middle of the theater, and put our feet up on the seats in front of us.
The movie we decided to see was called Safe Haven, based on a book by Nicholas Sparks. As soon as the previews ended, I heard a loud clap of skin on skin, followed by a gasp. The scene faded into a girl with long brown hair running from a tall man. She desperately tried to pull away from his grip. My mind began to race with memories and flashbacks. I felt my cheeks turn red and realized I was about to cry. Warm tears slid off my chin. I stood to leave, then walked past Jen and Casey, hoping neither of them would follow me.
When I got to the bathroom, I locked myself in a stall, leaning up against the door. "You're okay, Melanie..." I whispered to myself, attempting to be calm. All these memories were flooding back, my hands were tingling, my head was pounding. I tried to concentrate.
"Mel? Are you in here?" I heard Jen ask from the entrance of the bathroom.
I flung open the stall door, stepped out and hugged her tightly. "It was too real." I exhaled deeply and she hugged me back.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know... I've never seen it before." She paused. "Do you want to leave?"
"No, I don't want to ruin everything." I mumbled with a sniffle as we parted from our hug.
"Casey has already seen it and I'm not leaving this room until you feel better. Come on, I'll talk to her. Then you and I can have a girls night. Just you and me." She said, tilting her head to look in my eyes.
I nodded. When Jen and I walked back to the theater, I waited in the hallway while she grabbed Casey. Jen talked to her and she understood, so we dropped her off on the way back to Jen's house.
I sat silently in Jen's bedroom as she told me about being lab partners with Tom. I knew she had a crush on him, but I didn't say anything. It felt kind of good to just listen to her instead of actually speaking.
"Are you okay?" She asked me when she finished.
"Yeah. A lot better now." I replied with a small smile.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
I hesitated and questioned whether or not I should. "I guess we could." I said after a few moments. I cleared my throat. "Lately I've been getting these flashbacks of everything that happened." I began.
"What are you seeing in particular?" Jen asked, sitting next to me on her bed. She grabbed a pillow and placed it on her lap, waiting for me to answer.
"Well there's a lot of things. Broken glass, his face, the floor board. It's everything." I explained. Just the thought of it all made my eyes tear up. "The movie didn't really help much." I forced a small laugh.
"Yeah, about that. I'm really sorry." She began. "I felt so bad."
"Don't worry about it." I said, shaking my head. Jen tended to blame herself for a lot of things. She was one of the very few people who understood what happened to me. Her father had been to rehab a few times and recovered from alcohol addiction.
"Alright... So. How about we pop in a movie and make some popcorn?" She said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
About an hour or so later, Jen had fallen asleep, leaving me awake and alone with a million thoughts running through my head. My stomach felt twisted and my hands were sweating. I could feel the heartbeat in my chest.
Laying flat on my back, I breathed slowly in and out, telling myself I was okay. I closed my eyes. Immediately the images came back, causing the urge to cry. I bit down on my lip, trying to think of something else. I managed to get my heart beating normally again and tried to fall asleep. I couldn't set my mind straight. I let out a soft sigh as a warm tear slid down the side of my face. This would be a long night.
