A/N: I guess it doesn't suck too bad…so I shall continue!
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone in this fic thing.
As we travelled on the big bus, we saw lights, billboards, shops…and Marissa had a heart attack when we went through Times Square.
"Omigosh! It's the commercial for the new FreshFut nail polish line!" she gasped. Even Casey looked.
The bus pulled up to a station that was half as pretty as the one in Santa Martina. I can't even describe it. Billy turned a little bit green when he smelled it. The first thing we did was run as far as we could.
We stopped by a newsstand. "Marissa…," I gasped, my eyes widening, "Marissa, look at this newspaper."
She stopped gazing around with her mouth open and said, "Sammy, what's…oh. Oh—oh my gosh! Casey—come look!"
So there we were, in New York City, poring over a newspaper. That said that today…was four days after we had left Santa Martina.
"Grams!" I whispered in shock. "Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. This isn't happening!"
I knew that I would be on the Missing Persons list if it weren't for the note I had left on the kitchen counter. I knew that Grams would still be worried. The worst part was that I couldn't call. The last time I had gone on a little trip, I had broken Marissa's cell phone.
"Sammy," said Casey gently, "Do you want to use Billy's phone?"
I nodded and shook the tears out of my eyes.
I dialed Hudson's number first, because the chances were that Grams was yelling at Hudson for not stopping me, or looking for me, or calling the Marines and telling them to track me and kill anyone other than my friends who came within ten feet of me.
Voice mail.
I dialed the apartment number. It was ringing, ringing, ringing. Then, she finally picked up. "Grams!" I exclaimed. "I'm so sorry…I had to come tell Lana to stop messing with us!"
She started yelling at me, but I waited her out because it was the least I could do from New York City. About ten minutes later, she was crying and telling me to brush my teeth and to not go in any places that smelled weird, because the chances were that it had rats in it, and to not tell Lana that it was Grams' idea, and to not book one room for all four of us, just one for Marissa and me, because Billy and Casey were going to just have to fend for themselves.
I actually laughed at that last one.
"Fend for themselves?" I said, "Grams, this isn't Siberia. We're in New York!"
"Just be careful, Samantha," she huffed, and I heard Hudson in the background wishing me well. Eventually, she said she loved me and told us to be careful, and then she hung up.
I still felt sad, but I was less bummed now that she knew how I was.
"Let's go to Lana's," I said defiantly, "This ends now."
We walked. And walked. And walked. We finally got to the house that was about the size of my apartment that Lana was renting and Casey, Billy, and Marissa collapsed like tents on the sidewalk in front. It wasn't pretty, but you could tell by the way it had paint all over it that Lana was changing that.
I walked firmly up to the door and rang the bell with more force than any bell had ever felt before. Nobody answered, so I rang it again.
"Guys," I hissed, "help me." They all groaned. "The first one to start pounding on the door gets to pick where they sleep first." Everybody came running up to the door and started banging on the door as hard as they could.
She answered the door, looking groggy. "Hello?" she mumbled.
"Hi there, Mom." I hissed. She woke up fast.
"Samantha Jo Keyes!" she cried. "What on earth are you doing in New York City?"
"Telling you off!"
"Why on earth would you do that?"
"Because your little romance with Warren is ruining my life. Grams', too. Why would you do this?"
She pursed her lips. "You wouldn't understand."
"Really? Oh, by the way, this is my friend—"
"Boyfriend," corrected Marissa.
"Marissa!" I looked at her and knew I was blushing, but Casey's face was lit up with an annoying little grin.
"Anyways," I started, "This is my friend Casey. Acosta. You know, Warren's son?"
Suddenly she got it. "Oh…Samantha, why didn't you just call?" she complained, letting us in.
"Remember the last time we 'could've called'?" I glared. "The message sunk in that time, didn't it?"
"You know what, just go to bed, okay, Samantha? I'm tired, they're tired, you're tired, and you guys can go sightseeing tomorrow or something, because I have a show to record tomorrow, and I need sleep. This was the wrong time, Samantha. You don't know how hard it is! And on top of all that, I have four kids to take care of?" she ranted.
"It's always the wrong time," I whispered, and my eyes stung.
"You know I love you, Sunshine," she whispered back, and hugged me, but I didn't feel any warmth. "I'm just stressed right now, okay? There will be days when we can just hang out together, but today is not that day. Go rest up, because you get to go see the sights! Won't that be fun?" she said, and rubbed her hand up and down my arm.
I nodded numbly.
Billy and Casey crashed on the couches, Marissa and I slept in the guest room that was as big as a matchbox.
"Urggh…," said Marissa, "This room is smaller than your apartment!"
"Don't remind me," I grumbled.
Marissa went to bed, but I stayed sitting on the edge, staring out the tiny window. The lights flashed and the cars honked, but Marissa still slept like a baby. I thought and thought and thought. About Grams. About my unknown dad. About Lana. About Warren. Heather, Casey…I thought about my life. How could it be such a mess? I wondered.
As much as I hated to admit it, the answer was just down the hall, fretting about a stupid show more than her own daughter. The answer was my mother.
But part of me wondered, What if it's not my mother? What if everything would have been okay if my mom had just stuck to her schoolwork and not gotten interested in my dad? What if my life was jacked up because it existed?
I didn't sleep for a long time that night, bexcause I stayed up and worried about me. I only went to sleep because I knew that I was making myself even more of a problem than I already was by waking up.