Oblivious To The Signs

February 6: Meeting Trish Garfy

February 6:  (Saturday)

"Em," My mom called, trying to shake the sleepiness out of me. "Wake up, honey."

"What time is it?" I groggily asked without opening my eyes. Why is my mom waking me up on a Saturday morning?

"It's 9:30am and I'm already late for work so will you please wake up and clean the house before Andrew gets here." She told me with an underlying tone of demand.

"He's not supposed to be here until 12:30pm. What's the hurry?" I asked, still not opening my eyes.

She released an impatient sigh. "Because, I just got off the phone with him and he told me to tell you that there's been a change of plan and he's going to be here at 11am––instead of 12:30pm."

My eyes fluttered open, not completely registering her words. "What?" 

"I said, instead of 12:30, Andrew's gonna be here at 11 so you should get yourself out of bed and start cleaning the house and preparing." She ordered.

I sat up from my oh-so comfy bed and rubbed the sleepiness off my eyes. "Seriously?"

My mom gave me a look. "Would I choose to be late just to be able to joke with you right now?"

"Yeesh! Okay, okay. I get it. I'm sorry, you can go to work now. I'm up." I gave her an apologetic smile.

"Good." She seemed pleased with herself. "Your breakfast is in the oven. I also left money at the upper drawer in the kitchen cabinet. I'll be arriving late tonight because Lynn and I are going to have dinner together. But don't think that you can stay out late too just because I won't be home. Anyways, I already told Andrew not to be out later than 10pm."

"Wait." I frowned. "I thought my curfew is 9pm...?"

Why do I get the feeling that my mom moved my curfew until 10 just for me to have more time with Andrew?

"Well it's 10 now." She curtly replied. 

Is it just me or did she sound a bit defensive? 

"You should be happy that I moved your curfew instead of questioning me." She walked over to my door and looked back. "But seriously, don't stay out too late honey."

I nodded. "Of course, mom. See you later."

"Have fun with Andrew." And with that, she left.

Yay! I can go back to sleeping. So I laid back down in bed and closed my eyes. After a few minutes or so, sleep still hasn't come so I got my phone out and played some music in the hope of being able to sleep again.

After a few minutes of tossing and turning and trying to find sleep, I finally gave up. I know that once I'm up, I can't go back to sleep again. Might as well do what my mom says and start cleaning. So I got up from bed, did my morning routine and chose to wear a gray statement shirt with "Cool kids don't dance" written on it and white denim shorts.

I started cleaning my room first since this is where I am right now. I was in the middle of organizing my study table when I came across something I haven't thought of for a while. The list.

I smiled upon reading it again. I wrote in when I was only 16. I wrote it after I just found out that my boyfriend for a year has been cheating on his girlfriend with me the whole time we're together. I was a third party and I didn't even know it. The list was supposed to help me avoid involving myself with dicks like him ever again. Sometime during those two years, I keep meeting guys who fit some of the descriptions on my list but then I kept thinking, I don't like them at all even if they fit my list.