agreed, but I could hear the reluctance in her voice.
The good news was that Madison’s parents and mine weren’t exactly close. When we’d hit junior high and wanted to go to parties or on dates, my mom had called Madison’s mom, looking for solidarity in enforcing her can t-date-till-high-school rules. Madison’s mom had none of it, and from what I gathered from Madison afterwards, she’d told my mom she was completely out of touch (which wasn’t exactly wrong). Needless to say, it had gone downhill from there.
So they weren’t friends. And for now, I was grateful for it -- it might buy me a few extra days with Blake before my parents caught on.
I turned the water a little cooler, rubbing shampoo in my hair and rinsing it out. Madison had left around five in the morning, just as the party had started to die down. I hadn’t checked the clock when I got up, but from the sunlight coming through the curtains, it had to be around ten. I shut off the water and grabbed a plush towel from the rack, wrapping it around my body and tucking in the ends.
There was a gift basket from a local spa on the ledge of the bathroom sink, full of bottles of moisturizers and lotions. The night before, someone had opened it and scattered the bottles across the countertop, and I chose a body cream that was kiwi-scented, and dabbed some on my legs and arms. The smell of kiwi was better than old alcohol, at least.
I dried my hair with the towel, and then looked in my overnight bag for something to wear. I had mostly packed shorts and tshirts for spending the weekend with Madison, but this was my first day with Blake. I didn’t want to wear my old Prospect tshirts or grubby jeans.
But I had packed one good outfit, at least. Beneath a pair of worn flip flops, I pulled out a yellow sundress, a flowy, delicate dress that I’d brought in case Madison’s parents wanted to go out for dinner over the weekend. It was one of my favorites -- soft and sunshine-colored, stunning against my dark hair, highlighted from the summer sun.
I put it on. I didn’t know what I was going to do tomorrow morning, but for today, at least, I was all set.
I ran a brush through my still-wet hair and opened the drawers to find a hair dryer. Dotting my lips with pink gloss, I pursed them and then puckered, smiling in satisfaction at my reflection. Not bad for a girl who slept on a couch for all of about three hours.
The bathroom didn’t seem to contain a hair dryer, so I packed everything back into my overnight bag, tucking my wet hair behind my ears. I usually didn’t blow-dry it anyways -- my hair dried in loose waves naturally, I only blew it out when I wanted it to be straight.
I walked out of the bathroom, back into the empty room. Still, no one except me seemed to be awake. For lack of anything better to do, I looked at the half-full cups on every available surface in the room, and started to pick them up.
No one woke up for twenty minutes, and in that time, I’d managed to turn the room from a disaster area to something halfway decent. I wasn’t sure what to do with the leftover bottles of alcohol, so I stacked them next to the ice bucket. I poured the leftover drinks down the sink in the bathroom, careful not to spill anything on my dress, and stacked the glasses neatly next to the bottles. Picking up a few pieces of trash that were scattered around the room, I noticed someone’s ticket stub from the Moving Neutral show, sitting half-concealed by one of the magazines on the desk.
It felt so surreal that I was here. I wanted to call Madison and go over every detail from the night before, but I didn’t have a cell phone and I felt weird calling her long distance from the hotel’s phone. Plus, she’d probably only gotten home a few hours before. I would just have to wait.
Wow, Blake’s voice startled me as I snatched my fingers away from the ticket stub. You look beautiful.
I turned around, grateful he was the first one up. I wasn’t sure how
The good news was that Madison’s parents and mine weren’t exactly close. When we’d hit junior high and wanted to go to parties or on dates, my mom had called Madison’s mom, looking for solidarity in enforcing her can t-date-till-high-school rules. Madison’s mom had none of it, and from what I gathered from Madison afterwards, she’d told my mom she was completely out of touch (which wasn’t exactly wrong). Needless to say, it had gone downhill from there.
So they weren’t friends. And for now, I was grateful for it -- it might buy me a few extra days with Blake before my parents caught on.
I turned the water a little cooler, rubbing shampoo in my hair and rinsing it out. Madison had left around five in the morning, just as the party had started to die down. I hadn’t checked the clock when I got up, but from the sunlight coming through the curtains, it had to be around ten. I shut off the water and grabbed a plush towel from the rack, wrapping it around my body and tucking in the ends.
There was a gift basket from a local spa on the ledge of the bathroom sink, full of bottles of moisturizers and lotions. The night before, someone had opened it and scattered the bottles across the countertop, and I chose a body cream that was kiwi-scented, and dabbed some on my legs and arms. The smell of kiwi was better than old alcohol, at least.
I dried my hair with the towel, and then looked in my overnight bag for something to wear. I had mostly packed shorts and tshirts for spending the weekend with Madison, but this was my first day with Blake. I didn’t want to wear my old Prospect tshirts or grubby jeans.
But I had packed one good outfit, at least. Beneath a pair of worn flip flops, I pulled out a yellow sundress, a flowy, delicate dress that I’d brought in case Madison’s parents wanted to go out for dinner over the weekend. It was one of my favorites -- soft and sunshine-colored, stunning against my dark hair, highlighted from the summer sun.
I put it on. I didn’t know what I was going to do tomorrow morning, but for today, at least, I was all set.
I ran a brush through my still-wet hair and opened the drawers to find a hair dryer. Dotting my lips with pink gloss, I pursed them and then puckered, smiling in satisfaction at my reflection. Not bad for a girl who slept on a couch for all of about three hours.
The bathroom didn’t seem to contain a hair dryer, so I packed everything back into my overnight bag, tucking my wet hair behind my ears. I usually didn’t blow-dry it anyways -- my hair dried in loose waves naturally, I only blew it out when I wanted it to be straight.
I walked out of the bathroom, back into the empty room. Still, no one except me seemed to be awake. For lack of anything better to do, I looked at the half-full cups on every available surface in the room, and started to pick them up.
No one woke up for twenty minutes, and in that time, I’d managed to turn the room from a disaster area to something halfway decent. I wasn’t sure what to do with the leftover bottles of alcohol, so I stacked them next to the ice bucket. I poured the leftover drinks down the sink in the bathroom, careful not to spill anything on my dress, and stacked the glasses neatly next to the bottles. Picking up a few pieces of trash that were scattered around the room, I noticed someone’s ticket stub from the Moving Neutral show, sitting half-concealed by one of the magazines on the desk.
It felt so surreal that I was here. I wanted to call Madison and go over every detail from the night before, but I didn’t have a cell phone and I felt weird calling her long distance from the hotel’s phone. Plus, she’d probably only gotten home a few hours before. I would just have to wait.
Wow, Blake’s voice startled me as I snatched my fingers away from the ticket stub. You look beautiful.
I turned around, grateful he was the first one up. I wasn’t sure how
Similar Books
