Flowers and Pop Rocks

01

p o p p y

There were nine people with me in the waiting room.

First, a lady who seemed to be in her late twenties. Her blonde hair was wavy, and her name tag read "Leah" in big, bold letters. She seemed to be the one who knew what was going on.

In front of me, on the opposite side of the room, was my younger sister, Kayley. She was lounging on a one-seater couch, completely immersed in her phone as if our situation wasn't confusing at all.

To her right was a small sofa. There sat my cousin, Angel. We'd been inseparable since we were out of the womb, and from the look on her face, she seemed to be confused as well.

Beside Angel was an unfamiliar girl with long, straight black hair, talking to her casually. She intimidated me for sure, just with the look on her face. She was one of the more serious ones in the room.

I didn't know why, but I felt like I had to be cautious around her.

In one corner of the bright room was one of my childhood friends, Levi.

Our moms had been friends since high school, so we saw each other multiple times a year and were kind of close. He was talking to an attractive boy who was quite familiar to me.

His name was Blake, and we'd been somewhat friends for a few years. We didn't really hang out together because we came from slightly different crowds, but I did have pretty good conversations with him at the parties my cousin used to drag me to.

They glanced at me from time to time, making me wonder if they were talking about me.

Did I have something on my face nobody was telling me about?

Levi's sister, Sofia, was also in the room, leaning on the wall, looking incredibly uninterested with the chattering of the girl beside her.

Maybe I was overthinking, but she seemed to be nodding at everything the girl said with the hopes that she would stop.

The last was another boy. He looked strikingly similar to the mysterious girl beside my cousin, probably her brother.

He had headphones on, blocking the world out, as he leaned on the side of the seat my sister was on, sitting on the ground.

Overall, I seemed like the most out of place in the room. Or at least the most uncomfortable.

I just wanted Leah to stop checking her watch and start talking so I could understand what was happening.

I should probably say that I just found out about all this when I was abruptly woken up by my mother at five in the morning.

She told me to pack enough for two nights and three days, nothing more.

I still had no idea what was going on when she pushed my sister and I into a van with everyone in the room with me, excluding Leah.

It was past lunch time, but my phone had no notifications, exactly the same as it had been when I checked it two minutes prior. Nobody asked what I was up to or even a simple hi.

What a birthday, right? I guess that proved I didn't really have many friends.

My cousin had whispered a "happy birthday" to me when I sat beside her in the van on the way to wherever we were, and my sister did the same when we were getting out, but other than them, nothing.

I heard a loud beep, alarming everyone and causing all the murmuring in the room to stop completely. Headphone boy even removed his headphones to check out what was going on.