My Calamity
Chapter One
I sat in the same spot for hours.
Hours upon hours upon hours.
The phone was ringing endlessly in the background, but mom wasn't there to pick it up. I no longer answered the house phone, so I let it continue to ring.
And ring, and ring, and ring.
I was holding To Kill a Mockingbird in my hands, one of my favorite books, but my mind was elsewhere. It was slowly wrapping around the fact I only had two weeks left of vacation. I had but two weeks to finish every thing I wanted to accomplish this summer, which, now that I thought about it, was nothing.
The heat was suffocating me, wrapping around my head, making, in turn, a dull pain throb at my mind. I should have gotten up and turned the air conditioning on, but I didn't move for fear my legs would crumble under me.
The front door opened down the hallway, and I vaguely heard Haley and Melissa ambling on about whatever had happened while they were at the hair dressers. Melissa was going back to college Monday, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Friday Haley started at Michigan State University in East Lansing, which meant it'd be mom and I for the school year. I couldn't say I was thrilled about that.
I heard their voices getting closer to the den and I willed the door to close. I didn't want their company, but I couldn't bring myself to get up and hide either. I knew exactly what they were both going to say when they walked in.
What do you think of my hair?
I looked up at the two like clockwork. There was a smile on my face because damn, when I'm good, I'm good. I took in Hal's dark brown hair, parted to the side, and hanging in her face, and then looked at Melissa's soft blond hair.
"I love it," I lied.
Quite honestly, I liked us when we were all redheads.
"You should dye your hair," Haley said turning the Television on and flopping down on the couch.
I sighed at my sister's sensitivity to my feelings. I told them both before that I liked my hair color the way it was. "Yeah, totally."
Melissa shifted in her spot in the doorway busy fiddling with her hair. "Let's go out," she said, smiling.
I got up from my spot at the window seat, and crossed the room to the exit that Melissa was blocking. "No thanks."
"Oh, come on!" Haley whined, flipping through the channels and then landing on Sex in the City. "You never want to do anything with us."
"What are you talking about? I went to the movies with you two yesterday."
"Cause mom forced you."
I sighed empathetically. "I don't feel like going out tonight."
Melissa shrugged, stepping out of the doorway. "Whatever. We can go to Club Abyss then, you're old enough now." She directed that to Haley.
"Oh, my, god! You're so right."
And just like that, I was invisible again.
I skirted past Melissa and moved down the hallway in a leisurely pace, dropping my book on the table near the door where all the keys were kept, and slid past the door into the relentless Michigan sun.
I was used to the heat though because I had lived in Harbor Springs all my life. My parents and their parents and the ones before that have all lived here too. I think there was something about the place that once you were in, you were in till death. That was why my plan was to get out—get out and stay out.
It wasn't that I hated Michigan, because I honestly didn't, but I also honestly didn't think it was the place for me. Harbor Springs was a place for people who wanted a family, wanted to bring up perfect children that would bring up there perfect children, and the cycle would continue. That life wasn't for me. I didn't know where I wanted to go though; I just knew that I needed to keep moving.
With every step a warm gust of wind blew my hair in an array, and for a moment, it felt good. Then I was back to feeling hot and sticky in this summer weather. I wasn't sure where I was going, where I wanted to go, but I needed to decide fast, and get there before I fainted from heatstroke.
My feet slapped against the pavement in a pair of leather sandals, and my big toe hit an uneven block of the sidewalk and I went flying to the ground. My knee slid against the rough pavement and my palms went out taking most of the fall. I froze for a moment, allowing the pain to pump in my hands in knees, before turning to sit down and examine the damage for what it was.
My palms weren't terrible, just some minor scrapes, but my knee was missing a small square of skin and from it blood was heavily flowing. A wave of nausea momentarily consumed me, but it was short-lived because the next thing I knew someone was standing before me, their body casting a shadow over me.
"Are you alright?"
Hours upon hours upon hours.
The phone was ringing endlessly in the background, but mom wasn't there to pick it up. I no longer answered the house phone, so I let it continue to ring.
And ring, and ring, and ring.
I was holding To Kill a Mockingbird in my hands, one of my favorite books, but my mind was elsewhere. It was slowly wrapping around the fact I only had two weeks left of vacation. I had but two weeks to finish every thing I wanted to accomplish this summer, which, now that I thought about it, was nothing.
The heat was suffocating me, wrapping around my head, making, in turn, a dull pain throb at my mind. I should have gotten up and turned the air conditioning on, but I didn't move for fear my legs would crumble under me.
The front door opened down the hallway, and I vaguely heard Haley and Melissa ambling on about whatever had happened while they were at the hair dressers. Melissa was going back to college Monday, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Friday Haley started at Michigan State University in East Lansing, which meant it'd be mom and I for the school year. I couldn't say I was thrilled about that.
I heard their voices getting closer to the den and I willed the door to close. I didn't want their company, but I couldn't bring myself to get up and hide either. I knew exactly what they were both going to say when they walked in.
What do you think of my hair?
I looked up at the two like clockwork. There was a smile on my face because damn, when I'm good, I'm good. I took in Hal's dark brown hair, parted to the side, and hanging in her face, and then looked at Melissa's soft blond hair.
"I love it," I lied.
Quite honestly, I liked us when we were all redheads.
"You should dye your hair," Haley said turning the Television on and flopping down on the couch.
I sighed at my sister's sensitivity to my feelings. I told them both before that I liked my hair color the way it was. "Yeah, totally."
Melissa shifted in her spot in the doorway busy fiddling with her hair. "Let's go out," she said, smiling.
I got up from my spot at the window seat, and crossed the room to the exit that Melissa was blocking. "No thanks."
"Oh, come on!" Haley whined, flipping through the channels and then landing on Sex in the City. "You never want to do anything with us."
"What are you talking about? I went to the movies with you two yesterday."
"Cause mom forced you."
I sighed empathetically. "I don't feel like going out tonight."
Melissa shrugged, stepping out of the doorway. "Whatever. We can go to Club Abyss then, you're old enough now." She directed that to Haley.
"Oh, my, god! You're so right."
And just like that, I was invisible again.
I skirted past Melissa and moved down the hallway in a leisurely pace, dropping my book on the table near the door where all the keys were kept, and slid past the door into the relentless Michigan sun.
I was used to the heat though because I had lived in Harbor Springs all my life. My parents and their parents and the ones before that have all lived here too. I think there was something about the place that once you were in, you were in till death. That was why my plan was to get out—get out and stay out.
It wasn't that I hated Michigan, because I honestly didn't, but I also honestly didn't think it was the place for me. Harbor Springs was a place for people who wanted a family, wanted to bring up perfect children that would bring up there perfect children, and the cycle would continue. That life wasn't for me. I didn't know where I wanted to go though; I just knew that I needed to keep moving.
With every step a warm gust of wind blew my hair in an array, and for a moment, it felt good. Then I was back to feeling hot and sticky in this summer weather. I wasn't sure where I was going, where I wanted to go, but I needed to decide fast, and get there before I fainted from heatstroke.
My feet slapped against the pavement in a pair of leather sandals, and my big toe hit an uneven block of the sidewalk and I went flying to the ground. My knee slid against the rough pavement and my palms went out taking most of the fall. I froze for a moment, allowing the pain to pump in my hands in knees, before turning to sit down and examine the damage for what it was.
My palms weren't terrible, just some minor scrapes, but my knee was missing a small square of skin and from it blood was heavily flowing. A wave of nausea momentarily consumed me, but it was short-lived because the next thing I knew someone was standing before me, their body casting a shadow over me.
"Are you alright?"