Not Today, But Someday (Emi Lost & Found) by Lori L. Otto

Author:Lori L. Otto [Otto, Lori L.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Lori L. Otto
Published: 2012-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11 - EMI

“Are you okay?” my mom asks as soon as I shut the door.

“I’m fine, Mom.”

“Why’d you do that, Em? That was stupid! We were looking all over for you!”

“I just needed to get away,” I explain, still standing in the foyer. Everyone else is standing, staring, and I don’t feel like I have anywhere to go. “I’m feeling that way right now, actually.”

Jen is the first to sit down. She pats the couch cushion next to her, offering me a seat. Reluctantly, I go to her, dropping my purse on the floor and sinking into the sofa. Chris takes the recliner seat and Mom grabs a chair from the kitchen table, setting it across from me.

“This place is so small,” I say. “It’s claustrophobic. I used to be able to go to the game room, or the other living room, or outside, but now, I can’t go anywhere. I go in the bathroom, someone wants me out. I stay in the living room, some guy I don’t care to talk to invades my privacy. I go to my bedroom, my sister barges in, uninvited. I hate it here.”

“I know it’s not ideal,” Mom says, “but it’s the best we can do right now.”

“Why’d he get the house? There’s more of us.”

“Because I don’t want it. She’s been there. That woman was in my home, and I don’t want to be there anymore.” I didn’t know that. “It’s just a year and a half, Em. And then you’ll go to college and have all the freedom in the world. And next year, it’ll just be me and you,” she says. “That’ll give you a little more space.” I know she’s trying to be helpful, but being without Chris scares me. I smile to be polite.

“I want to learn how to drive, Mom. I want a car.”

“Well, we can enroll you in lessons this summer, but you’re on your own with the car.”

“But you got Chris a car.”

“Your father and Ihelped Chris get a used car so he could work last summer. But that was before all of this happened. I’m not sure we can afford it now... and you’d have to get a job to help pay for it.”

“I could, over the summer. I just want to be able to go places.”

“I understand. I’ll look into the lessons. But with a car, you definitely can’t just leave without telling someone where you’re going. Do you understand?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, Mom. I was just angry.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m just grateful Mrs. Wilson called us. I was just about to go to the police.”

“I would have called you myself,” I tell her. “I’m not that inconsiderate.”

“Did you meet up with that boy?” Mom asks, squinting her eyes as if the answer might be difficult to hear.

“Not intentionally. I just went to this ice cream shop. I was reading for my lit assignment. He just showed up.”

“He was at Nino’s when Joey and I were there. He was out front when Jen pulled up,” Chris says.

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