The Smallest in the Family G/t

Waist of a Saturday

Faye

    My stomach dropped as I read over the texts. I thought hard about what to text after not replying to my only friend for over two weeks. Still in panic mode, I began to type: Hey! ‘That’s stupid.’ I backspaced and started over: How ar- ‘no’ sorry I haven’t texted in a while. It was a pitiful set of words but what was I supposed to say?! I stared at the screen intently, maybe she was asleep. It was past nine already. Or maybe she was just mad. I counted to thirty before allowing the screen to go black. My hands covered my face, “I’m such an idiot.” I dragged my hands down my face. ‘It’s fine,’ I told myself, ‘it’s only been two weeks, it’s fine. Friends don’t stop being friends because they didn't talk for two weeks.’ 
     I made my way to the full tub, making the realization that I still had no soap. The hardwood floor felt much colder now than it had before. I scoured through the mountains of bubble wrap until I found what I was looking for. The bottles of shampoo and berry scented soaps were nearly impossible to find because of the mess my bro- the boys left in here.
I hurried up to the bathroom for the third time tonight. The soap made abstract scribbles at the bottom of the tub. I proceeded to pour a ridiculous amount into the water, and then reach my hand in to mix it all up. As soon as the bubble began to form, I was in. I half expected to become fully submerged by the suds like I had my first day here. It was certainly a shock when I slipped two feet under before my feet hit the bottom of the sink. 
     My gaze shifted to my phone on the counter. I glared at it as if I stared long enough, it would suddenly buzz with a notification from Ava. I began counting to thirty, if it didn’t ring in thirty seconds, I’d forget about it and quit hindering the enjoyment of my bath. “...19, 20, 21, 22,” *bzzz bzzz* *bzzz bzzz* My eyes widened, I nearly fell on my face trying to rush on the soap slicked floor. My wet fingers tapped the green telephone icon to no avail. I groaned as I looked around frantically for my towel. The buzzing was background noise to my panic. I eyed the small device wearily while I dried my hands. “Finally,” I took a deep breath, and, “Ava?” 
     “...”
     “Hello?”
     “Cherry? WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TEXT?!” I jerked away from the phone with a wince. “I called like thirty times!!! Did you not see the texts?! I-I was so…” Ava went silent for a few moments. “Are you okay?” She spoke in her typical calm voice.
“I’m fine and so sorry about completely ghosting you, I swear it wasn’t on purpose. I completely spaced these couple of weeks, everything seemed so… crazy even though I’ve been doing nothing until today.”
     Ava snorted, “yeah, I bet. Chad said you were screaming when some giantess came to get you.”
“I didn’t scream!”
     “Mhm...”
     “I didn’t.”
     “He said Fiona had to drag you away from the door”
     “He’s lying, that never happened.”
     “... I’ve missed you so much. It’s so boring here without you.”
     “I’m sure it is. All you have now is Chad and a bunch of toddlers drooling all over you.”
     “Yeesh, way to make me feel worse.”
     “Hey, you said you had an interview, how’d that go?”
     “Oh, yeah that was a while ago. I don’t- I don’t think they’re interested.” Ava’s voice became low. “Well you never know, sometimes they just need a little more time to think things over.”
     “No, they didn’t wanna meet me in the first place, but Fiona insisted. They were nice, but I could tell they didn’t care.”
     “Maybe-”
     “They left with one of the eight year olds.” The two sat in awkward silence for a few seconds. “B-but it’s okay though,” it was just like Ava to always try and counter bad news with something positive. “I have another one in a week.” Although she tried to sound happy, I could hear her voice crack. “It’s okay to be upset, Ava.” 
     “I’m not upset, just annoyed… I’ll text you later, okay? Bye.” I sighed in the silent room, my bath had certainly cooled down, but it was still warm enough to sit comfortably in.
I only played with the bubbles for a few minutes before leaving wet footprints on the tiled floor and did my best to pat my hair dry. It was still damp when I climbed into bed, but it would have to do, because there was no way I was about to stay up longer than I had to.
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