Summer After High School

22

Paige

When I get to my street entrance, Brenda is already there.

"Whoa girl, that was quick, " I say pulling her into an embrace.

"I missed you too, " comes the reply.

We walk into my gate and I take a deep breath when I ring the doorbell.

When mum opens the door, her eyes are filled with fury but the fury gradually disappears when she sees Brenda.

"Morning miss Rachel, I can explain everything. "

Mum lets out a breath of relief.

"We were so worried about you, we were just about leaving to file a missing person case. "

Geez!

"No mum. I'm fine. I'm so sorry. I was just so excited to see Brenda again that I lost track of time. I'm so sorry. "

Mum opens the door wider and we step in. My whole family is in the living room and they are all throwing questions at once.

I let Brenda handle it. She tells them that I slept over and we were to carried away with our discussions that we forgot to even check out our phones.

"Paige Camille Benson, " Never scare us like that again.

My eyes widen, Dad never calls my full name.

"I'm fine dad. I'm really sorry. "

He nods. He looks a bit pale like his skin is loosing colour.

He opens the kitchen cupboards and swallows some pain reliefs.

"Dad. Are you okay? " I ask.

"I'm fine. I just had a headache worrying about you," he says, heading upstairs.

Now I feel guilty. Should I even feel guilty? He's doing something that makes me worry too. He's cheating!

"You're not going to work? "

"Did I fail to mention that I'll be working from home for a while? I'm working
online. "

I nod.

He stares at me, his expression unreadable. He looks really stressed.

"Paige, come see me later. "

I nod, then I grab breakfast and pull Brenda all the way to my room and then proceed to take a shower.

"Thank you very much, " I tell her as I dress up.

She nods, grabbing a piece of toasted bread and stuffing it in her mouth.

"Now tell me what happened with
Brian, " her mouth is full as she speaks.

"Did I mention that something happened with him? "

Really, I don't want to talk about how Brian continuously made a fool out of me.

"No. You haven't mentioned anything about him and that's how I know something is wrong. Paige what happened? " She asks as she makes herself comfortable on my bed.

My sob accompanies my speech as I tell her everything.

"Paige I'm so sorry I wasn't here for you. My family decided that everyone should switch their phone off so we would concentrate more on the holiday. It was fun but now I'm glad the holiday was cut short and we had to come back. "

She cleans my eyes.

"I just wish killing him wasn't illegal. "

I wipe my eyes too. Really I don't want to waste any more tears on Brian. I am tired.