Chapter 15

My mom calls me down to dinner soon after I plop down on my bed. I skip down the stairs happily, and then realize my mother will ask questions. I walk slowly down the rest of the steps. My mom had prepared cheesburgers and french fries. yum. I fix my plate and sit happily, taking the first bite.
"deeee-lish Mom." I say, taking another bite.
"Thanks." She says and fixes her own. My father must have been working late.
"Dad still at the office?" I ask her.
"No." She says before swallowing the last bite she took. I kind of lean back, disgusted. "He said he had to stop to get something for you."
"Me?" I ask. My dad never gets anything for me. hmmmmm.

Ruthanne's Point Of View <3>

His pouty look disappeared when I kiss him shyly. "Hey." I say. "We'll watch it another time." He kisses me back.
"Ok." He laughs, making me smile. He has such a weird laugh. "What?"
"You have a cute laugh."
"You have a cute smile!" He replies, kissing me again, then standing up. "Let's go for a walk." He says, pulling me up.
"Ok?" I stand up and follow him out the door.
We walk out of the building laughing hysterically. We had passed one of his "Neighbors" in an apartment down the hall. The guy was screaming/singing?, Baby Come Back, the song that's on most of the Swiffer commercials.
"You can blame it all on me!" Kris yells when we get outside. We laugh some more, walking down the street. We walk for a while, making fun of Kris's neighbor.
At 9:45 I yelp, "CRAP!" Making Kris jump. "Kris, my parents are gonna be pissed if I don't get home by 10:15, even if I was at Caitlin's!" Kris looks bewildered. I'm probably looking scared for my life. We've been walking for quite a while. Even if we were walking slow, we covered a lot of ground.
"Let's jog back and I'll run upstairs, get my key and drive you home. It'll be ok!" He says. Jog back. Oh crap. Hopefully we didn't walk very far. I'm not one who runs much!
We start off quickly, Kris being super fit, of course. He notices me huffing and puffing though, and slows down. "You ok?" He asks.
"Yeah," I gasp for air, a terrible runner I am. We reach his apartment finally, me still kinda wheezing. Kris disappears through the door while I wait by his car, drumming my fingers on the hood. He comes out after a couple of minutes.
"k. Let's go," he says, hurrying around the front of his car and hitting the unlock key at the same time. He almost gets hit by a Wide Load Semi truck coming down the street, and is still in shock when he gets in the car. "Wow." He says.
"Wow." I say. "that was a close one."
Kris drives me home, getting there at about 10:10. "Thank you soooooo much Kris. It was amazing." I say at my door. "and thanks for hurrying me home."
"No problem." He says before kissing me on the cheek.
"Call me." I say as I open up the door. "Thanks again."
"No problem!" He says again.
I walk into the house. "That didn't look like Caitlin's car to me!" My mom yells from behind the sink.
"Kris was there." I say, knowing they didn't know about Kris. "We lost track of time and he said he could drive me home." I lie, knowing how to get past my parents every time. I think they're still convinced I'm the little angel I was when I was 5. ha. But shouldn't they cut me a little slack? I'm 3 days from being finished with high-school. Jeez.

Caitlin's Point Of View ;)



All I can think of while I'm chowing on cheeseburger is what possessed my dad to buy me something. And what it might be. I sigh when I finish. "Did he tell you what?" I break finally, not coming up with anything.
"Yup." My mom says.
"Will it be something embarrassing?" I ask. The last time he bought me something, I had a friend, Taylor--a high class friend mind you--over. He had to choose that night to give me the cheap dress he found at a yard sale for like 2 dollars.
First of all it was hideous. And. 2 sizes too big. And since when did my dad hit yard sales!? How embarrassing. Of course I was trying to act cool in front of Taylor who was laughing hysterically at me... I hurt my dad's feelings. But I learned the, Don't act like who you aren't lesson. Taylor and I aren't really friends anymore.
"No," she says. "Not like that stupid dress." She laughs. "Why in the world he thought you wore an XL... jeez." She sighs. "He was so destroyed."
"I know." I say, not smiling. I still feel really bad about that.

I hear the front door open about 30 seconds after we have that conversation. He comes in with a pretty big box. "Caitlin!" He stumbles into the kitchen with the box. It must be pretty heavy. That or my dad is a wimp. "I got you something." He says, lowering it to the table. I push my plate out of the way. I see the laptop I've been eyeing up on TV on the box.
"DADDY!!!!" I jump up, squealing. I jump into his arms. "Thank you thank you thank you!!!!" I run around looking for scissors to open the box. He pulls his pocketknife out of his pocket--crazy place for it, I know--and slices it open easily. It takes us like 15 minutes to get to the actual laptop. Then I'm holding it and squealing, so happy. "EEEE!!!!!!" I squeal again. "Thank you Daddy!" I hug him again.
"You're welcome sweetie." He replies. That's what he always calls me when I'm acting like a spoiled little girl.
I run to the living room with the laptop and its charger, knowing I won't be able to play with it until later because it has to charge. I plug it in and run back to my parents. "You guys are the best!" I say, hugging them and dancing around. They kind of just stand there awkwardly, not used to this kind of reaction from me. What can I say? I'm in an extremely good mood since Sidney dropped me off.

Around twelve I'm still pacing around waiting for my laptop to charge. "Honey you need to go to bed," my mom says. "It'll be there tomorrow." She tells me.
"I know. I'm just so excited!" I say seriously. Shaking my fists in front of me. "What's the point of going to school anyways? It hardly means anything."
"Just enjoy the last couple days goofing off with your friends. I know what goes on there." She says, peering over her reading glasses and over the magazine she's reading. I laugh at her. Because of what she said and because the way she looks at me makes her look like an old lady. My mom is anything but. She's like 39 and is still lookin' good. She gives a half grin and goes back to her reading.
I turn around and skip up the steps, "night mom!" I say, heading up, knowing I'll sleep well. Today was great. I turn on my radio--for whatever reason I turn it on at night. I guess it keeps the noise of passing cars down and that did always get on my nerves. But, the song that comes on immediately makes me smile. "Say hey I love you," is playing. Even though the only part I like about it is the chorous, it makes me happy and I brush my teeth humming it. I change into pajamas and climb under the covers even though it's humid and hot in my room. I turn the tiny fan that rests on my nightstand on and turn my little desk lamp off. I sigh when I roll over, not ready for the day to be done, but as soon as my head hits the pillow, I'm out.