Polaroid

Chapter 7

ainsley was tempted to go in through her bedroom window, but she knew that would only make it worse. the only way to make it through alive was to stand there and let her mom throw whatever she wanted to at her. her dad may shoot some insults her way, but it was always her mom. her dad was never sober enough to really care.

so she walked into the house, deciding to let whatever was thrown hit her because then it would be over sooner. ainsley’s mom walked over to her and dragged her by the ear to the kitchen. “do you know how stupid you are?! i’ve seen your pack, you know! i’m not an idiot! i know exactly what you’re doing with your life! you are throwing it away! well i don’t care!! you can go to hell, i don’t give a shit! don’t you agree, jim?!” her dad perked up at his name. “huh? what? is the girl back? about time, she’s been gone for hours.” her mom slapped ainsley softly across the face. “see! you’re terrible! i’m done with you, get out of my sight!” ainsley figured she was about done, so she turned around to go to her room.

ainsley almost fell down when something hit her square in the back of the head. she spun around and  saw a wooden spoon on the ground next to her. her mom was simply staring at her. ainsley knew what would happen if she tried to comment. she’d learned that in seventh grade.

so she stomped off to her room and sat rubbing her head, ranting to iliza. she hadn’t told iliza about any of her friends yet, because she wasn’t even sure if they were friends yet. she couldn’t stop thinking about the idea of everyone getting together and making fun of her, and they were going to put glue in her hair or something on friday when she fell asleep. she knew she was being so immature, but she couldn’t help it. that’s how her brain worked.  always in the negative.

her mom didn’t bug ainsley for the rest of the night, so she was able to have eli call her. he called her around 5 at night.

“hello?”

“hey, ainsley. what happened earlier?”

“oh, well, my mom can’t decide if she wants to care about where i am or not, so i just kind of wait for her to not care.  that usually lasts for a month, then she’s manic for a week. it sucks.”

“you know what that reminds me of?”

“what?”

“it reminds me of a period.”

“oh my god how did i never realize that its exactly like a period!”

“i now understand how terrible that must be. you see, i have a fifteen year old sister.”

“eeh. that’s dodgy.”

“very.”

they talked on the phone for hours. ainsley couldn’t stop thinking about what daisy had said earlier. it did seem like she liked him. but i barely know you, she kept thinking while talking to him. how can i love you if i’ve just met you?  ainsley only hung up when her mom threatened to kick her ass into next thursday.

she woke up the next morning like it was christmas day. she knew it was silly to be that excited about hanging out with friends, everybody else in the world has done it before. ainsley went through her bag of stuff again and put on an arctic monkeys band tee shirt with jeans and a cardigan. she didn’t want to make her hair any worse than it already was, so she just scrunched it with water and it was at least a little less frizzy. she got an egg mcmuffin on the way to school for breakfast, and looked for eli when she got there. she didn’t know what his car looked like yet, so she couldn’t find him that way. she decided to go in and drop her stuff off then stand by their lunch table.

she saw anne before she saw eli, and they talked for a while. “hey, ainsley. are you excited about tonight?” ainsley nodded. “you know, eli talks a lot about you.” ainsley looked at anne suspiciously. that didn’t sound right. “what does he talk about?” anne realized what it had sounded like. “all good things, promise. he told me not to say this, but i think he really likes you. he told me about your guys’ phone call last night.” ainsley was relieved. he wasn’t talking about how annoying she was, or how he wished she would just go away. “yeah, we talked for a long time. he, he didn’t tell you what we talked about, did he?” because she wasn’t ready to tell everyone else about her home life.

“no, he just said you guys talked. and that he took you to the park.” ainsley scoffed. “i bet he does that with all his girlfriends.” anne looked at her funny. “he’s never had a girlfriend.” it was ainsley’s turn to be confused, again. “what?”  anne shook her head. “he’s always waited. sure, there have been plenty of options, but he’s never actually dated anyone. and he never took any of the options to the park. see, you must be pretty special.” ainsley caught sight of eli’s smile. “must be,” she said distractedly, and anne caught sight of him too. anne put a finger to her lips, to imply that that conversation was private. then she hailed eli over.

“hey ainsley, anne. what’s up?” anne shrugged. “not much. we were just talking about tonight and how absolutely insane dreyson is.” eli laughed. “he’s like asylum level batshit crazy. don’t mess with him.” ainsley laughed. “i wasn’t planning on it.” they talked until the bell, when ainsley had to walk off to gym, feeling happy and excited at the thought that eli might like her back.