Spinning at the Seams

“Hello?” I call out to the silence. I came home to find the front door unlocked and no one to greet me. I begin walking through the house, my hand flipping on lights as I go. “Is anyone here?” I call out, a noise responds to my desperate question. I follow the sound, and come to a door.
I carefully push the door open, to find my mom, her back to me, and her chest heaving as she sobs. I walk forward, and place my hand on her back, just trying to calm her. I sweep my eyes across the room and take in the scene. The closet looks emptier, and the drawers are pulled out, clothes gone. My hand suddenly feels nothing as my mom moves away from it, her eyes resting on the charm bracelet on my arm. I reach out, but she continues to back away, the tears falling faster down her face.
Suddenly the scene changes, I’m sitting outside my dad’s office, or what used to be his office. I’ve ditched school for the first time ever to be here, to see what I refuse to believe. But here it is, the real evidence sitting right in front of me. The nameplate that once held his name has been removed, and remains empty. The desk sitting right in front of me, the one that Nina sat at every time I came to visit, now sits empty. The only evidence anyone once sat in it is the coffee stain on the chair that rests with it.
“Hey, are you ok?” I turn to see the source of the voice, and find myself staring into two beautiful blue eyes. Adam. He smiles at me sadly, and holds out a hand, helping me to my feet.
“No, but I think I will be,” I hear myself respond. He smiles, and holds my hand, walking me towards the elevator at the end of the hall.
“Shouldn’t you be at school?” He asks, as he hits the button for the elevator.
“Shouldn’t you?” I question back. He nods slowly, and I turn away as the elevator dings. I walk forward, and wait as the doors open to reveal, nothing. No cozy elevator, only an empty shaft.
I turn towards him, and am ready to speak when I feel his hands on my back pushing me forward into the dark shaft.
I bolted up in the bed, my breathing shallow. Just a dream, I realized looking at my sleeping friends.
“Toni? What’s wrong?” I looked towards Mel, who was sitting up, a headphone dangling out of one ear.
“Nightmare,” I responded shaking my head, trying to clear it.
“You want to talk about it?” I just shook my head; I couldn’t, because that would make it real. Mel nodded, her face understanding as she comes to sit next to me on the mattress.
“Ok, we don’t have to talk about it, but you gonna be ok?” I nodded, and she put in the other headphone before leaning her back against the wall that my mattress hugged. I leaned too, letting my dream replay in my head. What can this mean? I pondered, trying to figure it out, the two scenes were familiar, they had really happened, the day my dad left and two days after he left. But where did Adam fit into this? I was jolted from my thoughts by my phone buzzing nearby. I reached out and grabbed it, bringing it close in order to read the caller id. ADAM, it flashed, I hit the ignore button, and leaned back again. He is the one person I can’t talk to right now, at least not after that dream. My phone began buzzing again, and his name flashed on the screen. Does he ever give up? I wondered as I hit the ignore button again, earning a confused look from Mel. When I knew my phone had stopped for a moment, I pressed the button to turn it off, watching as the screen faded to black, to bad I can’t do that in real life, I mused. Just turn off Adam when I need to think, make him listen, or turn him up so I can hear what he’s really saying.
“Don’t want to talk to Adam?” Mel asked, pulling her headphone out again, it’s a wonder that she hasn’t gotten an ear infection.
“No, not really, the dream has me freaked out.” Mel gave me a sad smile, she opened her mouth, but a phone buzzing near her once occupied bed cut off whatever she planned to say. I watched her frown, and walk back to her bed, her music note slippers making her steps silent. I noticed her frown get deeper as she looked at the caller ID, she sent me a look before flipping the phone open.
“Hello?” She asked, her voice apprehensive as she came to sit back down next to me.
“Um, yeah.” She responded to an unheard question, I studied her face as she sat down. It seemed nervous and a little guilty. Who was she talking to?
“Yeah, she is, but she’s sleeping.” She looked at me as she said this, and then looked away as she noticed me looking back. I narrowed my eyes, I can’t believe this.
“Oh, uh, I may of done that, it was going off, and I didn’t-“ I didn’t let her finish as I grabbed the phone from her hands.
“YOU CALL MY FRIENDS! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! JUST BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO TALK TO YOU RIGHT THIS SECOND YOU GO AND CALL MY FRIENDS?! SERIOUSLY?! LOOK WHEN I WANT TO TALK TO YOU, I’LL CALL YOU BACK! YOU DON’T NEED TO GO AND CALL MY FRIENDS! REALLY, I’M SURPRISED YOU CALL AT ALL, ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT ALL OF OUR CONVERSATIONS ARE ONE SIDED! NOW STOP CALLING MY FRIENDS AND MY BROTHER WHEN I DON’T PICK UP!” I screamed into the phone before hitting the end call button, not letting Adam respond. I forced a smile as I handed the phone back to an uneasy looking Mel, who quickly turned it off.
“Hey Romans, you know some of us are trying to sleep here.” Shannon said as she propped herself up on an elbow. She looked about to say something else when her phone went off, she stared at it for a moment before tossing it to me. “Tell your boyfriend I’m sleeping.” She stated simply, as I fumbled to catch her phone.
“REALLY! YOU THOUGHT SHANNON WOULD HELP YOU!” I yelled again before shutting her phone off too. I watched Madison out of the corner of my eye turn off her own phone, and then shut off a sleeping Mallory’s as well.
“I think that’s all the people he would call, now will you talk about it?” asked Mel, her face concerned.
“I had a nightmare about when my dad left, and when it ended, Adam was there, and he,” I paused, trying to figure out how to say what happened. Madison came to sit on the other side of me, as Mel raised a hand, prompting me to continue. “Well, he pushes me down an elevator shaft.”
“Oh, um, that’s interesting.” Madison said, as Mel just blinked furiously, her brow scrunching in concentration.
“Yeah, I don’t really know what to make of it.” Madison put a hand on my shoulder comfortingly, while Mel remained silent.
“I think I do, you said that you feel like you don’t trust Adam, like he’s keeping a secret, maybe that shaft is the secret and him pushing you is your subconscious trying to tell you that you’re afraid that his secret may kill you, and showing you in the hardest times in your life might just be for emphasis.” Mel concluded, her brow still furrowed. Madison nodded, and I just looked at my hands, studying the small scar on the back of it.
“Maybe” I conceded, still not looking up.
“Romans, just listen to her, she sounds right.” I smirked at Shannon, who had her back to me, her pillow now over her ears.
“Whatever you say Shannon.” Shannon’s head nodded slightly, and I watched her body shift trying to get comfortable.
“So what are we doing today?” I turned my head to look at a sleepy Mallory, who must have woken up during Mel’s analysis.
“Paper, then mall remember? We made these plans yesterday.” I tried to bite back a laugh at Shannon, who was now glaring at the ceiling. It didn’t last as my mind processed what she said, and my eyes went wide at the mention of the paper.
“You know what, I’m thinking we skip the paper meeting.” I turned to look at Madison, she never misses paper meetings.
“Can we do that? Just miss a meeting?” Mel questioned, looking as confused as I was, while I really didn’t want to go see Adam, I didn’t know if I had a choice.
“Yeah, I’ll just call Adam and tell him that I’m not coming in, and that I talked to you guys last night, and advised you not to come as you wouldn’t have to stay long. After all, you, well most of you” she shot a look at Shannon, “turned in your articles to me, I just need to proofread them before Monday, and I can do that at home.” Everyone looked impressed. Who knew shy, rule-following Madison was willing to break one of the biggest unspoken rules?
“Well ok then, if you’re willing to do it, I say we skip and get breakfast, and then hit the mall for some serious birthday shopping.” Everyone nodded their approval at Shannon’s idea and watched Madison as she turned her phone on ready to call.
“I’ll put it on speaker.” Madison said, as she pressed buttons on her phone.
“Hello Madison, what can I do for you?” Adam’s voice filled the air; I felt my heart speed up at his voice.
“I was actually about to request off today, I have everyone’s articles in my email. I also wanted to tell you that Mallory, Melinda, Shannon and Toni, all turned in their articles,” I pressed my lips together to hold back a laugh, as Shannon smirked, “so they don’t need to be at the meeting, I’m still owed articles from everyone else though. Oh and ignore anything Tristan says about Pretty Pretty Princess.” I put a hand over my mouth, my lips no longer holding back my laughter.
“Alright that’s fine, and when did you talk to Toni? I tried calling and she didn’t answer, and then I tried calling Mel, but-“ Madison quickly cut him off.
“Oh, I talked to her last night, and she said that she was doing something today, so she wouldn’t be around. I think she was going to Cambridge to visit her aunt.” I raised an eyebrow, I don’t have any aunts.
“Ah, ok, well that’s fine then, they’re excused. And I try to ignore Tristan anyway, bye Madison. Oh and if you talk to Toni,” Madison shut her phone at that.
“Well that’s done, let’s go.” We all jumped up, and raced to change. As I rummaged through my closet, I felt my worries lift for a moment. Today would be all about me, and my birthday, no Adam, no Marc, just me and my friends. Little did I know my birthday was going to be filled with more worry then fun.