Roommates

Chapter 14

Aurora woke up to her vibrating phone alarm. Drowsy and unprepared for the day, she tightly grabbed her phone and yanked it off the charger. She rolled onto her back and began sifting through her notifications. She was contacted by the King County Police Department and a random Tindr date that she went out with last year. At the bottom of her screen, a final notification glowed from her screen, lighting up the entire room.

"merry xmas" was printed with a series of red and green heart emojis.

Aurora opened the notification and found it was from none other than Blaire. The unexpected text appeared beneath blocks of messages Aurora had written to her over the past two years. Paragraph after paragraph in blue blocks, Aurora scrolled through the messages, searching for a grey square. The last text Blaire had sent her was from almost two years ago. It was a happy birthday text. Aurora hadn't been able to make contact with her sister since December 29th.

Aurora pressed to call her and held the phone to her ear. The phone rang once.

What was she doing? Blaire hated phone calls. Aurora was almost certain she'd never answered a call in her life.

The phone rang again. The shrill was more painful against her eardrum than the first.

Aurora fought the urge to hang up. It was not worth it now to talk to her. After all, it was her fault she was in this mess. It was always someone else's fault.

A third ring passed.

Quickly, a voice came through. "The voice mail box for Blaire James has not yet been set up. Press 1 for more options, or hang up and try again."

Aurora ended the call and set her phone in the bedsheets. She wiggled her way under the blankets to hide. Not that there was anything to hide from. The sun hadn't risen yet and the house was still silent. Evangeline wasn't up yet, it was barely 6:30. She and Aurora don't work until 8 am.

The text message circled Aurora's brain like a tumultuous whirlpool in the Pacific Ocean. She didn't have a life preserver to rescue her from the curiosity she felt. It was a futile interest, yet Aurora was amused by it. Blaire was definitely a texter, glued to her phone 24/7, but her thumbs never did write back to Aurora for all of those months. Now, out of the blue, she rises from the figurative dead.

She had never checked in, never once asked how she was or where she was for the past two years. Aurora had updated her when she moved to Washington, but she never got a response to that message, along with the seven hundred other novels she'd sent Blaire. It's funny how the phone only seems to work one way with some people.

Other people have a phone that almost works both ways. Aurora's mother has called her one time since she was kicked out. She had reached out to Aurora a few days ago, assuming that once she had gotten settled down, she wouldn't ask for any favors— not that Aurora ever had or ever would. The conversation lasted all of two minutes while Aurora was on her lunch break, sitting in her car in the parking lot of the grocery store. She had started crying, accidentally, and her mother huffed and hung up immediately.

It had been a year, today, since she had last seen any of her family members. But, she wasn't going to let the past ruin her day. It was Christmas Eve! She couldn't wallow in self pity all day. She had a holiday to celebrate!

She got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to start getting ready. She washed her face with some of Evangeline's ex-roommate's cleanser and dried her skin off. Her puffy pink eyes were evidence of her indulgence last night. She always had splotchy skin after a night of drinking. Fortunately, she didn't have a hang over. Wouldn't that be all too familiar? Spending Christmas Eve with a massive headache and upset stomach? She'd done that last year.