The Realm Between

Chapter 1: Purple Skies

The sun was showing through the windows in front of me; the curtains pulled in front but not thick enough to hide the light that dared to blind me as I tried to get a few minutes more of snooze. If it wasn't the sun, it was the person I shared the bed with for the night that prevented me from getting more sleep. Her arm landed over my chest with a soft thump; my breath hit my throat. Swallowing hard, I pulled her arm off, her soft skin still as inviting as last night, but no, I had to leave. From the fact that it was an orange glow that streamed through the curtains, it had to be maybe six in the morning, and I was expected to be at my grandmas at seven to help her with the garage sale she had planned. Sometimes I was an amazing granddaughter. Pulling the sheets off my bare skin, cool air nipped at it, leaving me shivering until I threw on my clothes, I hoped it was all my clothes. The girl, I couldn't quite place her name was still snoozing away, droll slowly dripping from her soft, pink lips. I wish I could remember her name, and I wish I could stay, but even if it wasn't for my grandma, I wouldn't.

I never did.

But flashbacks still railed in my mind; her taste was enough to bring them back. I would sleep with her again, but she might have gotten the wrong idea. Over shared drinks the night before, she kept saying how she wanted to fall in love, but having fun wasn't out of the picture. I bit on that having fun part and ran with it until I landed in her bed.

No time to stick around, I left the apartment without even a squeak and found myself in my Ford Escape, my dad passed it down to me before getting himself a Land Rover whatever model, that he dreamed of for a decade. Good 'ol Eddie, always dreaming of getting a car that can last any off-road course. I blasted the heating as Chicago in February was always freezing as hell. The short walk to the car should have been a run as it felt like my damn boogers froze in my nose. Music played through the speakers, Djo soothing my nerves, ready for an easy ride to Norridge which was a good twenty-ish minutes away, thankfully because it was six in the morning. If I waited until eight, it would take me an hour.

As I drove, the sun kept on rising, causing me to move all the visors in strange directions just to not get blinded as it flashbacked at me against the snow that still lay fresh on the roads. Cars around me drove as if they've never seen snow in their lives, always hard braking and not passing twenty miles an hour... my twenty-minute drive might just be an hour, shit. And before I could go ahead and call my grandma, my phone rang through the car as it was connected to CarPlay, my mom's contact flashing at me on the center console.

"Hey Opaline, are you almost at grandma's?" her Polish accent was thick as she spoke.

Full name, she still wasn't over the argument we had a few days ago. I didn't even want to get into it at the moment. With a deep breath, I was able to respond in a non-hostile way. "Yeah, the snow kind of fucked the roads so people are driving horrible, but yeah, almost there."

"Mhm," she grunted, heat rose in my chest, "and where were you last night?"

Not again. I literally don't want to argue. I want to be in a good mood when I see my grandma, I want to be there for her, have a fun time. If I have another argument with my mom, it will really mess with me. I could just come up with some lie; she doesn't have to know I was bar hopping with friends until I found someone to spend the night with. I started to tap my fingers on the steering wheel as I stood in traffic, snow piles and cars causing us to move slower than I'd like on the i-90.

"Stayed at a friends," I said.

A pause, enough to grow a thick tension even over the phone. "I asked you..." and before she could finish, I felt my blood boil. The very words I wanted to spew sat just at the tip of my tongue. But I needed to keep the peace, so I let her finish. "...to stay home more often, I miss seeing you Lina... you don't have to be out every single night."