Only lonely & ***ed up

The next few days Anna was drowning in a pool of self pity, sighing every other minute, while doing absolutely nothing sprawled down on the sofa serving as a shitty company to her mother.

When the doorbell rang, her mother was relieved and said, “It took my sister long enough to show up. You were driving me mad with all the sighing, girl,” A faint smile showed up on her mother’s face, as the older woman continued, “Stop feeling sorry for yourself and go do something, things will eventually work out, honey. I can feel it.”

Seemed like everyday one of her aunts or mother’s friend would drop by to spend the day. Anna was okay with it, but it let her with more time with nothing to do so she would feel obsolete. Ben and her had ditched walking around the neighborhood and instead played on the backyard, where he probably was right now and that gave her an idea: why figuratively drown herself in a pool of pity when she could just swim around in a real pool full of nice cool water?

She moved to her bedroom and dug out a red bikini top, with a colorful printed bottom, alongside her favorite pair of sunglasses and a hat to keep the sun from her face.

Submerging on the pool felt good and she sighed loudly when she reemerged. Absent minded, she swam around then settled in floating.

A while later, she looked at the backyard, she could see Ben chasing a butterfly around, so desperate. Anna laughed. “Stop being a dummy, Ben. And don’t eat that!.” She got out of the pool to chase that damn butterfly with her favorite. He barked to her and had the cutest look in his face, almost like he was laughing.

Eventually, the butterfly escaped them both and so they played together and rolled on the grass for a good time, until she heard her aunt call out “Anna, your phone’s been making stupid noises non stop for a good five minutes!”

“Sorry, Benny, I’m going back inside!,” She ran her hands through his shiny black and white coat before heading back inside. As soon as she got to her bedroom, the prone beeped signaling she had a new message. When she unlocked it, she had over 10 messages from her friend Katie.

Scrolling through them, she could tell Katie was in town, really bored and wouldn’t take a ‘no’ for her request of a hang out later. Anna sighed. She really wasn’t up to going out or seeing people today. But she really liked Katie, they were fast friends since freshman year at college. She was so much more outgoing than Anna, but they hit it off pretty well and seem to balance each other nicely. She couldn’t deny her friend.

Tapping her fingers through her screen, Anna found Katie’s contact and called her. “Why do you need to blow up my phone with so many messages? Are you that bored?”

Katie laughed on the other end of the line “Girl, I know you. If I don’t pressure enough, you start making up excuses and ditching me for nothing. And before you say anything, I’m picking you up in an hour and we’ll do girl stuff, nothing major.”

I agreed “Yes, ma’am, I’ll be right at my door waiting for you, darling. And you better stick to doing nothing much, I’m not feeling like seeing a bunch of people today”.

They said goodbye and Anna headed to her bathroom to take a shower and get ready.

~~~~

“Okay, mom, Katie is picking me up in a few and I don’t know how long I’ll be out, but if you need anything, just call me, right?,” Anna kissed gently her mother’s forehead.

“Stop by that lovely ice cream shop we all used to go and bring me something, please, dear, and have fun, we all know you need it,” The older woman squeezed her hand.

The girl said her goodbye to her mother and aunt as the honk of Katie’s car sounded outside.

The minute she got into the car, Anna was met with a sympathetic smile and the tightest hug her friend could muster. They chit chatted, catching up for the two weeks they spent apart. Katie asked, “Do you want to go somewhere in particular or just whatever?”

“I’d rather sit somewhere and eat. And if you’d be nice enough, before dropping me off back at home, could we stop by at the ice cream shop? My mom asked if I could bring her some...” Anna said.

And with that, both girls set for a stroll around the mall and grabbing ice cream later on.

When they entered the mall, Katie’s eyes sparkled as she looked Anna’s new haircut. “You know you look cute with this new hair, right? I just wished you tried harder, put some lipstick on or put something tighter than this romper... Maybe we could find something nice for you to wear tomorrow at my friend’s party? We can go to that store I love... Anna, are you listening to me?” Katie snapped her fingers.

But it didn’t work much. Anna was staring straight ahead, looking at the green eyed boy, wearing a black and white baseball t-shirt, crossing paths with her once again when he was about to leave the mall with some bags on his hands.

She wondered how she could go from one day never seeing this guy to the next day seeing him everywhere she went.