Shit! I was busted!
Embarrassment flushed through me and I swiftly covered my face with both of my hands. Fumbling around in panic, I ducked under the balcony ledge and crawled on the ground until I reached the doors to go back to my bedroom. I slithered into the room and kicked the door shut behind me. My crawling didn’t stop until I lunged into my bed and pulled the large comforter over my body. Shutting my eyes, I begged my body to shut down and go to sleep.
That night, I prayed to God, Buddha, Obama and anyone else that came into my mind that I had imagined the entire thing. I wanted to believe it was my messed up mind and lack of intimacy that had conjured some mental image of seeing my neighbors have hot, passionate sex in front of me.
MY SKIN felt raw as I scrubbed it harshly with my loofah while hot water streamed down my body. I had forgotten to take my sleeping pill so I didn’t get shit for sleep. I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that I was moving to a new place or witnessing my neighbors screw each other brains out. Either way, I had tossed and turned all night.
Drying off, I tossed my hair into a wet ponytail and threw on a black t-shirt and jeans. It wasn’t my best look but I wasn’t trying to hard, either.
"Happy first day of school," my mini-size cousin yelled when I walked into the kitchen. She was perched up at the table with a small bowl of oatmeal sitting in front of her and sporting another gigantic bow in her hair. I swear the thing was as big as her head.
"I colored this picture for you," she beamed, holding out a sheet of paper. I grabbed it and looked down to see two stick figures holding hands in front of a pink house. "That's me," she pointed to the shorter figure with brown hair and a bow, of course. "And that's you." My stick figure was about three inches taller than her making me look like some deformed giant with curly black hair, sans bow.
"Thank you," I said with a small smile. "It's very pretty." I grabbed a glass and filled it with orange juice before sitting next to her.
"Would you like something to eat?" I looked across the room, spotting my aunt sitting by the island with a coffee cup in her hand. She had asked me the question but her attention was pointed towards the TV mounted on the wall.
"No thanks," I answered, taking a sip of my juice. "I'm not really much of a breakfast person."
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," Sophia declared. "Isn't it mommy?" To further prove her point, she scooped up a giant spoonful of oatmeal and shoved it into her mouth.
"That's right, honey," my aunt answered, turning around to smile at her daughter. "Tommy is going to drop you off at school on his way to take Sophia to kindergarten," she said, turning her attention to me. "Hopefully, we will have some time this weekend to look at a car for you while you're here to get you around."
"You don't need to do that," I insisted, feeling uncomfortable. They had already taken me into their home; they didn't need to buy me a car too. "I can just take the bus." I had never taken a bus before, except for the occasional field trip and games when I cheered, but it couldn’t be that hard to figure out, right?
"Nonsense," she replied, waving off my response and turning her attention back to the TV. “You probably don’t want Tommy and I carting you around to school everyday. I remember how embarrassing that was in high school, especially when it was your dad dropping me off. He scared all of the cute boys away from me.” She laughed, shaking her head at the memory. I smiled, because I could totally see my dad doing that. If I didn’t have Tanner, he would have done the same thing to me.
"Good morning, beautiful ladies," Tommy called, strolling in to the kitchen, wearing a black suit with a briefcase in his hand. Yep, he definitely had the whole "I'm a badass lawyer, don't fuck with me" look going on.
"Hi daddy!" Sophia shrieked, jumping out of her chair. "We are ready for school now!" She grabbed her pink princess backpack and threw it over her shoulder. We? Did the girl have a mouse in her pocket? Because I was not in her "ready for school club." What I was ready for was to climb my ass back up those stairs and form a Daisy cocoon in that comfy bed of mine.
"I bet you guys are," he laughed, grabbing her lunch box off the counter. Handing it over to his pink loving spawn, he gave my aunt a quick kiss on the lips, telling her goodbye.
"Alright, Daisy, you ready to go?" he asked, while I rinsed my glass out and put it in the dishwasher.
My brain was screaming a huge HELL NO on repeat but my head decided it wanted to turn against me. "Let me just go grab my bag."
I ran up the stairs two at a time until I reached my room. I went straight to my nightstand for my phone, but it wasn't there. What the hell did I do with it?