The Tale of Love & Racing: Sarina's Story

Chapter 6: The Phone Call

Wednesday, January 10 – Charlotte, North Carolina

Sarina takes a deep breath, slowly dialing the number – stopping as she goes to dial the eighth number and taking another breath. Was she doing the right thing? Was this really a good idea? Or maybe it was best to leave this alone? But with another breath, the final digits went in, along with a finger to the call button.

"Hello?" She hears after a couple of rings, causing her breath to hitch in her throat all over again. Where had her voice gone? Why couldn't she simply respond or say anything? "Hello?

"Hello," she finally finds the words. "It's Sarina Ott calling." She wondered if maybe it would've been better to use Chelsy – but no, she was set on her decisions for what happened and if people wanted to be a part of her life, that was part of getting used to.

"Oh. I didn't think I'd be hearing from you after Sunday...." Sarina wondered now if it was a good thing or not that she called. She wondered if Shelley had been glad to run her off – not wanting to open this chapter due to past anger, or whether this was the intentions she hoped for. "But, it is nice to hear from you actually."

She takes a deep breath as her mind thinks back to their conversation from the weekend. She remembered thinking it'd be a great idea to reconnect with her aunt, after seeing how well things had gone with Lindsay. It was why she, along with Chase and Lindsay, made the trip to Shelley's place in New York after returning from Costa Rica.

Unfortunately, it did not go as they planned, with Shelley practically chewing her out, accusing her of ruining her brother's life, not being there when he needed her, among other family history. No matter how much pleading went back in response, it just seemed the resentment from Shelley grew.

Despite the initial meeting then having gone affray really quickly, the decision had been made by Sarina to give her another call, to spark another conversation. What if the initial reunion brought forth the anger, frustration? What if she had been able to get let go, think it over, and realize she crossed the line once thinking about Sarina's side of things? Perhaps they could work through this and be able to be a family once again. 

"Frankly, I wasn't done with my complaints actually," Shelley continued, almost resulting in a sigh escaping from Sarina. This was not what she hoped for in this phone call. "Truthfully, I have a lot more that I could say to you. I heard the explanation from your boyfriend and how he decided to cut me off for his own reasons, but there were some loop holes here. There were things that could've been done differently, changed, and you know that. So why are you hiding behind a superstar now?" 

"You think I'm hiding behind Chase?" She questions, almost laughing in response to the latest batch of accusations. There were several things that people could say about her, but hiding behind someone was never her style. "Wow, that's a surprise – especially if you know who I am and what I am like. I don't hide behind people. I don't hide thin-"

"You're hiding behind a fake nam-"

"The FBI and police set that in motion after the murd-"

"You could've said no-"

"I was under the age of 18, and not allowed a legal say in the matter. Do you really think I wanted to have my life shipped around the country? Do you really think I wanted to pick up and move on all by myself while trying to grieve for my parents? Do you really think I wanted to be alone and not near my family, and those who loved me? Get a little real, Shelley!" Then again, she could wonder if even some body parts were real on Shelley.

"So because of all this, it'd make great sense if you were hiding behind Chas-"

"But I'm not. Like I was saying, I don't hide behind things; I take action. I never paused ever, but rather kept fighting for myself, my life, my dreams, everything. You don't know have the tale of what it took to get to where I am and choices that I had to make in those years. You don't know how much I fought with my emotions. You're saying that I'm hiding behind Chase? No, I'm not. He's actually the best damn thing to happen to me because he made me face the emotions that I didn't want to and pull me even further forward into my own person. But go ahead and believe what you want..." Sarina couldn't help but smirk a little at her own comments, the realization of just how much she loved Chase hitting her more.