Page 57 of Don’t Open Your Eyes

The door was shut, and she pushed it open. The first thing she saw was the UConn sweatshirt on the floor. As her eyes moved toward the bed, the second thing she saw was a naked woman lying next to Randy. She froze. Her mouth dropped open, but no sound came out. This couldn’t be happening!

“What the hell?” she finally managed, her voice strangled.

“I thought you said she wasn’t going to be here,” the woman said in a calm voice. Annabelle realized it was Darlene, the girl from last semester who’d come by the house.

“Annabelle. I thought you had class.” Randy looked panicked. Annabelle turned around and ran down the stairs. “Annabelle, wait!” he called after her, but she flew down the hallway and out the door.

She jumped in her car and drove away. How long had he been cheating on her? If her class hadn’t been canceled, she would never have known. What a snake! What was she going to do now? She’d moved out of her house; she had nowhere to go. Tears streamed down her face.

James. He would know what to do.

Scarlett

Scarlett loved skiing! There was nothing like the feeling of whooshing down the mountain with the wind in your face. It was like flying. She’d taken lessons in the morning, and by the second day, she had advanced to the intermediate slopes. Even though Avery could have skied the harder trails, she stayed with Scarlett the whole time. She couldn’t remember when she’d had such a fun weekend.

Avery’s parents pulled up to Scarlett’s house and stopped the car.

“Thank you so much. I had an awesome time!” she said as she grabbed her bag and got out of the car.

“You’re a natural,” Mrs. Draconis said, smiling. “We’ll do it again soon.”

“I’ll FaceTime you later.” Avery gave Scarlett a hug, then got back in the car.

Scarlett opened the front door and called out, “I’m home.” She threw her bag on the floor and hung up her coat, then went to the kitchen where her dad was at the stove stirring something.

“Hi.”

He turned around and enveloped her in a hug. “So how was it?”

“Great! Why haven’t we ever skied? It’s so much fun. I can’t wait to go again. Avery’s mom said I’m a natural.”

James smiled and pointed to his leg. “Trick knee. Don’t need to make it worse, and then I wouldn’t be able to hop on and off our sailboat. I’m glad you had fun. Your homework all done?”

“Yeah, we did it on the drive home. I’m gonna go unpack.”

She went upstairs, still on a high from the weekend. Her phone pinged. Ben!

Ben: How was skiing?

Scarlett: Awesome! How was ur wknd?

Ben: Boring. Have good news tho

Scarlett:?

Ben: Dad’s trip got moved up Coming next Friday

Scarlett: Wow!

Ben: Yeah, mite b late. Meet Sat?

Scarlett: Cool

Ben: I’ll text a time

A knock on her door made her look up. “Can I come in?” her dad asked.

“Yeah.”