When It Rains: The Umbrella Collection Read Free Page A

the upstairs of the house. 
    She walked back to the landing and without looking down reached for the doorknob that was nearest the steps, “Excuse me, that’s my room.” I yelled.
    “Molly, I’m by the door,”  Pops said as he looked at me. “Don’t start,” he uttered when he saw I was about to say something about Molly.
    We heard her, more so the clanking of her heels on the hardwood stairs, make her way back towards where we were standing.  
    “Oh, there you…,” and then she spied his new do, “OH MY GOD!   What did you do to your hair?”
    “We had a little mishap while cutting my hair,” he replied as he elbowed me in the shoulder.
    “Hey, it wasn’t all my fault.  I told him he can’t rush perfection and he did.”
    Molly gave me a smug look.   I swear this lady has an underlying hatred towards me.  “Well next time, I’ll just do it for you,” she said.  She came up to Pops and kissed him on the cheek then fixed the collar of his shirt.
    “Um, no.   I’ve done it since I was 10, so I’ll continue to do it, thank you.”
    A snotty look, yet again, exuded from her face, “Well, we will see, I guess.”
    Pops saw my face fill with anger.  My eyes bugged out and my mouth dropped open to begin to say my retort, but he beat me to the punch.
    “I think Nora has it covered, Mol.   You ready to go?”
    “Oh, yes, Darling.   Let’s go,” she responded and Pops gave me a wink as they made their way out the door.
    “You guys have a good one,” I said as I closed the door behind them and mumbled, “Hopefully, he will make it back in one piece.”
    I went back up the stairs.  I threw off my hoodie and slippers to jump back into bed. I landed in almost the exact spot and position that I was in before Pops interrupted.  My mind was erased of everything that had just happened, me screwing up Pops hair and Molly being Molly.  Much like my place in bed, my thought process was back to where it was.  Engulfed in wonderment of why I’m alive and well and the hideous orange puke paint that reminded me of Molly’s dress.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    2
    Kitchen Counter
     
     
        After hearing my text message alert sound go off for the hundredth time, I got out of bed to check it out.  It had gone off for the past two hours while I was lying across my bed without the want to move and with the need to escape everything.  The messages were from Skylar, along with a few missed calls from her.  I didn’t even bother reading them all I just called her.
    “Well, it’s about time, ” she said when she answered.
    “Haha, sorry I had the ringer off,” I lied so she wouldn’t know I was just sprawled out in my bed unable to move.
    “Liar,” she said.  She can always read me and know when I was lying.  I don’t even know why I bother to try to hide things, “I was just about to come over there to see what was up.”
    “I was just lying down.  Thinking.”
    “About?”
    “Same old bullshit, you know.”
    “One of those days, huh?”
    “Yup.”
    “Well, I’m grabbing a pizza and a movie and heading over, so freshen up.   The last time this happened it looked like you didn’t shower for a week.”
    “Haha, that it did.   I’ll do my best. Bye,” I said as I hung up and undressed to jump in the shower.  I took a peek in the mirror and she was right.  Even though, I had showered yesterday, it did look like it had been a few days.  I don’t know how a mind does it.  The moment your thoughts become morose it affects everything else.  The end corners of my mouth were hanging close to my chin, my back was hunched over, my shoulders tensed up to my ears.  My clothes didn’t match and were wrinkled.  My makeup was no longer in the places that I remember I putting it.  I hopped in the shower quickly to make sure I was out before Skylar came over. 
    Skylar and I‘s friendship is a diamond in the rough, where it is never questioned whether we will be friends