That Summer Crush (#wattys2017)

Chapter Seven

No more hiding. There's no point of running. I'm too tired and sore. Looking down at the crackers, I realize that they did nothing and I needed food. Brushing pass my brother and the rest of the family, I open the fridge and pull out a slice of pizza and throw it into the microwave for 30 seconds. I pressed start and try to dodge my family. They weren't having it. Trapped. Nowhere to go. Great. Let's get this over with.

                                 "Thank heavens!" exclaims Pippa as she clobbers me with a hug and I collapse to the floor in pain.

                                "Sorry."

I wave her away saying 'she's fine' and struggle to stand up. "I think my body is refusing to let me stand up." Laughing, I give up and stay on the floor. "Could someone grab my pizza? I'm starving. Please?" Zoey jumps up and grabs my food and hands it to me.

                               "Are you seriously, okay? From my standpoint, you look terrible. I'm sorry, but that's the brutal truth, Everly." States Zoey as she returns to her spinning table. She has dark brown hair and stunning brown eyes. She looks like she's 16 going on 22. Zoe reminds me of Madisyn Shipman from Game Shakers. Yes – I watched that when it came on Disney Channel. Once a Disney channel kid – always one. Plus, I babysit every now and then a couple kids that love that channel.

                            "I know. Falling down the stairs and raking my back on the slide were not on the itinerary today."

Freddie rolls his eyes and just goes out to the balcony and leaves the 'apparent drama', before he is sucked into it. Darcy and Pippa go to the other room, to start getting ready for bed. Still on the flood, my mom stands over me and examines everything. She notices the blisters forming on my heels, the bruises on my back along with the dry blood from the slide incident. Also, she sees that my nose was bleeding and that my hair is a rat's nest. Dark circles were clearly forming under my eyes and she frowned.

Seriously? Frowning? What the hell is that for? Never mind. Don't question mother...ever! Okay, I guess she is sad that...no I need to stop analyzing this situation. Take a deep breath.

                         "So this wasn't your way of getting Bobby to notice you, right?"

                        "MOM!! GOD NO!! Why would I make myself look ugly and put myself through all that pain? Why do you keep assuming this has to do with Bobby?" I ask as I finally stand up and perch myself up on the counter; while stuffing my face with pizza.

                       "I'm a mom. I have to ask. Go sit down." Urges my mother as she points to the table and then digs in the freezer for an ice pack. Wraps said 'ice pack' in a towel and hands it to me.

About five minutes later, my eyes start getting tired; and I slide my mom's phone over to see the time. 10:41 p.m. Handing her the ice pack, I slide out of the booth and look back yawning, "Thanks. I'm going to go limp to my bed and attempt to sleep. Talk more in the morning."

Immediately after stepping in the room, I put my phone on the charge. That's when I noticed I received like a thousand text messages and notifications all at once. I read Poppy's first which read:

           Are you still mad at me?

           I'm sorry, Hoffy. Can we please move past this?

           Did you hear about Kieran proposing? I said yes by the way. Please talk to me.

          Maybe your phone is dead. How are you? I miss you.