Page 15 of Life Blood
I heard her sniff and let out a deep breath, “We’re moving.”
“Wait! What do you mean?” I nearly shrieked. “Moving to where?”
“Canada. Vancouver,” she said through her sobs.
How could my entire life fall apart in one day?
“Oh my God. This isn’t happening,” I said, fighting back my own tears. “Well, we have at least a month, right? Three months? How long? People don’t just pack up and leave.”
“You know how my dad has been going away on business a lot this year, and remember those times my mom went with him?”
My stomach dropped, “Yes,” I said softly.
“They were looking at houses to buy. They didn’t want to tell me before the end of the semester. They wanted me focused on my finals so my transcripts wouldn’t look bad when I transferred to a new college.”
“They didn’t even tell you they were thinking about it? This is so sudden,” I said. “When do you guys move? How long do you have?”
Silence.
“Jen!”
“The movers were already here when I got home. My parents took me out to lunch after school and then dropped this bomb on me. We have to fly out tomorrow. Dad wants us settled in so he can start his new job on Monday.”
“What the hell?” I shouted, “Jen this isn’t normal, you know that, right?”
“What moveisnormal?” she answered, “I guess they realized letting me in on their life-changing decisions last minute would give me too much time to stress about the move.”
“I really don’t know what to say. I can’t believe they handled it like this.”
I heard her sigh, “They said if they would’ve told me sooner, they thought I might’ve rebelled. I guess they’ve been feeling like maybe hanging around you and seeing your mom wasn’t a good example for me. I mean, it’s not like they don’t like you, they just pity your situation. Sorry, but I kinda get it. I guess I can see why they handled it this way if I’m looking at it from their point of view.”
“Wow. Good luck, then,” I said, pissed, as I hit end on the call. They pitied me. Everyone pitied me. Even mybest friendcould understand why her parents were desperate to get her away from me. Well, I didn’t need anyone’s pity. Friends and boyfriends and mothers be damned. I was furious, brokenhearted, and betrayed.
I was alone in a world that took no prisoners, but I wasn’t going to crumble. I had to keep one foot moving in front of the other. It was time to focus on saving money for myself, focus on transferring to a university that was worth a damn, and focus on getting the hell out of this town all on my own.
I glanced up at the ceiling, “Grandma, I’ve never needed you more than I do right now,” I said through my tears.
I knew I could be strong enough to do things on my own because I’d been doing them my whole life. I was done being a doormat, and I was done beingpoor little Ellie. Things were gonna be different starting now.
Chapter Five
Imanaged to take a quick shower and get ready for work without breaking down and crying. I was used to being completely let down by my mom and David, but the thought of losing Jen was a cut too deep for me to even think about.
I considered calling in sick, but that would only give me too much time to think about how sucky my life was.
One foot in front of the other.
I pulled my wavy auburn hair into a ponytail, applied some mascara to my puffy eyes, and gloss to my lips. I prayed my eyes would lose their puffiness quickly. The last thing I needed was anyone asking me my least favorite question:what’s wrong?
I thought long and hard about walking to work, but I’d never get there in time if I did, and after last night, I wasn’t walking anywhere alone in the evening ever again. My only option was to cross my fingers and hope that mom’s piece-of-junk sedan would fire up and get me there and back.
I fumbled with the keys while my garage opened, then I covered my heart in shock when the figure of a man caught my eye in the rearview mirror.
“Shit!” It didn’t take much to identify that it was Zac in my driveway again for some unknown reason. I got mom’s car started and pushed the car door open. “I need to get to work,” I shouted back to him.
Zac was casually leaning against his sports car in my driveway, blocking mom’s car from exiting. I wasn’t in the mood to be friendly with anyone right now, and I didn’t have time to chit-chat with someone I didn’t really know.
“Did you forget something here?” I asked as Zac stood up and walked over to where mom’s rust-bucket excuse of a car was trying to hold on to an idle. If I let off the gas, the car would surely die and most likely never start again.
