Voyage of the Defiance

Chapter 4-1

4

Makayla moved slowly up the stairs outside the apartment that she shared with her mom and Rob. It had taken her over an hour to walk back to the apartment. She was exhausted, depressed, and soaking wet.

Shrugging her backpack off, she reached into her back pocket and pulled out the key to the door. She unlocked it and stepped inside. A sigh escaped her as she shut and locked the door behind her. Dropping her backpack by the door, she kicked off her wet tennis shoes and padded down the narrow hallway just inside the entrance.

She fumbled for the second key on the key ring. She had insisted on installing a locking doorknob on her bedroom door when Rob moved in. The key slid smoothly into the lock and she twisted it. Pushing open the door, she stepped inside her bedroom and closed and locked the door behind her. Only when she was in the safety of her room did she allow the tears she had been holding back to escape.

Makayla slid down the door as harsh sobs escaped her. Sitting on the floor, she pulled her legs up so she could rest her forehead on her knees. Powerful tremors shook her narrow shoulders as the events of the past day burst through her mind in vivid detail. The most powerful emotion was overwhelming despair. Her mom had made her choice and it hadn’t been Makayla, that was all she could think about.

She angrily wiped at the tears when she felt her cell phone vibrate in her front pocket. Leaning back, she pulled it out and looked at the front screen. Tisha was calling her. Makayla didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now, but she knew Tisha wouldn’t give up. Drawing in a deep breath, she pressed the connect button on the smooth glass.

“Yeah,” she answered in a voice husky from her crying.

“Hey, are you okay? You were supposed to call me last night and you weren’t in school today,” Tisha said in a hushed voice. “We were worried about you. What happened? Why did Mr. Wallace and the SRO come for you? What’d you do?”

Makayla laid her head back against the door and released a shaky breath. She knew the other girls had put Tisha up to calling her. Out of all of them, Tisha was the most tenacious when it came to finding out information.

“I didn’t do anything,” Makayla replied, looking up at the glow-in-the-dark star-covered ceiling. “It’s my mom. She’s… sick. She’s in the hospital.”

Makayla heard Tisha’s shocked hiss before she mumbled something to someone. A moment later, she heard a chorus of sympathetic words. A reluctant smile curved her lips. The gang was together. Her eyes flickered to the small SpongeBob clock on her nightstand. It was only one-thirty. They should all be in different classes right now.

“Where are you guys at? You should be in class,” she asked in curiosity.

Several smothered giggles echoed through the phone. Even Debbie and Audrey had skipped out. She silently hoped they didn’t get caught. Debbie’s parents would ground her and Audrey would get the lecture about how important school was and how she didn’t want to end up with a houseful of kids and no way out.

“We bought tickets to the Junior Fling,” Tisha explained. “We all had to go to the bathroom in the gym. Coach doesn’t care as long as we don’t cause any trouble.”

“What’s wrong with your mom, Makayla? Is she going to be alright? Do you need a place to stay? I can ask my mom if you want to stay with me. She won’t mind,” Laura said. “The couch isn’t that bad.”

“No. I’m good, but thanks,” Makayla replied with a watery smile as she watched the raindrops on her bedroom window slide down the window pane. “I… She should be home… soon. I need to be here for her when she does.”

“It’s a good thing school is almost out,” Audrey said. “Are you still going to try to get that job down at the local Smoothie place with Laura?”

“I don’t know,” Makayla responded. “It depends on how my mom is doing.”

Makayla listened absently as Audrey talked about trying to get a job where Laura was working. Debbie muttered that her parents were sending her to a summer camp in Europe, while Tisha would be going with her dad and his new girlfriend on a cruise. Makayla didn’t say anything. There wasn’t much to say as she didn’t have any idea what was going to happen today, much less in a couple of weeks.

“Hey, we’ve got to go, the bell is about to ring,” Tisha finally said. “Listen, if you need to talk, give me a call later. I’ll be at my mom’s until about eight, and then my dad is supposed to pick me up for the weekend, that is, if he shows up.”

“And your mom doesn’t kill him,” Laura chuckled. “You should see Tisha’s dad’s girlfriend. She came into the store last night. I think she is a senior over at Leto High.”

“Knock it off,” Tisha muttered. “She graduated last year. She’s two years older than me. My dad’s going through a mid-life crisis right now.”

“He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t end up in jail,” Debbie warned.

Makayla recognized Audrey’s amused snort. “Or six feet under. My dad tried that one time and my mom swore if he ever brought her back again, she’d shoot them both. Dad believed her cause he’s never brought any of his other girlfriends by the house. Of course, since mom took him back to court for more child support, he hasn’t had time to think about a new wife,” she said with a sigh.

“It’s his fault for having so many kids,” Debbie pointed out.

“We’ve got to go,” Tisha mumbled into the phone after she turned the speaker function off.

“You’d better before Debbie and Audrey get into a knockdown, drag out fight again,” Makayla said with another sigh. “Thanks for calling.”

“Just remember, if you need me, I’m here for you, girlfriend,” Tisha said as a bell echoed in the background followed by the afternoon announcements. “Love you.”

“Love you, too,” Makayla whispered before the line went dead.

She laid her head back against the door again and closed her eyes. For a moment, she was tempted to just curl up on the floor and go to sleep. At least in sleep, she could escape the world for a little while.

A shiver ran through her when the air conditioner kicked on, reminding her that she was still soaking wet from the rain. Pushing up off the floor, she quickly stripped out of her damp clothes and pulled on a soft, gray T-shirt and fresh jeans. Grabbing her black hoodie from the end of her bed, she pulled it on before crawling onto the bed and closing her eyes. Perhaps she would escape, for just a little while.