A Weekend in Seattle
Day 1 – Part 2
May 9, 2008
I am bored out of my mind. Kelsi and Morgan are playing a card game called spit. I played a few rounds, but got bored easily. In counting, this is their 7th round, and I don't know how they can stand it. So far, I've watched The Lion King, The Parent Trap, The Notebook, Pride and Prejudice, and Titanic. My brain hurts so much, and I've got so many songs stuck in my head. The sun is high in the sky now, it being 5pm and all. I've read all of the books I've packed, and I'm done half of next week's work. I am so bored it's scary. Again, I had no clue where we were. I half-hoped we were in Seattle. I mean, they are my family…I should want to spend time with them…right?
"Wanna know a really fun game?" I asked Morgan and Kelsi, turning toward them. They stopped, mid slap. If you haven't guessed, spit is a mildly violent game. My sisters make it much more violent than needed.
"What's it called?" Well, that grabbed their attention. Kelsi looked curious, and Morgan, being who she is, looked quite annoyed with both Kelsi and me.
"Well, it's called Would You Rather. I ask you a question like "Would you rather jump off a 6 foot tall cliff, or only be able to eat spiders for the rest of your life?" Then, you answer it. The only thing is, you can only have one question about each situation." Kelsi looked at me weird.
"Would you have to pick one of the choices?"
"Well, yeah. That's the whole point of the game!"
"…That's stupid."
Kelsi and Morgan went back to playing spit, and I went back to looking out the window. We were now in Corning, California. I could see an open field through my window. The grass was lush, as if it was the artificial kind you see on infomercials. There were too many cows to count, some brown, others black and white. The field seemed to stretch forever. Miles and miles of endless grass. On the left of the cow's grazing place, there was a bright red barn. It had a dirt pathway leading up to a stable, which was also bright red. The barn looked just how you would describe one to a little kid. It even had the smaller door above the main one, where the chicken would pop out in children's books and movies. I thought it was funny, how one simple red barn could grab my attention for so long. I watched it until it faded into the horizon, our car rumbling by.
That took up a few minutes of my time. So now, I'm sitting here, staring at my bag, which is on the floor next to my overnight stuff. When I say bag, I mean half purse, half-school stuff bag. I have no clue how to explain it, except it's sky blue, and has a picture of a little fish on one side. Anyway, that bag contained my cell phone. The very phone I was specifically told not to use to call a certain 'pompous' boyfriend. However, I wasn't told I couldn't use it for other things. I dug deep into my bag, and when I found it, I flipped it open, revealing a picture of Zoey, Chase, Lola, Vince, Michael, and Logan. It said above that I had two unread text messages. The first one was from Lola, and it said;
New Text message
From: Lola
Date: May 9, 2008
Time: 4:32
Hey Quinn…What's up?
Nice, and straight to the point. I hit the 'reply' button and wrote a short reply. I then looked at the other message. This one was from Logan…
New Text Message
From: Logan
Date: May 9, 2008
Time: 3:30
How are you holding up? And what did your mo—
I didn't have time to read the rest, because my mom took the phone out of my hands. I gasped in surprise. Her eyes skimmed the screen, and I was sure I was going to get another 'stern' talking to. Her face protruded an angry scowl. She turned to my father.
"Nathaniel, can you please pull the car over?" She asked, her voice coming out sweet. Although I could see her teeth were gritted and her lip had a slight twitch. He pulled the car over, and my mom turned around to face me.
"Do you think this is funny?" Holding up the phone, she pointed to the new text message.
"It's a text message. You said no talking on the phone…you never said anything about texting." I replied, stating the truth. That was definitely the wrong answer.
"Oh, so a few years at PCA and you're suddenly a smart alec? " I could practically see the flames in her eyes, and the smoke billowing through her ears, black and cloudy. "You disobeyed the cards, myself, and your father." She then grasped my shoulders. But, not in the loving way she had when she first saw me. She was shaking me, trying to make the message clear. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND??" I felt tears brim my eyes. There was no way I was going to let her see me cry. She then let go of me, opened her window, and threw my phone as far as she could, almost hitting an innocent pedestrian. That's when I did it. I got out of the car, in clear California traffic. I didn't know where I was going, but it was anywhere but here. When I got to the grassy part near the rode, I ran. I kept running and running, until collapsing from exhaustion underneath a large tree. I then let it all out. I cried for my mother's abusive side, for the pain from where her nails dug into me, from my family's hate toward me, for missing everyone. My face was hot and sticky, and my shoulder's were dripping with blood, but I didn't care. No pain was greater than being abused by your own mother. No pain was greater than the one I was feeling now.