Elisabeth Marie

Chapter Eleven

Soon it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We never made an event out of any holiday other than Christmas in the apartment, but it still stung a little when Mother said she was going out of town (again) for Thanksgiving with some friends. So, I made the obvious decision: call Timothy.

I had already gone over to his house a few times- to go for another dinner and to go trick-or-treating. I had never been, clearly, and it was fun, if more than a little bit strange. I hadn't known to bring a costume so Christopher lent me a cape and a wand and I was a wizard for the night. Timothy may have begun to suspect that something was out of the ordinary with my life, given that I was sixteen and having the time of my life trick-or-treating with him and two eight-year-olds, Adam's kids, however he didn't say anything. On another occasion I had gone with Timothy to Krista's house, because something had gone wrong with her Wi-Fi and she needed him to fix it. He "figured he would bring me along". 

As time went on, it was progressively easier to see Timothy and his family. It seemed that Mother was out almost every week doing something with friends, and I was sure it was only a matter of time before she would buy another apartment closer to work and just start living there instead of making the commute to the penthouse every day.

When I called Timothy to ask him his opinion on the situation, he invited me over to his house for Thanksgiving. "Will your mom be okay with that?" he asked.

"Of course!" I said. Mother had stopped calling me when she was on these "retreats", so in my eyes there was no chance that she would know I was gone.

"Awesome," said Timothy. "We're going to decorate for Christmas the Friday after Thanksgiving, though. Do you want to just stay over? You could sleep in the guest room with Krista."

I thought about it for a second. "That sounds like fun!" I said, a hint of nervousness sneaking into my voice. Thankfully, Timothy didn't seem to notice.

"Really? Cool! How about I pick you up at noon tomorrow, and I can drive you home at, like, eight on Friday?"

"That would be perfect," I said.

"Timothy!" I could hear a voice calling in the background. "Come over here and do the dishes! You said you would ten minutes ago!"

"Sorry, Elisabeth," Timothy apologized. "I have to go, but I'll see you at noon tomorrow! Call me if you have any questions or if it's not going to work out."

"Okay, bye!"

"Bye."

I hung up the phone and quickly dialed Krista's number. "Yeah?" answered Krista. I could tell from the sound quality that she was probably holding the phone with her wrists to keep it clean from the paint on her hands.

"Hi Krista, it's Elisabeth. Guess what?"

"What?" asked Krista excitedly. I heard the phone getting set down on a table and the sound quality changed so I knew I was on speaker.

"I'm coming to Lisa's house for Thanksgiving!"

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Cool!"

"So, um, I was wondering what I needed to bring? And who's going to be there?"

"Oh, just bring what you normally bring for dinner," Krista said. The sound of something being knocked over echoed through the phone. I waited patiently for the clattering to stop before speaking again.

"But I'm staying overnight," I clarified.

"Oh! Really? Cool! So, bring, you know, new clothes, hairbrush, toothbrush, pajamas... actually that's probably it. Be sure to bring your camera though, I want to show you a great place to take pictures."