Selfishly Possessive

Chapter Twenty-Eight

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN: OCTOBER 18TH, 2016

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

            Since my mom told me that she was forcing me to attend the dance, I talked her into letting me skip school on Friday. Carolina and Park then insisted they had to go, which was fine by me.

            And I thought that by skipping school, I'd be able to sleep in later than nine without being woken up by my mother barging into my room very loudly. It seems that's not the case.

            "Mom!" I call out, shoving my face farther under my pillow. "I'm trying to sleep here."

            "Just stopping in to tell you that I'm going out job searching today since I lost my last one." At the mention of her finding a job, I lift my head and peer out at her from under the pillow. "Well, first I'm going to try to get back my last one, then if that doesn't work out, I'll resort to searching for other options. Oh, and the girls will be here any moment."

            Just as my mom finishes speaking, Carolina and Park come bursting into my room, seemingly full of energy.

            "Wakey, wakey! We've got a full shopping day ahead of us." Carolina exclaims with open arms. She comes over and plops down on the bed, narrowly missing my legs. She holds a delicious smelling cup that has the Starbucks label on the side. My mouth immediately starts watering.

            I reach for the cup, but she pulls it quickly out of my reach.

            "Ah, ah, ah!" Shaking a finger at me, she says, "You'd better start getting ready or this will be mine."

            I groan in protest and start to slide out of the bed. My body pops several times, clearly not liking the idea of getting out of my warm, comfy bed either.

            "Okay," Mom says, glancing at her wrist for the time. "I'd better get going if I'm going to make it there on time. Bye, sweetie."

            "Bye," I mumble, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

            My mom exits the room and as soon as she does so, Carolina and Park burst into motion. Park goes towards my closet to pick out an outfit while Carolina grabs my arm and drags me to the bathroom.

            "Take a shower. You look like you died and came back to life as a zombie," Carolina scolds. She gives me a hard look and stalks off, shutting the bathroom door behind her.

            I take one look in the mirror and instantly agree with her. While I may look better than I had earlier this week, just because Griffyn and I made up, I still look awful. I'm definitely not one of those girls who wake up cute in the morning. My hair is a rat's nest and my breath probably smells like soured milk.

            I quickly turn away from the mirror and start up the shower. The shower lasts longer than usual because I wash my body a couple times and my hair more than a couple times to make sure it's back to clean and silky rather than greasy.

            By the time I walk back to my room in a towel, there's a whole outfit laid out on the bed and the girls are nowhere to be seen. I make quick work of dressing myself and am just buttoning my jeans when Carolina bursts into the room, looking impatient.

            "Oh, thank God you're ready. Come on, I've got to get some makeup on you to cover those bags under your eyes. You look like you've been punched several times."

            "Gee, thanks, Carolina." I roll my eyes, but can't help but smile because I know she doesn't mean any harm by her words.

            "Hey, do you want to go out looking like someone's personal punching bag?" She asks. At my silence she gives me a smug look. "That's what I thought."