Laura

Laura

A short story

 "Laura! Laura!"

Laura heard her mother calling. Probably she needed help with cooking dinner. But Laura didn't care. So, she pretended not to hear.

"Laura, your mother is calling you," Michael said looking at Laura. He was a bit shocked. Laura pretended she didn't hear him either. Michael looked at his sister Mary. Mary was confused as much as he was. "Laura?" Michael tried again. Laura didn't take her eyes from the computer. She watched her little sister Pamela playing the game. "Laura?" Michael tried getting the attention of Laura for the third time.

Laura is someone who has a really bad temper. She managed her temper for a long time. She was doing fine until last week. For the past few days, she got angry for even the slightest thing. She got angry at every person, even with people who never did anything to her. Today she tried her best since her father's friend and his family came for dinner. But she couldn't hold it anymore. She lost it.

"If you want, you go and check for yourself," Laura shouted at Michael and went outside to the garden. Michael looked at Mary and she just shrugged. Then he looked at Pamela and she said apologetically "Don't mind her." Michael gave her a brief smile and went to find Katherine; Laura's elder sister. She was in the kitchen helping her mother. When Michael came to the kitchen he saw his mother talking with Laura's mother who was cooking. She gave a brief smile as she saw Michael and continued with her cooking and talking. Michael returned a smile and went over to Katherine who was cutting vegetables.

"Oh, hey Michael. Laura was with you right?" Katherine asked as she saw him.

"Yeah, umm... she was." Michael told Katherine what happened and looked at her hoping she will clear up his confusion.

Katherine looked at Michael with surprising eyes and asked "She SHOUTED at you? Really?"

"Ummm... yeah. Maybe I annoyed her" said, Michael. Then Katherine laughed surprising him. "Boy, you will never annoy HER. She has a crush on you for more than 6 years now." This surprised Michael even more. It was clear to Michael that Katherine didn't want to talk about Laura's disobedience towards her mother. "Oh!" Michael couldn't think of anything else to say. He smiled at Katherine and went outside to find Laura.

Laura was sitting on the bench near the pool. She didn't see Michael coming towards her as her back was turned towards him. Michael stood behind her wondering what to say. He put his hands in his trouser pockets and cleared his throat to announce his presence. Laura turned slowly thinking it was her father. She was really surprised to see Michael standing behind her. She stared at him for a few seconds. "Oh, hi. What are you doing outside? It's cold." Laura managed to find words after a while.

While sitting down next to Laura, Michael said "I think I should be the one asking that." Laura turned towards the pool from Michael and said "I'm not cold." Before Michael could say anything else Laura asked "So, why are you here?" Michael took a long breath and started "I came-"

"Michael," Laura interrupted. "I'm really sorry I shouted at you. I didn't mean to. I have a really bad temper these days. I tried to keep it down, but I couldn't. Again sorry about that." She said and took a long breath. Michael looked at her a little while and opened his mouth to talk. But Laura interrupted him again. "I pretended not to hear my mother because... umm..." Laura didn't want to tell him the reason. Michael waited for her to finish. Laura sighed and said, "Just think of me as a bad daughter and forget that." Then she looked at Michael. Michael was looking at her, waiting for her to say anything else that she wanted to say. Laura felt uncomfortable, so she looked at the pool.