I sighed as I pulled more picture frames out of boxes. Lydia sauntered into my room and plopped down on my new bed. She was my cousin but I wasn't sure how I felt about her since we had only seen each other on holidays since we turned 12. We looked exactly alike other than my hair being longer than hers and my eyes were a striking blue rather than green. Weird family coincidence or something.
"Hey, your room turned out pretty good. Glad I helped out, now?" Lydia smiled at me.
"Yeah, thanks." I said.
She frowned and stood up.
"Sorry, I'm just tired and sick of unpacking. I really do appreciate you helping my mom figure out how to decorate." I smiled at her.
She beamed back at me. She walked over and took the box cutter from next to me, she opened on of the boxes, that was full of clothes and I saw a scowl come over her face.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Tomorrow, we are going shopping. There is no way that I am letting my family member wear this." Lydia said, holding up a large black tee-shirt.
"Those are pajamas." I said, grabbing it from her.
"Well, they're ugly pajamas." She replied, crossing her arms.
"Fine, we can go shopping. What time?" I asked.
"Be in my drive way at ten." She smiled.
"Yeah, okay. Now, go home so I can unpack." I smiled, waving a hand towards the door.
She walked out of the room and I went back to unboxing things. The only thing that was left now was my clothing. Lydia said we were going shopping and I'm sure by that she meant that she as actually making me get a brand new wardrobe. I pulled out some of my jeans that were in good condition and a few shirts along with my undergarments. I put everything else into two large boxes and pushed them out into the hallway. I looked back into my room, which was everything that I had ever wanted.
The walls were painted a shade of very subtle lavender, my bed sat in an alcove along the right wall. It was placed so I could climb in from one side or the end of the bed. On my bed, there was a brand new bedding set that was a purple and black plaid; all my pillows were black not including a lavender body pillow. Along the right wall sat my vanity and my armoire. If you were standing in my door way, directly in front of you was a large window with a window seat that had comfy lavender pillows sitting on it in an orderly fashion and my desk sat up against the wall on the left side of the alcove, a new black rolling chair pushed underneath it and my laptop and a few pictures sat on top of it.
"Clara!" I heard my mother yell.
I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen where my mom had set out plates at the island. We were living across the street from Lydia and her mother, the house was surprisingly nice for not costing too much money not that it mattered. My mother was a nationally known Anesthesiologist and my step-dad had top of the line life insurance so when he passed a few months ago, he left us with a lot of money. We also sold a lot of our things because we didn't want them anymore; they were just things that were haunting memories. I sat down as she pilled spaghetti onto my plate.
"So, Lydia said that you guys are going shopping tomorrow." She said but it sounded more as though she was asking.
"Yeah, she told me that someone in her family couldn't be caught wearing shirts and jeans." I replied.
"That'll be good for you, give you a chance to look around and get out of the house. I'm sure the smell of fresh paint is killing you." She laughed.
"Yeah, it's a little overbearing." I giggled as I started to eat my food.
"Well, if you need anything then just call me. I'm about to head into work but I'll see you tomorrow when you get home. Mondays are the only days that I don't work." She smiled at me and then grabbed her keys.
"Okay mom, be careful." I said.
She left and I ate the rest of my food. I rinsed off the plate and then walked upstairs to put on some running gear. I may not be the best in the fashion department but I knew all about running and running clothes and keeping my heart rate under control. I changed and made sure I had the house key on me before I left. I locked the door as I walked outside; I put my headphones in and started running. I kept running and running until my phone started to beep at me through my headphones. I stopped for a moment and pulled it out; it was alerting me that I had already run my four miles. I took a deep breath and then I looked around, realizing that I had no idea where I was at. I tried pulling up Google Maps on my phone but I had bad signal.
"Great." I thought to myself.
Just then I heard the beep of a horn behind me and I turned to see a Jeep next to me. I looked inside and two teenage boys were inside, staring at me like I was a crazy person. I walked over to the driver's side. The boy driving rolled down his window.
"Can you tell me where I am?" I asked.
"Lydia?" The boy asked.
"No?" I replied. "Lydia is my cousin. Now, can you tell me where I am?"
"This is Silver Street." The boy said.
"Awesome, great. Can you tell me how to get back to Maple Street?" I asked.
"That's four miles away." The boy said, flabbergasted.
"I'm aware. Can you tell me, please? I just moved here and literally have no idea where I am." I asked.
"Yeah, just go to the end of this street and the take a left on to Lake Avenue then go to the end of that road and take right on to Cedar Street and then at the end of that street should be Maple Street." The boy explained.
"This street, Lake Avenue on the left, Cedar Street on the right and then my street. Okay, thanks!" I exclaimed; I waved bye as I ran off back towards my house.
It took a little while but I got back to my house. I opened the door and went upstairs to shower. I walked in my room where I saw someone was sitting on my window seat, facing the window. Lydia stood up and turned around.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I happen to live right across the street and be your cousin. I came back because I figured it'd be better if I just slept over and we left tomorrow." She smiled at me.
"Yeah, that's fine. Let me shower and I'll come to bed. You can have whatever side you want." I smiled at her, and then headed to the bathroom.
I turned on the shower, stripped and then climbed in. I sat down in the tub and let the hot water run over my entire body. I was in the shower for probably thirty minutes before I finally decided to wash my hair and shave, I finally got out a few minutes later. I patted myself dry with a towel and pulled on a large shirt and some black underwear. I walked back to my room and saw Lydia, curled up with my body pillow on the inside. I climbed in the bed next to her and fell asleep.
I woke up the next morning to the sound of Lydia's alarm on her phone going off. She sat up, as perky as usual and poked my shoulder.
"Clara, hey, are you awake?" She whispered.
"Yes." I groaned.
"Good, get up and get dressed. We're leaving in an hour." She smiled.
I rolled out of bed and pulled on a pair of light-wash jean shorts along with a white button-down shirt, I pulled on a baby pink v-neck sweater over it. I grabbed a pair of light brown combat boots and slid them on. Lydia walked back into the room.
"You actually have decent looking clothes?" She asked.
"Yes, I do. I dressed super special just for you." I smirked. "What are we doing today?"
"Well, all the places that we're going in are in the mall so that's our only place unless you wanna get dinner somewhere." Lydia said.
"Just depends on how I feel after you drag me around." I said, slightly groaning. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah but, you totally aren't. Your hair isn't even done, something which we will be getting fixed as soon as we get there. I already made you an appointment. Sit down at your vanity." She commanded.
I sat down and she was already on me, she unzipped her make-up bag and did my make-up.
"Okay, done. Grab your wallet and let's go." Lydia smiled, pleased with my make-up.
We walked downstairs and got in her car then headed towards the mall. We got there and as promised, I was made to go into a salon inside the mall. I had already agreed to let her do whatever she wanted to it at the beginning of the summer. They cut my hair and colored it a little. Finally, after probably an hour or two, they spun my around to reveal my hair. It was now a bright purple. She had it cut in a similar style as hers but my hair was still slightly longer. I could feel my eyes go wide in the mirror, half surprised that I was staring at myself and half surprised Lydia would go with this color at all.
We left and Lydia was overjoyed about my new hair. We went to each store she wanted to go in and after hours of picking things out and arguing that things were too short or didn't look good and trying clothes on, we finally shoved all our stuff in the back of her car and she took me home. All in all, it was a good time but I felt on edge about something because I kept seeing this man a lot and it seemed like he was, well, following us.
She went up to my room with me, my mom waving at us as we passed by. She pulled out everything I had bought and sorted it, excluding what I was apparently going to be wearing for the first day of school tomorrow.
"Okay, I'm going home now. Don't forget to do your hair and make-up tomorrow and don't you dare forget to wash off what you have on. See you in the morning; we're taking your car right?" Lydia asked, pointing at me.
"We sure are." I smiled at her.
She smiled and left, I put away all the new things I had bought and then went downstairs.
"Hey mom, I'm going to bed." I said.
"Okay, honey. Your hair looks nice." She smiled.
"Thanks mom. Goodnight." I said.
I walked back upstairs and washed my face, I climbed into bed after taking off my clothes and I sighed, rolling over and looking at my pictures frames on my nightstand.
"I miss you, Griff." I whispered, then I rolled over on my back.
I sighed then I snuggled into the warm blankets on my bed and took a deep breath.
Everything would be totally fine, I had to keep a clear mind and be there for my mom.
Everything would be fine.