One day I slowly floated away. It was a warm sunny afternoon when I decided that I would, indeed, disappear, soaring above and beyond what I knew. I had broken my heart again, and it was about all I could take. But before we go any further, I should probably introduce myself.
“Adelaide!”
I shoved the covers off of myself, gasping as the cold air collided with my exposed skin. My mother was yelling for me despairingly.
“Alright, ma, I’m up, I’m up,” I called back to her as I swung my legs over the side of my bed, planting my feet firmly on the ground.
The mirror across from me caused me to cringe. I looked like a total mess. Since I’d been very tired the night before, apparently I had forgotten to get changed into my pajamas and had slept in my normal, everyday clothes. Walking up to my mirror, I examined myself. Brown curly hair, chocolate colored eyes… As I studied my face, I noticed the small scar on neck, the shape of a heart. I traced my fingers around it; a birth mark.
“Your brother needs a ride out to the mall today,” my mother told me when I finally came downstairs.
Going into the refrigerator, I grabbed what was supposed to be bread. Isaac had eaten all of the good slices and left me the butts again. I‘d better go to the grocery store.
“Why does Isaac need to go the mall?”
I emphasized the word need. Ever since he’d let his hair grow out and opened up that box of peroxide blonde hair coloring, his days had been filled with parties and outings with his new “friends.” The only reason I didn’t want him wasting his time hanging out with those people was because I had hung out with them before; their type, anyways. They were stupid. And plus, I didn’t want to drive him around.
My mother glanced at me over her cup of coffee.
“Isaac wants to go to the movies with his friends.”
She said this as if that alone was enough to cause my world to stop on its axis. Stifling a laugh, I put the bread butts into our new, technologically advanced toaster. I couldn’t figure out how it worked.
“You do know that he’s not actually hanging out with his friends, right?”
After a few seconds of silence, I looked up at my mother, whose gaze told me that she didn’t, in fact, know. So I continued. “He’s going out with some girl named–”
Abruptly, I stopped short as I heard my brother galumph down the stairs. His ear buds were jammed tightly into his ears, and he was humming. I’m pretty sure he was off-key, otherwise the song was horrible. My mother coughed impatiently. My brother couldn’t hear her over the noise in his headphones and kept humming away.
“Isaac Matthew.”
She was talking in her mom voice. And she was using his middle name. Not good. I turned my attention back to the new fangled toaster and tried to figure out how to get it to work. If this turned into a huge argument, I didn’t want to be part of it.
“So, is Addy taking me to the mall?” Isaac asked, pouring himself a glass of orange juice. Where was he, another planet? When mom didn’t answer, Isaac finally looked up, mom’s icy glare knocking some sense into him.
“Is there something you’re not telling me about today?”
Her tone was dangerous, and her hand was grasping her coffee cup. I was afraid that if she gripped it any tighter, it would shatter into a million pieces. And a shard would gorge her eye. Not really, but if you didn’t know, my imagination likes to run wild sometimes. Anyways, at least she wasn’t going to strangle him. It looked like a good time to leave, so as their voices began to rise and things began to blow up, I crossed the perimeter of the kitchen and rushed upstairs. Retreat! The phone began to ring, not startling me at all. My parents installed a phone in my room when I turned thirteen and my best friend, Penelope, had called me every day since.
“Addy!”
Penelope’s voice screeched so loudly I had to pull the receiver away from my ear until she settled down.
“You’ll never guess what happened today. I got in! I really got in!”
“Wait, wait, you got in? In where?”
“Film school, silly!”
I paused before I answered her, sitting on my bed with my legs crossed. Penelope had been fickle when it came to college. Initially she was hoping to become a script writer, then an actress, and now she desired to be a director. I was happy for her, but at the same time I was a little disappointed. You see, Penelope was three years older than me. She was getting ready to leave for college and I was preparing for another year of school; stuck in the same routine, only without my best friend.
Penelope took my silence as disapproval towards her news.
“You’re not happy that I got in, are you?”
Her tone was pouty.
“Oh, no, I am, I really am… I’m really psyched for you.”
I couldn’t tell her the truth, that I didn’t want her to go, to leave me here all by myself. My grip on the phone tightened.
“When will you leave?” I asked quietly.
I could hear her ruffle through some papers and then there was a small pause.
“They said it was late notice, but in a month.”
We didn’t talk much longer after that. When I hung up the phone, I curled up on my bed and stared into space.
Things were changing. Too fast.
