CHERRIES & PEACHES!

Scarlet

'This wasn't supposed to happen,'
Janie told her mom the vacation idea, her mom didn't say anything. She nodded softly while Janie told her the plan, and smiled while Sadie jumped in and told her they needed to leave by Tomorrow.
"Sounds good, you'll keep in touch though, right?" Her mom looked hesitant, a nervousness crept in the air.
"Course' mom," Janie stood up and poured herself a cup of coffee, adding a teaspoon of cream and two of sugar.
"You're taking a car right?" The woman said, pulling her hair back in a messy ponytail, a nervous tic her mom picked up seven years ago, when their bills got higher, and her dad had to work double shifts in both of his jobs just to get by.
Janie isn't angry, but when old classmates could afford new limited editions, a wave of jealousy would flow through her, and now she realizes that it makes sense.
Sadie sipped her coffee, before nodding and crossing her long, lean legs.
"Tomorrow morning at 5:00 we'll get in the car and go it's a full day of driving, so we'll take turns every six hours or so so I say we'll be there by ten tomorrow morning ." Sadie smiled, her perfectly white smile.
"Does she need money for the hotel room? Or is it prepaid?" Her mom was rapid firing questions at Sadie, a smile constantly on her face.
"Uh, no. I've got it all covered, you will need money though for food and clothes, so I'd say about five thousand," Sadie comes from a well-to-Do family, she's never had to struggle, so saying that amount of money slipped past her smooth lips no problem.
"O-Kay," Jen Lewis's ruby lips opened and closed, gaping. Her eyes flashed, a look Janie couldn't quite decipher.
"Is it okay if I pick up the money from the bank tonight?" She has asked, her hair falling in her eyes.
"Sure, Jen." Sadie said, a soft look that Sadie only seemed to have around the Lewis's.
"I have a friend in New York. She'd be happy to lend some money, if you want. I know five thousand is a big ask, in a short amount of time." Sadie plastered on a sweet voice, reserved for difficult conversations with parents.
"No, no honey. We're fine, I just don't have the money on me now,"
Sadie sighed, not a sigh of frustration, a sigh of relaxation, almost relief.
"How about you two girls go pack Janie's things, and I'll talk to your father, we'll figure this out okay?" She asked.
Her mom looks tired, the bags under her eyes darkening every day.
They haven't been doing as well as they used to, ever since the pregnancy - no agency is willing to take a mother, not with the scars.
So, without Janie's mother working and her dad working two jobs, things have been a little stressful.
"You coming?" Sadie asked, her frame already heading down the hallway.
It was a two hour pack, they packed two weeks worth of clothes, books because ( Janie can't sleep without reading,) her makeup bag, stuffing it a little more then usual.
She packed toiletries, and her blue and white journal, a small notebook that held all her emotions inside, everything that she feels is trapped in those pages.
That night they had supper, a nice meal - stir fry, and for desert, homemade brownies, (per Sadie's request) they turned out great, the taste was sweet, and the icing was soft and gooey.
"Well girls," Janie's mom said, dishrag over one slim shoulder.
"It's gonna be a long drive tomorrow, so you better get some sleep."
Janie moved to hug her mom goodnight, and she and Sadie moved to her bedroom.
It was dark out, the daylight long gone, instead replaced by darkness leaking into every nook and cranny of the cold, winter sky.
Janie hates summer, she hates the long, drawn out days - caused by the sun, the kind that soaks the air in stale, humidity that doesn't seem to go anywhere until autumn. So, with her best friend shrugging on her jacket, and her backpack now hanging off one shoulder. "I'll see you at five right," Sadie asked, a light smile touching her features.
With a final nod, and a brief hug, the two girls waved their goodbyes and Sadie snuck out into the depths of the night, her lilac perfume caught in the air.
Whilst laying in bed Janie thought.
She thought about nothing in particular, small things; if she was going to get a breakfast wrap or a sandwich for brunch tomorrow morning. If she was going drive the first shift.
It was four days and sixty minutes until her seventeenth birthday.
Four days until Sadie will get off her fucking ass about being older than her.
Janie should feel happy that her best friend got her a birthday present to fucking New York of all places, but she felt a feeling of guilt, that someone shouldn't be spending so much money on her - even as a birthday present.
She wouldn't tell Sadie, not in a million years.
Sadie,Sadie,Sadie,Sadie.
A girl so sweet, with so much happiness to give to the world.
The world doesn't deserve Sadie.
No one really deserves someone as special as her.
—————-
That night, as Janie lay awake in her bed, thinking about their trip, she lost hours of sleep, soon ten pm turned to eleven and eleven soon turned to one.
She tends to overthink everything, from conversations she had five years ago to a mere mistake she made only hours prior.
She thought about how this trip may make her parents go in fucking debt.
That stings.
She thinks about how this trip will be the trip of her life, the one where her and Sadie will talk about it for years, tell their kids about the trip of a fucking lifetime.
She smiles at the thought.
'Relax,' she told herself, eyes slipping closed. 'Relax,'.