Eye of The Tiger

Chapter Nine

“Paige, what is going on? How come you didn’t tell me the truth about the accident, sweetheart? It was an accident,” mom said, trying to comfort and scald me at the same time.
“I just.... I...I don’t know. I guess I just panicked because I lied to the police. I didn’t want to get in trouble,” I confessed.
“Well, don’t say anything to anybody, okay?” She says and I agree not to.
“I won’t even mention it to your father either,” she says and I let out a sigh of relief.
“Okay thanks, mom. I gotta go. I’ll call later okay? Love you,” I tell her.
“Love you too,” she says and we hang up.
     That was NOT the reaction I expected to get out of mom. I thought she would be really angry and disappointed.  But so far she’s been comforting and supportive. Although that makes me feel a little better, I still feel guilty. I just wish I wasn’t driving that night.
     After my phone call with my mom, I had two nightmares that night; one was what really happened and the other one was the story I made up to the police. Then the police said I was guilty and took me away in handcuffs.
     I woke up drenched in sweat. I had to drink some water and change into dry pajamas.  I looked at the time and then went back to sleep.
“Wake up already! It’s past 11,” an impatient voice says, interrupting my dream. I peek one eye open.
“Emma, go away. I need 20 more minutes,” I say, but she yanks the cover off of my skin. “Grrrrr... it’s freezing!”
“It’ll be less freezing if you get up and get some clothes on,” she says, leaving my room expecting me to follow her... And I do.
     After I get up, put some clothes on, and get myself together I go into the living room where Emma is waiting for me.
“What are we doing today? And why did you interrupt my precious sleep?” I joke with her and throw a pillow at her head. She dodges the pillow and answers my question.
“I have no idea. We both have today off, so we should do something fun. I just don’t know what yet. Let’s think about it over lunch,” she says and I grab my keys.
     About fifteen minutes later, we are seated at a table at Olive Garden. We give the waitress our order and then start chatting.  Emma loves to gossip, so we spent that whole time talking about the things going on in our neighborhood and at work. Before we know it, lunch is over and we leave the restaurant.
“Let’s go to Barnes and Noble,” Emma suggest and we head out that way.
     When we walk inside the store, I can feel my body instantly relax. I love the bookstore.... The fresh new pages inside a new book.. the smell of Starbucks on one side of the store. I’m tempted to buy a strawberries and creme Frappuccino... I can just taste the creamy blend of milk, cream, and fresh strawberries!
     Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved reading. It takes me to a whole new world of people and places that I can just lose myself in. I would spend hours reading books to the point that my mother would have to literally drag me away from my books to go eat dinner. At one point in time, I wanted to be a writer. The furthest I got with that was having a few books self-published on Amazon.
     Emma goes over to the magazine section and I wander over to the non-fiction section and browse the book selections. I end up buying a couple books and Emma buys three magazines.
“Hey, check this out; Justin Bieber got into an argument with Hailey,” Emma reads from the magazine she’s buying.
“I can’t believe you buy into all that nonsense. It’s useless junk,” I say.
“No, wrong.... it’s entertaining junk. And I love reading all the latest gossip,” she says and smacks me on the head with her magazine. I grin.
Emma can be such a big kid at times.
“I just got an idea!” She says suddenly, flinging the magazine aside.
“What?” I ask hesitantly, almost scared to hear the answer. She can be unpredictable sometimes.... Well, actually all the time.
“We should go to Vegas!” She practically yells.