Return to Me

  ***

  The next several days brought about little change in the routine Paige had unwittingly fallen into. Days blended into night and back again in an unending, depressing circle. Hour after hour she waited for a phone call that never came, for a hope that never quite materialized. She was marking time until she could go back to school and she couldn’t remember the last time her world had felt so positively gray. Hailey managed to summarize much of her angst in a few short, critical sentences.

  "What you need is to get out of this house. God it’s like a tomb in here. How can you stand it?" Her friend wrinkled her nose.

  "It's been this way for years. Denmari likes it dark-the more this place looks like a dungeon, the happier he is. The house looked so different when mama was alive..." She lifted one slim shoulder. "You get used to it. Eventually."

  "Well I don’t think I could ever get used to this Victorian mausoleum." Hailey declared, crossing the room to pull her friend to her feet. "Come on, I'm taking you out tonight."

  "No, really-"

  "Don’t argue. You can’t sit here moping all night. It’s not healthy."

  "I am not moping." She argued, wrestling with Hailey for her small clutch purse. "I'm thinking. I'm being reflective and it’s perfectly healthy."

  "Fine. I'll give you a choice." The small blonde released the purse and took a step back, arms crossed over a chest that made a mockery of her otherwise small stature.

  "This ought to be good." Paige muttered, eyes on the white matte ceiling. "Well go on then, lets here it." She insisted when Hailey only glared at her.

  "Either you call him or you go out with me tonight."

  "That’s ridiculous!"

  "It's reasonable!"

  "Says who?"

  "Okay how about this-either you call him or I will."

  "What’s that supposed to mean?" Paige stared wide eyed at her friend.

  "It means that you’re acting insane. I don’t pretend to understand why you broke it off with him. I thought you loved him." Hailey rolled her eyes, putting emphasis on the word.

  "I...did."

  "You still do."

  "Yeah-and?" Paige sighed, well aware even if Hailey wasn’t that loving Guy was useless.

  "So it’s not too late to tell him that. Whatever problem you two had can be fixed. Just pick up the phone and call him. If you want, I’ll talk to him for you."

  "I know you would." Paige's tone softened. "But this is my problem to deal with."

  "He misses you."

  "He barely notices that I’m gone. He’s out with a different girl every week."

  "You're exaggerating." Hailey scoffed, blowing a wisp of light hair off her forehead.

  "Not by much. The point is, he's moved on, and so have I. It’s over, finished, done."

  "Really, Paige? Just where is it that you've moved on to? Hiding up in your bedroom is not what I would call a fresh start. Especially not in this house. The air is stale as Hell." She paused to shove at the heavy casing above Paige's dresser. "Do these windows even open?"

  "Probably not. I'm only up here in the summer. It’s too hot to have the windows open, and how did we get stuck on this subject anyway?" She frowned.

  "Because you're going to end up just like this poor, useless window, Paige! Rusty from lack of use. As your friend, I refuse to let that happen."

  "If you were really my friend, you would leave me alone." Paige groused to a totally unsympathetic Hailey.

  "No such luck. Get your dancing shoes on. We're going out."

  "Would it do any good to argue?"

  "You're seriously asking me that?"

  "That’s what I was afraid of." Paige heaved a sigh. "I’ll go get dressed. But I don’t want to go any place where Guy and I used to go."

  "Of course not."

  "Hailey."

  "Okay, okay." She held up both purple tipped hands palm out in defense."We can hit someplace out of town. I'll be waiting in the car. Oh and Paige?"

  "Yes?"

  "Fix yourself up a little. You look like crap." She called out a second before the door swung shut behind her.

  Paige did take pains with her appearance, doing the best she could with the tools available to her. Light foundation and concealer hid most of the dark circles that were, as of late, a permanent fixture beneath her stormy eyes.Mascara, lipstick and a thickly bristled brush finished the job and she turned away from the gilded edge mirror feeling confident that no one would ever guess she had spent most of the summer holed up in her room listening to sad love songs and crying. Next she debated the age old dilemma of what to wear. With no clue as to where Hailey planned on taking her, she decided to play it safe, opting for jeans, low heels, and a black top with lacy straps and a lace edged plunging neckline.

  Her red clutch purse and silver hoop earrings completed the look and she bounded down the steps, through the parlor and was out the door before Denmari could ask her any questions.

  "Took you long enough."

  "Let’s go."

  "Curfew?" Hailey asked as they coasted down the hill.

  "Eleven, same as always." She responded checking her makeup once more in the Mustang’s flip down visor.

  "That’s only four hours from now."

  "Then you had better step on it."

  "You got it." Hailey grinned, ever the dare-devil, gunned the engine, and laughed as the car shot forward, headlights cutting a path through the dark night.