Welcome Back, Riley

Chapter 16

I'm fast asleep, when my mom barges into my room on Thanksgiving morning, waking me up. I rub my eyes and look at the clock on my bedside table, it's barely 6:47. Why would she want to wake me up so early? She knows I am not a morning person.

"Mom, why are you waking me up right now?" I say groggy. "The sun isn't even up yet."

"We have a lot to d o," I throw the blanket over my head. "No, no, no," she pulls the blanket away. "You get up. I'll help okay."

I groan, "Why don't you do everything?"

"Didn't you say you were going to host, Riley?"

I tiredly smile, "Technically I am. I mean it's my house. You just get to do all the fun stuff." She gives me one of those if looks can kill looks and I sit up. "Okay, okay, I'm up."

"Good, I'll meet you in the kitchen," she says walking out my bedroom door.

I sit up and blindly reach for my phone only to find that it isn't there. That's right Auggie and I turned off our phones to enjoy the last day of it just being the two of us before our parents go into town. My phone is probably downstairs in my purse.

I pull myself off my bed and drag my feet across my bedroom floor to my bathroom. I brush my teeth and quickly rush down the stairs. I don't bother even bother to change. Once I'm downstairs, I see my purse sitting on the table I have near the front door. I dig through hurryingly trying to turn it on. I haven't talked to Lucas since I left the voicemail for it. I keep waiting for the screen to turn on, but it doesn't; of course, it's dead.

I let out a frustrated sigh, I should have charged it last night. But when we got in last night, it was already late and I was exhausted. All I was thinking about at the time was my bed. Right as I'm about to make a move to go back up the stairs to put it to charge, my mom calls my name from behind me. I turn my head slightly to look at her.

"I'll be right back. I'm just going to go plug my phone in."

She takes a few steps towards me reaching out her hand, "I'll care of that. You still have those sleepy eyes. If I let you go up there, you'll wait for your phone to turn on and lay down."

I let out a small laugh, "You're right." I hand my phone over.

My mom starts to walk up the stairs, and I saunter to the kitchen. Once I get in there, I see that my mom had already started making her homemade stuffing to stuff the turkey. Thank goodness she made it, I thought she would want me to, but I wouldn't be able to not as well as her anyways.

I hear my mom's footsteps enter the kitchen. She is so wide awake, and here I am fighting to keep my eyes open. It's a little after seven, but I guess for her it would ten. My mom and I dance around each other in the kitchen, more like I'm trying to stay out of her way.

Around eight, my mom slides the turkey in the oven and gets started on breakfast. I try to help, but it only seems like I'm getting in the way.

"Mom, do you need my help or do you want me to just sit and talk with you? I am capable of cooking."

She starts to laugh, "Just sit and talk to me about something. How has your week been with Auggie?"

I take a seat at the island, and go on to tell her everything that we did this week. The big surprise to her was that I finally made it to the top of the Space Needle. She thought she'd die before she saw the day come. My fear of heights is that serious. But the biggest surprise of all is that I hired Evan from ski lodge and been working with him for years without realizing who he was.

"Does that mean Lauren is here?" she says a little snarky and I can't help the snicker that escapes.

"I really don't know."