Attracting Trouble

Chapter 10: Coffee Stains, Fire Trucks, & Stuff

The rain is pouring onto the roof, sounding like a herd of horses galloping.

I push myself up in my bed and glance around my room. It's not very bright in my room due to the storm clouds hovering over Washington.

I hear my phone buzzing suddenly and look over to see that I have five missed calls. All of them are from Will.

I also notice that it's 7:45 in the morning and I have 15 minutes to get ready and get to school.

Dialing Will's number, I bustle to grab a pair of jeans and a shirt to pull on. I hold the phone between my shoulder and ear as I drop my clothes on the bathroom floor and grab my toothbrush.

"Where are you?" Will asks as soon as he answers the phone.

I quickly spit into the sink and drop my toothbrush into its holder.

"I just got up," I say in a panic. "I don't know why or where the heck my dad's at."

"I passed him on my way here, Jessa. Where is your house key?" I hear shuffling on the other end of the phone.

"Under the door mat where it's always been," I say as I put my phone on speaker to pull on my clothes. "How long have you been out there?"

"I've been waiting - beeping the horn and everything - for at least fifteen minutes. I figured you were getting ready." The sound of the rain stops on his end so I guess he's entered the house now.

"Seriously?" I ask him frustratedly. "It takes me not even ten minutes to get ready."

His voice disappears suddenly and I look at my phone to see if it had died or something.

"Chop chop," Will says from behind me. "We still have coffee to get."

I roll my eyes at him and take a look in the mirror to see a rats nest in my hair. Speaking figuratively of course.

I brush it out and pull it into a bun on the top of my head, then find some makeup to dust on quickly.

By the time it's 8 o'clock, we're driving down the road towards town where Will plans on getting coffee from McDonald's.

"We're going to be so late," I argue. "We can get coffee another time, okay?"

"Jessa, judging by the sound of your voice and the way I just want to go back to sleep, I'm pretty sure we need some caffeine."

I lean back into the seat and look at my phone every five seconds to check the time.

"What are you doing?" I ask when Will pulls into the drive-thru. "We need to hurry!"

"It's pouring the rain down," he tells me. "Stop worrying, we'll be fine."

"This drive-thru is so slow, though," I whine. "Also, I'm afraid your truck is gonna die if we idle for too long."

"Ha-ha," he says. "This ole' thing'll get us anywhere."

I roll my eyes and check the time again. At this time in school we would only have about five minutes left of first period.

"Can I have..." Will trails off as he orders for us. Surprisingly, he orders the only kind of drink I'll ever take when there's coffee involved: iced coffee.

Satisfied, I try not to argue until we pull out into the road again, both of us sipping our coffees.

"Okay," I say. "Now let's book it."

Just as I say it, Will presses harder on the gas pedal and the truck lurches forward, causing me to jerk my drink which leads to some coffee spilling over the cup and onto my shirt.