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Think, think, think. I could stay with Millie…no, that won’t work. Her house only has two rooms, both of which are occupied. She’s getting ready to move to Jameson’s house, anyway. Tess doesn’t have any space for me either. They’re my only two friends. Seth’s right. Colby’s house is my only option.
“Ugh, fine. And stop calling me Hannanah,” I grumble before putting the oxygen mask back on my face. That nickname drives me crazy.
“You wish,” Seth says with a smirk as he holds his phone up to his ear. I can hear it ringing, and my soul dies a little when Colby’s sleepy hello answers on the other end of the call.
I’m safe and sound in Colby’s guest room. Once his panic subsided and he realized I’m perfectly fine, he left me in the room to rest. I’m pretty sure he called my parents and told them everything that happened, which is fine with me—great, even. I didn’t want to be the one to have that initial conversation with them. They never wanted me to rent that house. They had begged me to live with Colby temporarily or to try to find a roommate for a nice home—or at least one that didn’t have questionable stains, pests, or a negligent landlord.
Rest is nowhere to be had, though. My mind is running a mile a minute. My resumé that I spent hours perfecting and was ready to send out to potential employers will have to be redone since my computer is more than likely toast. My few remaining belongings in the bedroom have a lovely smoke aroma to them. It’ll be like I just attended a bonfire…all the time. I’m going to have to toss everything. I have no home, no clothes, and absolutely no belongings.
I give up on rest and climb out of Colby’s guest bed. What I need more than anything is a distraction. I call up Tess and Millie and beg them to come over. They’ve already heard about the fire, of course. Everyone in Waverly has. I’d bet my left kidney and my entire life savings that there are pictures and videos all over social media.
They both drop whatever plans they had for the day and rush over to Colby’s house, their arms loaded with sugary snacks. Millie brought those cheap, chocolate-covered donuts, Lord bless her. I’ve never been able to resist those. I’d still devour them even if a tiny child put their booger-encrusted fingers all over them. They’re that good. And the Lord is merciful, because Tess brought me clean clothes that don’t smell like fire. They’re both getting special places in Heaven.
Colby isn’t home at the moment, so the girls and I make ourselves at home in his immaculate living room. I assume he’s working off all of his pent-up stress and aggression at the gym.
“My sweet cherub, I am so sorry,” Millie says as she cradles my face in between her miniature hands. She squishes my cheeks and manages to get a laugh out of me. The woman has skills, because I was quite determined to stay in a bad mood.
We gorge ourselves on junk food, and they allow me to whine about my situation for thirty minutes straight. After I’ve repeated everything twice over, I can’t take it anymore. “I have to get out of here and get my mind off of this,” I say.
“Shopping!” Millie and Tess exclaim in unison. I was hoping for something a little more solitary, like a walk at the park or sitting in a dark, quiet movie theater. I do need some clothes that don’t reek of smoke, though. I can’t live in Tess’s loaner clothes for the rest of my life. I muster up all of the courage I have to face the town of Waverly. After the ordeal I’ve just had, I’m going to need it. Everyone is sure to have a million questions for me, none of which I have the answers to.
We load up in Millie’s car since Tess’s is full of carseats, and Millie claims that I’m too emotionally distressed to be driving at a time like this. I drove just fine earlier this morning, but I just keep my mouth shut and do as I’m told. It’ll be nice to save gas since now I have to replace everything I owned. If bank accounts were living beings, mine would be weeping right now.
We head to the little boutique downtown first. They have the cutest clothes in a fifty-mile radius. It’s a little pricier than usual for me, but I deserve a treat after the day I’ve had. I walk inside in front of Millie and Tess and immediately do a one-eighty when I see the town gossip, Shandi, shopping with all of her little goons. We should put GPS trackers on all of them so we can avoid them more effectively. Millie turns me back around, saying, “It’ll be good to get this interaction out of the way.”
“Yeah, it will be all downhill from here,” Tess adds.
“But I don’t like hills. I’d rather just go around it,” I say. My argument falls on deaf ears as they nudge me farther into the store, causing me to trip over my own feet and crash into a rack of clothes. And of course, the awkwardness can’t just end there. The rack is on wheels, because duh! It rolls away from me and crashes into the next rack. I shriek in absolute terror as I tumble to the floor. I don’t move or breathe for a solid minute.
“Wow…rough day,” the object of my every waking nightmare says from a few feet above me. I see her hideous sparkly shoes in front of my face and gag. If I look up, I’ll also get a glimpse of her ginormous teased hair. I think she’s trying to compete with Dolly, but she hasn’t gotten the memo that Dolly is a queen and can do whatever she wants. If Shandi’s the queen of anything, it’s the underworld. I hear the sound of a camera shutter and look up just in time for her to snap another picture of me on her phone. She doesn’t even have the decency to turn the shutter sound off and try to be sneaky. Well, at least she’s honest. She starts typing away on her phone as she turns and walks back to her friends. Great, now this is going to be all over social media as well. I’ll be a town celebrity for all the wrong reasons. Two gossip-worthy happenings in one day. Lucky me!
I bury my face in my hands just before Tess grabs me by the wrists and pulls me up. “Hold your head high, and don’t let that horrible wench see you cry,” she says. My face may be flaming red, but I can pretend to be confident and ignore the shaking in my voice and hands.
I look around the store and see that every eye is fixed on me. I clear my throat and pretend the frilly shirt in front of me has caught my eye. It’s atrocious. It looks like something from Little House on the Prairie, but I refuse to look away from it and risk making eye contact with someone. Before too much longer, everyone has moved on and continued their hunt for an outfit that will satiate their voracious appetites for clothes.
I manage to find a few things to purchase from the clearance rack, but with my utter lack of clothes, I’ll have to hit up the thrift shops to replenish the rest of my wardrobe. I pay and walk out of the store where Millie and Tess have their heads together, looking at something on a phone. Their whispers are hushed and secretive.
“Boo!” I shout behind them, and they both jump and spin around. The phone flies out of Millie’s hand and across the sidewalk, landing in a potted plant. I run to grab the phone and see what they’ve been looking at.
“Don’t!” Tess yells, but it’s too late. My eyes have landed on the picture of me on the floor of the store just thirty minutes earlier with the ever-so-sweet caption: This one’s a walking disaster. Best to steer clear.
“Shandi,” I growl.
Yep, I have to get out of this town.
