I actually slept for more than fifteen hours straight, only waking when my mom asked me if I wanted some dinner.
“No thanks,” I managed, before I rolled over and dozed until the next morning. I guess I really was tired after all. I felt good when I finally woke, renewed and happy, too. Then reality hit and I remembered that I still hadn’t thought of a solution to my problem about how I was going to spend time with Michael and stay home with my brother.
The only way I could accomplish both, I concluded, was if I briefly met up with Michael and, once again, bribed James with the latest and greatest video game. I was starting to run out of money having to buy all those pricey CDs, along with my brother’s silence.
I heard someone walking down the hallway toward the bathroom. The door closed and the shower was turned on. It must be my mother, ’cause James never would have gotten up this early to clean up. I wondered what the age was when a boy put cleanliness at the top of his priority list. I wasn’t going to hold my breath when it came to my brother. My mother had to beg or threaten him with banishment from gaming if he refused to use soap and water.
I was thinking that seven o’clock was early, even for my mom to be awake on a Saturday. Then I realized why. My mother had to get ready for Brian. I wondered what he told her and how he would convince her to stay away overnight.
My mom never would have agreed to it in the past, but she was changing lately right before my eyes. James and I seemed less and less of a priority to her. Once again, I missed my dad, knowing he would never leave my brother or me alone for a day, let alone the whole night. My dad genuinely enjoyed being with us kids and it was so tragic that he couldn’t see us growing up, as he would have loved to. Or could he?
I lay in bed, read a book and heard the doorbell ring promptly at nine o’clock. I heard my mother walk down the stairs, open the door and greet Brian.
There was some muffled conversation before my mother exclaimed, “Oh, Brian! How could you?”
My mother raced up the stairs and breezed into my room. She acted like a love-struck teenager walking on air. “Willow, I have a big favor to ask of you.”
I lowered my book. “Yeah, it’s okay. Brian already asked me.” I forced my phoniest smile. “Have fun.”
“I will. Thank you dear,” she said before she floated out of my room and back downstairs to her date. I wanted to gag, but quickly realized I hadn’t eaten a thing in forever. All of a sudden I was starving and decided to head downstairs in search of food once my mother’s knight in shining armor whisked her away from the castle for good.
• • •
I hung around the house and didn’t do much after my mother and Brian left. I finished a book I was reading and surfed MyWeb for quite a while. Mainly, I was preoccupied thinking about my meeting with Michael. I was both nervous and excited. I tried not to think about five o’clock, but found that the more I tried not to think about it, the more I did!
After lunch, I took a shower and used my favorite shower gel. I conditioned my hair and was going to blow it dry and straighten it. I wanted to take my time and look my best. When I thought about it, I wondered why I cared so much about how I looked and realized it said a lot about how I really felt about Michael.
I cranked up the music in my room, as I carefully applied my makeup; not too little, not too much. I wanted to look pretty and natural. My cell phone vibrated on the dresser next to me. I saw that it was Tessa and debated whether or not to pick up. I decided to answer it since I had deliberately avoided her all week long. It was the weekend and I was feeling good. I lowered the music.
“Hello.”
“Hey, loser! Whaccha doin’?” I could tell she was smoking.
“Nothing. What about you?” I felt like I needed to ask, even though I didn’t really care.
“Just deciding what to wear over to Connor’s tonight. He’s having a big bash. Wanna come?”
Oh my God! First a party at Rocky’s and now at Connor’s? Two parties in one week! What would Erica and Taylor think now? As tempted as I was, I already had plans, but I didn’t want anyone to know about them, especially Tessa.
“Sorry, I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“’Cause I gotta stay home with my brother. My mom is out of town for the night and I cannot leave him. At all.”
“C’mon. Just for a little bit. You’ve left him before.”
I didn’t want to go into the whole explanation of how Brian had slept over and heard me return from the all-nighter at Rocky’s. “Sorry. Not happening. Maybe another time.”
“It’s your loss.”
“Well, try to have fun without me.”
“Don’t you worry,” Tessa said as she took a drag of her cigarette, “I’m sure I will.”
We hung up. I wished I had asked Tessa what she saw in Connor Finch. Taylor had to have had vision problems, too, because she also thought he was cute. Connor was tall and gangly with a head-full of thick, bright orange hair. Tessa probably liked him because he was on the football and the hockey teams. Like his best friend, Rocky, he was a super jock.
I could tell that, even though Tessa and Connor weren’t an official item, they still had the hots for each other, ever since the notorious romp in his backseat. I’m sure Tessa would have hooked up with Connor at Rocky’s if he had been there, but he had been home sick.
I finished doing my makeup and hair and was quite happy with the results. I glanced at the clock. It was four. I slipped on my favorite LE jeans and a pretty pink sweater. I doused myself in my favorite perfume and lastly put on a cute pair of silver hoop earrings.
I grabbed my North Face and purse and felt completely ready for my rendezvous. Even so, I crossed my fingers as I headed down the stairs, knowing that I still had to barter with my brother.
• • •
As I searched for the directions on the seat next to me, I almost drove off the road. I found them and read them; left onto Greenacre and right on Seaview. I wasn’t sure how to turn on the headlights or if I even needed them yet. It was dusk and getting darker by the minute. I decided that I should.
I had to concentrate on the road and look for street signs. Driving a couple of miles was proving to be a challenge, but convincing my brother to stay home without me, a piece of cake.
I couldn’t believe that I was actually driving my mother’s car, any car, for that matter, because I had never driven before. Tessa had done it so many times, I figured how difficult could it be. Plus, I didn’t want to spend the money on a taxi as originally planned, especially because my mom wasn’t home and would never find out anyway.
I had to carefully sneak the car keys off the hook by the front door so James wouldn’t know what I was doing. When I had looked back behind me before I left, there sat my brother, oblivious and preoccupied as usual.
I had one last right turn to make, which put me onto Shoreline Drive. I had to follow it for two miles before reaching my destination, or was it my destiny? I was getting more and more nervous by the second, nervous about seeing Michael almost forgetting that, technically, I had stolen a car.
I drove slowly and carefully. The clock on the dashboard read 4:55. I had less than a mile to go and five minutes until the meeting. I was tempted to make a U-turn and head back home. I started to shake, anxious about being with Michael alone, at his house, with no one else around. What would we say to each other? How would I feel being near him?
The mailbox to the left of me was clearly marked “161.” I knew this was the driveway that would lead up to the house where Michael was waiting for me. I put my left signal on, but couldn’t bring myself to turn the wheel. I sat there in the middle of the road until a car horn blared from behind me and snapped me out of my daze.
I had no choice but to pull up the drive and head toward the house. I slowly snaked up the driveway and could make out the silhouette of a very large home at the top.
There were no other cars in the driveway, except mine, and the house was co
mpletely pitch black. It seemed like not another soul was there, but I knew I had the right house for sure. Then it hit me. What if Michael hadn’t even shown up? What if I drove all this way, like an idiot, and he decided not to come after all? That wouldn’t be so unusual for him. I felt like a complete fool.
I stopped the car, put it in reverse and started to turn it around. I wanted to flee the scene and get outta there as fast as I could. Before I turned the car completely around, I glanced behind me, once last time, toward the dark and lonely dwelling.
Just then the front porch light flicked on and someone walked out the door. I had to strain to see who it was. The person waved their arms wildly and motioned for me to stop. I put the car in park, rolled down the window and stuck my head out so I could see better. Michael stood on the front stoop and smiled that heart-melting smile at me. I smiled back. He wasn’t a “no-show” after all.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
In the Middle of Nowhere (Willow's Journey #1) Page 24