Befriended

The Trip

" Laney, time to get up." my mother sighed, "Laney now."

' Hopefully ignoring her will make her go away', I thought to myself while drifting in and out of a restful sleep.

 " Laney I swear if you don't get up righ-" "I'm up, I'm up!" I groaned tearing myself from the cool sheets.

"Now hurry and get ready, your flight leaves in an hour and you will not miss it." Mom warned as she walked out.  I groaned louder.  My flight.  I almost forgot.  I was being shipped from California to Florida today.  Don't get me wrong; I can appreciate a nice vacation to Florida, but this was different.  I wasn't coming back.  Confused yet?  I'll explain...

My mother is Katie Flint, one of the world's renowned fashion designers.  She's constantly on the go from city to city, but I don't mind.  I have a nice boyfriend named Sean, tons of friends, and endless beach parties to attend.  Let's just say I don't get bored often.  Actually, life was great, that was, until my mother got a job offer in Europe for a year.  She took it.  Of course.  This only left me one logical place to stay...my dad's house.

My dad, Ben Watts, works as a police officer in Sunset, Florida and watches way too much stand up comedy for his own good.  He can't cook for his life but knows all the best places to eat out.  I haven't seen him for a few years but he claims I'm going to love it there.  I bet.  Not only am I starting a new school, I'm starting a new school my senior year.  Talk about bad timing.

Today was my flight and as much as I wanted to miss it, I couln't hold back my mom.  With that in mind, I showered, dressed in denim shorts and a crop top, applied makeup, slipped on my vans, and ran to the awaiting car in my driveway with suitcases in hand.

" Are you excited?" Mom asked once we were on the highway.

"Hardly." I grumbled back to her.

*              *                 *              *           *

I stepped off the plane letting the humidity hit me hard.

How awful.

The plane ride was the usual torture.   Being crammed between a fat bald man and a mother with a one year old baby on her lap made it tons more pleasurable.  Good thing the flight was only five and a half hours long.  Noting the sarcasm there I hope.

I sent a quick text to my mom to let her know I was there and wondered off to get my luggage.  I impatiently tapped my foot as I waited to see the familiar blue luggage roll around to where I was.  Finally, I spotted the little luggage containing all my shoes.  Easily, I grabbed it off the carousal and waited for the bigger one to come. Once in sight, I prepared myself for its immense weight. Oh how I wished my dad was here.  He was apparently running late after working a long shift at the station.  What a great start Dad.

The luggage neared and I tugged it off the roundabout as hard as I could.  Unfortunately, this sent me flying backwards, crashing into something, hard.  My head started spinning.  I turned around only to come face to face with a boy.  I might've actually thought he was cute if he wasn't yelling ike a lunatic.

" Shit, watch where you're going you idiot.  You just hit me with your hard head!"

Well hello to you too.

" Seriously? Calm down it was an accident!" I yelled back at the fuming guy.

" Whatever." the boy scoffed and turned to walk away.

" Jerk." I mumbled under my breath.

Surprisingly, the boy turned around, his bright blue eyes sending daggers through me.  If looks could kill, I'd be one dead girl.  Then just like that, his lips turned up into a nasty smirk that only made me feel stupider as the boy stalked off.