to the moon and back

Chapter III

Emily's POV.

Waking up with leaked makeup below my eyes, from crying, makes me doubt about the fact if I'm still 'happy' with the way things are going. Mascara everywhere, which is again the case, right now. I'm having dinner with my mother, while wearing my too small pyjama's.

"Why did you come home this early today, mum?" I ask her, with a sandwich in my hand.

"Oh, well," I can see that she doesn't like my question, "we had too many people working today, so I wasn't necessary." She knows that I know that she's lying. She sighs, "I'm fired, Emily."

"Again? Mum, what have you done wrong this time?"

"I stole money. I didn't get paid well, so I had to..." she looks like she's telling a joke. I didn't expect this.

I stand up to get the Nutella, "What kind of work did you even do?" the fact my mother barely tells me anything nowadays, really bothers me.

She giggles, "I was a stripper, and I used to work at day only." Uhm, so my mother used to be a stripper? Well, that's something different. I finally understand why she didn't tell me anything about it. I'm not really sure what to do exactly, as a stripper, but I believe my mum wasn't that bad. She has a nice body for it.

She continues talking, "I visited your father every night, and went to work in the morning after. We're back together, Em."

I almost drop my cup. What the eff, mum. "Since when?" I sound angry, but I'm not. It's just so confusing.

"Since he's back in town." We clear the table and I put on my coat.

I finally arrive at Natali's place. I greet her, and she gives me a kiss on my cheek while I'm hugging her. As I step in I notice that Charlotte's there as well. I've only seen Charlotte a few times, but she seems like a nice girl. Though, the dress she's wearing looks ugly on her. She must be a lesbian.

We decide to have a sleepover with the three of us, since we're going to Josh's party together tonight. Before we go there, we have dinner at Pizza Hut.

I don't really feel like going to that party tonight, because I feel ill from the pizza and I'm just not very comfortable there.  I still haven't told Bruce nor Natali about Joseph.

When we arrive at Josh's place, it's almost midnight. There are loads of people. Some are standing around a table, and some are sitting on sofa's. There's alcoholic drinks everywhere, and there are even people outside, smoking weed. Josh's place is huge. The living room looks good with the decorations and the grey wallpaper.

After a couple of hours I'm going upstairs. I'm tired, and I want to be alone for a moment. I don't feel like chatting anymore and I drank too much. Natali and Charlotte are outside, smoking weed.

I'm tired as eff so I enter one of the sleeping rooms. I guess it's Josh's room. It looks so good actually. I walk towards the bed and lie down. I don't even care that I'm lying on his bed, so I just close my eyes. I fall asleep in less than a minute.

"Em! Emily! Can you hear me?" I hear someone screaming at me while I suddenly feel a hand on my face. Someone is trying to wake me up. I open my eyes slowly.

"Uh, yeah?" I sound sleepy. I blink my eyes a few times because of the lighting.

"Emily! Thank God. You're awake." It's Charlotte. She's sitting on the bed. She looks worried.  "Are you okay? Hey, come. We're going home. It's almost 5 a.m. and I still want to get some sleep, you know." She mumbles. I'm get out of the bed. Walking to the stairs, while Charlotte is holding me. I'm still sleeping, kind of.

As I walk down the stairs, I trip about a coat. I almost fall, but Charlotte holds me. She gives me my coat and calls a taxi.

The taxi arrives after ten minutes. I'm sitting in the middle, with Natali next to me on the left, and Charlotte next to me on the right. We're driving to Natali's place. It's dark outside and there's not a lot of traffic. The driver seems a bit sleepy. He almost drives us against a tree. What the eff is he doing. It's 5 a.m., but that doesn't mean that you're allowed to drive us into something.

"Stop the car, stop the car!" Natali is screaming at the taxi driver. She opens the door while the taxi is still moving. There's an oncoming car on the other side of the road. The taxi tries to stop the car, but instead, the car slips and changes direction. All I could hear is a loud bang...

The door of the taxi has fallen of, because of the car driver who has hit the taxi. Natali  is lying on the ground, next to the damaged taxi. There's blood everywhere.

"Oh my god..." Charlotte cries, "Natali! Please, talk to me..."

Natali's just lying there. Her eyes are closed. She doesn't move at all. I can see a huge wound on her knee but that's all. At least, that's what I hope.

I kneel down beside her, while trying to communicate. She doesn't reply at all.

"Call an ambulance!" I scream at the taxi driver, who doesn't seem very interested. He gets his phone, but instead of calling an ambulance, he checks his messages. I get mad, so I pull his phone out of his hands, and call the police.

The taxi driver is still standing there staring at me, while I'm having a phone call. Charlotte is sitting on the ground, next to Natali. The ambulance will come in about half an hour.