Say Your Prayers, You're Really Gonna Need Them.

★ ★ ★ - Indicates point of view change.

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I spent the morning cleaning, deciding it was overdue and hoping it would help clear my head, having to stop every so often as my hands would shake due to the decreasing alcohol levels in my system.

After showering and getting myself ready I decided to also appease my mother of any worry by giving her a call, we had been texting since our last call which was over two weeks ago but I hadn’t replied to her for the past couple of days.

Dialling the number, I sat myself down on the stairs and took a deep breath whilst the ringing filled my ears.

1...2...3...4...5...6...7 I counted the number of rings in my head.

And on the 9th ring she picked up.

“Hello?” she answered a little breathlessly.

“Jeez, you took your time.” I teased with a smile on my lips.

“Oh honey!” she exclaimed happily which made my smile grow wider.

“Hey Mum.”

“Why haven’t you replied to my texts? I even left a message on the machine” she asked with fake irritation.

“I know, I know, I'm so sorry... I’ve just been so busy. Anyway shouldn’t you be so busy that you don’t even notice if I call, or don’t call for that matter?” I questioned lightly.

“You should know by now, busy or not I always listen out for your calls” she smiled.

“And you should know by now how irresponsible I am when it comes to attempting to make those calls; are you busy then? With work, that is.” I asked, trying slightly to change the subject, although I was actually interested.

“Yes very, I’ve just sold an artist’s pitch to the company, they really liked his work so I'm happy, he’s only young and really worked hard to deserve this.” she said all in one breath.

“Well that’s good.... but mum are you okay? You sound a little frenzied?”

“Yes sweetheart, just a little rushed for time I’m meant to be in a meeting in...Oh shit...20 minutes! And I can’t find my earrings or anything...” she trailed off as I began to hear the rustling of bags in the background static.

“A meeting, on a Saturday? Screw that.” I said with a frown.

“My thoughts exactly.”

I laughed before adding, “You go, we can speak later.”

“Oh Ruse are you sure?” she asked sounding honestly sad.

“Of course! Besides this is important; I’ll still be on the end of the phone later” I consoled.

“Thank you Hun, I’ll ring and speak to you in the next few days after everything settles down again, I love you”

“Love you too Mum, now hurry you’re going to be seriously late”

The last few sentences from my mother were more or less her scolding herself until her ranting was replaced with a click and the dial tone.

After receiving a scolding from both Ellen and Verity, I spent the duration of explaining why I wasn't at college the day prior; keeping the details loose and just said I spent the day with Harlan.

Verity was satisfied far easier than Ellen was, but in the end she had to except that I didn’t have any more details (that I was going to tell) to salivate over and gave up too.

I spent the remainder of the day vegging out in front of the TV, watching re-runs of bland shows.

And I couldn’t help my mind wandering towards thoughts of Harlan.

It was 4 pm, exactly six hours and fifteen minutes since Harlan had left me at the end of my drive way.

What worried me was that I didn’t know how many hours it would be until I next saw him.

That is, if I ever did.