No Matter Where You Are

9

Shelby's P.O.V.-

~The next morning, 9:00AM Pacific, 12:00PM Eastern~

I remember falling asleep on the futon in the bedroom next to the kitchen next to Colby, but when I woke up, Colby was not laying next to me and the door was left open just a crack. I was kinda scared, so I silently got up out of bed and crept towards the door to investigate and make sure that there was not an intruder in the house, especially since I don't know the house very well. I slowly opened the door, and I heard someone in the bathroom, but I didn't knock because I didn't want to startle whoever it was, especially if they were taking a crap. I crept quietly into the kitchen and saw Aaron making eggs, sausage, bacon and waffles, with Buddy running around at his feet waiting for him to drop something. Aaron didn't notice me, so I decided to go upstairs and have a look around. I padded up the stairs as silently as I could so I didn't wake anyone up. When I got to the landing of the second floor, I waited a few minutes before I explored the bedrooms. When the coast was clear, I made my way towards Aaron and Jake's bedrooms and shared bathroom. The first room next to their shared bathroom had a computer and a couch in it. I knocked on Jake's door, but I got no response, so I assumed that he was the one in the bathroom downstairs next to my room and I knew that Aaron wasn't in his room, so I went back downstairs to the kitchen because I didn't want to wake anyone who was still sleeping. When I stepped into the kitchen, Buddy went crazy, which startled Aaron. "Good morning." Aaron said, "How'd you sleep? And why did Colby come out of your room at 8:30?" "I slept fine, thanks. And Colby slept in my room last night because he was being lazy and didn't want to go to his own room to sleep." I replied. Aaron didn't say anything, he just turned back to the eggs, sausage, bacon and waffles that he was making. When he turned back to the breakfast that he was making, I sat down at the table and went on my phone. When I turned my phone on for the first time since being in Los Angeles, my notifications immediately blew up with texts, missed phone calls and voicemails from my parents, a couple of my cousins and the majority of my friends back in Michigan. When the notifications stopped coming through, I had 70 missed calls, 65 voicemails, and 120 texts. I knew that the voicemails from my parents would be mad, so I deleted those and I knew that the ones from my cousins would be asking me to call or text my parents back, so I deleted those too. The texts from my friends were just asking where I was and why I wasn't answering their calls. After cleaning up my missed texts and calls, I texted my friends back in Michigan telling them not to worry about me and that I would come and visit them as soon as I could. One of the friends that texted me was my friend Erika who wanted to know why Sam tweeted out last night about this girl from Michigan that was living with him and the guys that he wanted to do something nice for and I texted her back that I had no idea what she was talking about because I hadn't been on twitter at all the day before because I had my phone turned off all day the day before. Erika had told me that since she and Sam were friends, she DM'd him and he told her what he had planned, but she wouldn't tell me because Sam told her not to tell me if I asked. I told Erika about how nice everyone has been so far and that I thought that Colby might have a crush on me. Erika told me that she wasn't surprised that Colby may have a crush on me. While I was texting with Erika, I hadn't noticed that Aaron had finished making his breakfast and left the kitchen and gone to his room with his food and that Sam had come downstairs to have some breakfast. Sam put a couple Eggo waffles into the toaster and then sat down across from me and waited a few beats before saying anything. "Good morning" Sam said, startling me and making me drop my phone on the table. "Holy- when did you come down?" I asked, calming myself down. "Like not even 5 minutes ago." Sam said, standing up as the toaster popped, signaling that his waffles were done. Sam grabbed a paper plate from the drawer and the syrup from the cupboard above and then pulled the waffles from the toaster. "You like just syrup, just butter or both on yours?" Sam asked turning to me. "Both please." I replied. Sam turned back to the waffles and began to prepare them as I asked. When he was done, Sam placed the plate in front of me and then went to get a fork and knife from the drawer, but by the time he turned around, my left hand and face were covered in syrup. When Sam saw me he began to laugh, and I did too. Sam and I were laughing so much that we didn't hear Colby come downstairs. When I looked over at the doorway to the kitchen and saw the confused look on Colby's face, I waved at him with my syrup covered hand. When Colby saw that I made a mess with the one hand I had, he began to laugh too. When our laughter subsided, Colby stole Sam's seat when he went to go and get his waffles out of the toaster. "Good morning." Colby said as he yawned. "Good morning." I replied, my mouth full of waffle. While Colby, Sam and I were in the middle of a conversation, my phone started to ring. Colby reached across the table and picked it up and showed me the caller ID. The person calling was my mother. "Put the phone down, I don't want to talk to her." I grumbled, shoving more waffle into my mouth. Instead of actually listening to me, Colby answered my phone. "COLBY! WTF!?" I screamed, spraying waffle everywhere, "Oh God, I'm so dead. Nonononononononono." As Colby talked to my parents, I got up from the table, dumped what was left of my waffles into the garbage, rinsed off my left hand and then went back into my room and shut and locked the door and began to cry. Sam knocked on my door but since I was sitting against the door and it was locked, he couldn't get into the room. On the other side of the door, I could hear Colby and my parents arguing, with my parents on speaker phone. Both Colby and my parents were getting increasingly louder, which caused me to sob uncontrollably. Sam must've heard me sobbing because he began to knock on the door continuously, but I still refused to open the door. Sam eventually gave up and walked away, but I didn't notice because all I could focus on was Colby and my parents arguing and shouting at each other and the sounds of my own sobs. Sam returned 5 minutes later and began to scream at Colby and my parents while Aaron and Devyn picked the lock on the door. Aaron got the lock picked and tried to open the door, but I was baring down on the door with all my weight so that he couldn't open it. Aaron is significantly stronger than I am, so he eventually got the door open.He and Devyn walked into the room and when they turned to me to see how I was doing, I was a train wreck, sobbing, shaking and mumbling to myself. Aaron held me in his arms and Devyn rubbed my back while Sam and Colby continued to yell at my parents for how they treated me. I eventually calmed down enough to get up out of Aaron's arms, go into the kitchen and scream. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH!" I shouted, "Gimme the damn phone. YOU'RE NOT MY PARENTS ANYMORE! YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER ME NOW! I DON'T LIVE WITH YOU AND I DON'T HAVE TO TAKE ANYMORE OF YOUR FUCKING BULLSHIT!" I hung up the phone after shouting at my parents. After I hung up the phone, I turned to Colby with a glare of death on my face. "AS FOR YOU, I TOLD YOU NOT TO ANSWER THE PHONE CALL AND THAT I DIDN'T WANT TO TALK TO MY PARENTS BECAUSE I KNEW THAT THEY WOULD SCREAM AT ME! EVEN THOUGH I JUST TOLD THEM THAT I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO THEM ANYMORE, THEY'RE STILL GOING TO COME LOOKING FOR ME AND I KNOW IT, AND IT IS ALL THANKS TO YOU, DUMB ASS!" I shouted at Colby. After my outburst, I stormed right out the front door and hopped the gate and then sat on the curb outside the house.