Cell Mates

04|| Hard Knock Life

04

The minute I stepped out onto the driveway my cell phone rang. It was Mia. Surprise, surprise. I obviously wasn't in the mood to deal with any more drama so I ignored the call and directed myself to the beat up car in the driveway – my baby. This girl had more miles on her than any car should be allowed to have, yet she still ran like a slick oiled machine.

The smell of leather immediately enveloped me, welcoming like an old friend, as I settled in watching my sister look at me pull out of the driveway through the curtains in my bedroom. I made sure to smile brightly on my way off.

As I was making it past the neighborhood limits my phone rang. With one hand I strategically fished it out of my bag and slapped it to my ear.

"'Ello," I said way too cheerfully. Realizing I sounded high on LSD I toned it down a little. Down the line there was a pause and then I heard Jody's voice.

"Sam?"

"That's my name; don't wear it out." Occasionally, I had my moments of utter cheesiness where 70s movies' vocab made it into my repertoire.

"Alright, Danny Zuko. Listen I need to talk to you, now."

"Uh huh, where are you?"

"At home."

"Be there in five." I tossed my phone back onto the passenger seat and turned up the rock song on the radio. A day out was just what I needed to get my mind off things.

▲▲▲

"So Vic texted me this morning," Jody said conversationally when I stopped the car so she could slide into the passenger seat. "Mind catching me up?"

"Nothing much to catch up on," I said smiling. Sure being arrested sucked big time, but the fact that I'd been behind bars really tied up my record nicely. "Just a little inconvenience."

"Sure, if you call being arrested just an inconvenience," she said stressing out her obvious shock. She wasn't exactly a saint but she'd never taken it as far as getting locked up.

"I do," I confirmed just to work her up a little more. She had a tendency to mother us – our group – so it was always fun to see her react.

"Are you insane?"

"Maybe." A glance at her through the corner of my eye said she wasn't impressed with my nonchalance on the subject. "So mind telling me where we're going or what the big emergency was."

"We're going to Cleo's, the rest of the group's with her at hers. But before we get there..."

"Yeah?" I prompted, suspiciously turning in my seat to catch her quickly hiding a guilty look. She winced when she saw me quirk my eyebrow at her in question, but only gave me directions to stop at the park on our way.

While I pulled up beside the curb as far away from the children's playground as I could manage, she concentrated on greater things like her reflection in the visor mirror. She twisted her head this way and that way, checking to see if her makeup was smudged and then took out a tube of lip gloss. She coated her lips in a light pink color and I wondered how it was possible that we were best friends.

Once her small avoidance ritual was over and done with, and she no longer had anything else she could smooth or check, she resorted to tucking a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear nervously. "Don't get mad, but I have some pretty bad news..."