thirteen
Ken’s squad car was in the driveway when I got home, which was an hour earlier than I planned, thanks to my, started-out-awesome- turned- craptastic evening. Although, even I had to admit, the end wasn’t so bad—Lucky had made it better. And he was really cute too—so maybe, Glinda did me a favor. At least that was what I was trying to get myself to believe.
Tiptoeing inside the house, I tried to be as quiet as possible. I made it to the second level when I heard muffled groans wafting down the hall from Mom’s room. I didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out what they were doing. Gross.
I ran up the last flight of stairs and shut my door—not that I cared what they were doing but… come on. Mom getting busy was not something I needed to hear, like ever.
Grabbing the remote, I turned on the television and cranked the volume.
“UGH! Do they play this crap every night?” I threw the remote on my bed. Twilight was playing, again.
I stripped out of my thrift shop special dress and pulled on my robe. Smoothing my hand down the fabric, I hung it on my closet door. Lucky was right. My dress was cool. At least I didn’t look like a cookie-cutter replica of every other girl there. Besides, I wasn’t big on conforming to the masses, anyway.
As a precautionary measure, before I left my room to take a shower, I put my ear buds in and turned up the volume. No need to put myself through anymore of the “chica-chica-bow-wow” that was going on downstairs.
After a long hot shower, I did my nightly regimen of teeth brushing, flossing, etc. etc., and then headed downstairs for some much needed sustenance. Opening the fridge, I peered inside. Somehow, even after all the shopping I had done, there was nothing good to eat. So I made do with Captain Crunch to tide me over. Standing at the sink, I filled up my glass with water, staring at my own reflection in the window. I made a face at myself, hit the light switch, and froze.
Someone was standing in my back yard, eyes glowing in the darkness. Fumbling, I set my stuff down and looked again. But when I looked, no one was there.
“Must be seeing things,” I told myself, but somehow, I knew I hadn’t been.