Stardom

Making It

"You have no idea how happy I am to hear from you," I greeted, answering the phone and tossing my purse down on the counter.

"It's nice to finally hear your voice too."

I froze in surprise at the unexpected voice on the other end, rechecking my screen to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

Nope... it says, Ross.

"Mom? Why do you have Ross's phone?" I burst out.

"Because you never answer my calls, and I was worried about you."

"So he let you call from his phone?" I asked in disbelief.

It definitely didn't sound like something he'd do. He knew how I hated being ambushed by my mother, her tendency to completely disregard boundaries had been something that had infuriated me ever since I was a child.

"Well no. I happened to find it and so I borrowed it," My mother replied awkwardly.

"Found it where?" I pressed.

"In his pocket," She said timidly.

I stayed silent, waiting for the moment that she'd give me the full truth. I knew her too well to believe it was that simple, and I knew my boyfriend well enough that he wouldn't fall for being stupid enough to leave his phone lying around for my mother to get hold of. Soon enough there was a sigh on the other end and she elaborated:

"It really was in his pocket," She snapped, trailing off as she continued, "Of his jacket... on the back seat of his truck. Which may have been locked at the time."

There it was. I rolled my eyes, nestling my phone into the crook of my neck as I pulled a protein bar from the shelf and tore it open.

"You can't just go breaking into people's cars, Mom," I snapped.

"I wouldn't have to if you just answered my calls. Besides, Ross isn't people... He's part of the family."

"More fool him," I muttered bitterly under my breath. "Why's he there anyway?" I asked.

"He came for dinner, it was a rough night last night, huge fire at the bakery a few streets away, the poor soul was up most of the night trying to put it out."

"Is he okay?" I shouted, almost spitting my protein bar across the room as panic seized hold of my heart like an icy fist.

"He's fine, though I'm sure he wishes you cared enough to be here to welcome him home at the end of a shift like that."

"Wow, you made it more than a minute before throwing that one in my face, well done," I snapped.

"Can you blame us for feeling abandoned? You had a life here, people who needed you and you walked away. All in the name of fame."

She was on a roll now, and I slumped against the counter, pulling my phone away from my ear so that I didn't have to listen to the overly familiar words. I wished I could just hang up, but I knew that wasn't an option, she'd go ballistic, and pretending to faint would have no effect in this situation. With no option but to listen from afar as she continued to nag without drawing breath, I stared at the screen, internally snapping back every retort that I was dying to say. It was when I saw the message symbol that an idea finally struck me.

With my mother still completely clueless about my absence, I pulled up my messages, quickly typing up a brief plea and searching for the right name in my contacts. When I hit send, I waited for the sign that it had been read, almost cheering as it went through. Pressing the phone back to my ear, I waited for the sound that couldn't come quick enough, and when the beeping echoed on the other end, I did a happy jig as my mother awkwardly explained about the incoming call on the other line and timidly called Ross to the phone.