Not The One

Ch. 16

It was amazing I didn't wake up feeling stuffed compared to all the food I'd eaten just the day before. Alley lay in a heap near my feet at the end of the bed, and I reached out lazily to stroke his fur. He was growing so fast. CJ and Dominque lay asleep in the bed across from me, and they looked so peaceful that for once I could understand why Jazzy called them cuties. I thought I'd waken up pretty early, but when I heard chatter downstairs and I checked the time on my phone, I realized that my definition of early wasn't the same as the adults. So much for shopping; I'd missed out on Black Friday, but I wondered how much fun I would have actually had. Every year, Jazzy and Antoinette went with me to our three malls in Toby, never for anything specific, and usually to scope out the boys we saw to my irritation. Catherine was as far from a morning person as you could get and always passed in favor of sleeping in.

"Morning, Precious," Rebecca, Maggie's older sister greeted me. She, her mother, and two other family members were gathered around the fold out tables and chairs from yesterday's meal. They were watching the news, but the volume was turned down low. "Morning," I waved to everyone else. "Do you know where my dad and Maggie are?" I asked Rebecca. She shrugged and motioned to the sales papers that littered the tables. "Probably still out shopping. You know how my sister is," she rolled her eyes and I gave polite smile. I had more than a pretty good idea. "Anybody watching the TV?" I asked, and after receiving a general consensus that no one cared, I changed the channel to the weather. Forty-nine degrees even.

I walked back to the room I shared with Dominque and CJ, and quickly changed my clothes. Before I left, I made sure to grab my camera and a lens. From the drive here, I remembered us passing by a wooded trail. Maggie had tried to hold a conversation with me that lasted longer than two minutes, but I hadn't been in much of a chit-chatting mood, and waited for her to understand that pulling out my headphones to listen to music was my way of saying 'please don't talk to me'. I'd wanted to be alone with my thoughts, even if they led me to Anderson and the mistake I was starting to believe I'd made. The amount of texts I composed and deleted for him now outnumbered the ones meant for Jazzy.

I disappeared out the screen door at the back of the house, not wanting to draw attention to myself. I'd written a simple note, "OUT & ABOUT – GEORGIA" on the back of a sheet of paper and stuck it on the bedroom door. After a double-check to makes sure I had everything I wanted to take with me, I was gone. The crisp air felt nice for the first time since the season had changed and skipped fall altogether. Leaves crunched beneath my boots and I purposefully stepped on every acorn I saw across my path. I walked on the sidewalk side of the street and watched cars fly by, though there weren't as many due to the holiday weekend. I even saw one car drive by with a Christmas tree strapped tight to the top and felt a rush of excitement. Most of my teachers had given up on trying to teach anything new, which signified that the semester was just about done. The year was coming to an end, and shortly my birthday, the last day of the year, would be here. I wasn't born on Christmas, but I still got double the presents. Mom was the only one who wouldn't indulge me and made a bigger deal about it than I did.

"Rocking around the Christmas tree," I sang into the winter air, not caring that I couldn't carry a tune to save my life. Then, when I realized I might scare somebody with my God-awful voice I pulled out my phone and played Christmas carols to accompany my walk. "Ooo thirty percent," I stared at my phone then shrugged. I'd forgotten to charge my phone last night, but I wouldn't be gone that long, so it was fine. I turned the music off to save battery power and paid attention to the houses and other landmarks I passed so I'd be able to get back to the house. "Rrrr-ruf! RUF!" I jumped up, spinning around in a circle. The source of the noise was a pair of Rottweilers, barking and growling at me from behind a tall fence. It wasn't tall enough in my opinion, and I hunched down my shoulders and walked faster, making sure I didn't make eye contact with any of them. A little more walking and sky gazing later, I made it to the trail. "Wow, nobody else here?" I said more for my benefit. I lifted up my camera, which bumped against my chest and stomach on the trip, hanging around my neck thanks to the strap.