Time Out (17 page)

“Hey, sorry about the phone call, but I wanted to let you know that the power’s gone out. I switched the breakers on and off but nothing turned on. I think the paparazzi must have done it.”

“It wasn’t the paparazzi,” my mom confessed in a small voice. “I’m behind on my payments.”

“Oh—”

             
I was surprised to hear that, because I knew my mom had to be months behind for them to actually turn off the power and my mom was if nothing else, responsible.

“Don’t worry,” she began to say, but I cut her off before she could continue to feel

embarrassed
.

“Mom, I have money left over from working for Hawkins’ website.”

             
“No, that’s yours to spend,” she insisted.

I knew she was too proud of a person to take help from her daughter, and too afraid to look like a failure, but I knew where she kept her statements and bills so I pretended to go along with her.

“Okay, well I’ll see you later then,” I sighed, wishing that I didn’t have to go behind her back to help her. Making my way back down the steps, I headed for one of my grandfather’s old desks that my mom turned into her little office space. I felt guilty about going through all her paperwork and bills, but it didn’t take long until I realized that my mom wasn’t just behind in the electrical bill but she was behind in
all
of her bills.

    I realized there was one common theme that kept popping up with every statement. She was about three months behind in all of her payments, which was only a month after my father had died. I knew he had always been diligent about paying my child support every month before he passed. I realized that she must have depended on that money now. 

And although she inherited the house from my grandfather, she was still paying mortgage on our home, or at least she was supposed to be. I had money, but I knew that I didn’t have that kind of money. Even if I had been dating a multimillionaire for most of the summer, I was my mother’s daughter and the idea of asking Hawkins to help us was unacceptable.

Nevertheless, the thought of my mom and I being evicted from my grandfather’s house killed me. I would be okay with whatever we had to do - like get a smaller place or an apartment, but I wasn’t so sure my mom would be. She loved this house.

Deciding to worry about one thing at a time, I grabbed up the electric bill and used my smart phone to pay for it on line. Once that was taken care of, I looked around the living room with a new set of eyes. No wonder my mom had never upgraded the rooms since my grandfather died. Now that I had come to think of it, we had been eating a lot of spaghetti, tuna fish sandwiches, and other inexpensive food for dinner too. The thought of my mom struggling all alone but keeping up a strong front for me made me sad; sad enough to make me want to venture out to get some groceries when my mom came home tired from work again. 

I picked out another black number to wear for the paparazzi, but this time I didn’t mind wearing the fedora hat because anything that hid part of my face from the pack of men was fine by me. Besides, it might make Lizzie happy to see that I had finally listened to her for once.

I waited until late in the afternoon, when the crowd of photographers had dwindled down because even they had to eat dinner sometime, to make a clean break for my mom’s red Grand Am. I exited out the side door of the house that led to the driveway and was already around the front of the car before the rest of the men realized what hit them. They suddenly converged around my car as I got in behind the driver’s wheel. Flashes of light went off around me like I was freaking Brittany Spears. And just like her, I didn’t care who I had to hit if they didn’t have the wisdom to quickly get out of the way of my reversing car. I knew they were trespassing on our land and that’s exactly what I planned on telling the judge if anyone of them decided to sue me for medical damages as I floored the gas and sent them scattering out of the way.

Once on the road, I realized two or three SUVs were already tailing me, but this was my city and I knew these roads better than them. I lost two of them to rush hour traffic on McKnight Road which was lovingly dubbed as ‘Nightmare Road’ to the locals like me. It didn’t take long before I was on the North Side and lost the other SUV to one of the gazillion stoplights in the city. When I finally reached the West End Bridge, I sighed with relief that I was alone again. Following the signs, I merged and came around the back of Mount Washington in the direction of Route 19.

I thought I had lost everyone minutes later when I grabbed ahold of grocery cart at Giant Eagle, but a tall thick balding man in his early forties, who must have been built when he was younger, but over time developed a beer belly turned to wink at me on his way into the store. There was a spark of interest in his dark brown eyes which made me hesitant, but then again I did look nice for once, and I noticed that he wasn’t carrying a camera in his hands, so I didn’t see the harm in continuing with my plans to shop there.

I looked at the items I had jotted down on a list because I thought the least I could do was make my mom some dinners while I was home and she was hard at work trying to make ends meet. I wrote this list an hour ago though and I was ravenous now, but nothing on that piece of paper was going to fix my current hunger craving. 

As I rounded the chip aisle, my eyes zeroed in on a bag of Cheetos, and I didn’t know if it was from being absolutely depressed since coming home or what because without even thinking twice, I ripped open the bag and proceeded to help myself. I wasn’t sure if it was technically called ‘stealing’ if I had the money to pay for it in my pocket. Besides, I had seen tons of preschool kids get away with it before; I tried to shrug it off like that was a plausible excuse as I continued to pick up the rest of the items on the grocery list.  

I passed the balding man with the beer gut on my way down the pasta aisle not thinking much of our earlier encounter, but through the corner of my eye I noticed him take a sideways glance in my direction as I grabbed up a bottle of parmesan cheese further down the aisle.

When I tossed the bottle of cheese into my cart, our eyes locked long enough for him to flash me a lingering smile which instantly made me feel uncomfortable. Oh crap, maybe he
was
with the paparazzi.

The thought sent a shot of adrenaline pulsing through my veins. I tried to remain calm as I rounded another aisle of food. Once out of view, I began tossing groceries in my cart left and right like a manic contestant on that old game show ‘Supermarket Sweep’. I didn’t know how long it would take for the others to arrive at the store, but I really didn’t want stick around to find out. I was making quick
progress, that
was until I quickly pulled my cart up to an open cashier at their register. With my eyes still peeled to the back of the store, I started to quickly unload my cart.

“Josephine Hall?”

I snapped my head around like someone had called my name for attendance at Preston High since that was the last time I had heard anyone call me by my full name.

“It is
you
,” a blue eyed, brunette girl with a crooked nose gushed when I realized it was Maria Rey; a girl who brought a world of memories back to my mind. The most recent of them being the rather painful night I saw her laugh at me when Jake, the former love of my life, kicked me out his party while filming it for YouTube.

“We haven’t talked in ages!” she continued to gush, as if we were suddenly BFFs, and I thought yeah, like middle school. “I was just skimming through this magazine article about you,” she reached over top of the register for one of those god awful weeklies in the magazine racks next to me. Oh god—I hoped for dear life that it wasn’t one about how Hawkins and I split. It figures that the
one time
things didn’t look so good for our relationship it would be in front of Maria Rey. 

Whatever the dreadful magazine had to say, it was secondary in my mind when I realized there was another guy, a much older one with white hair and a smaller frame casually leaning against a
Coinstar
machine. He didn’t look like he planned on using it any time soon; in fact the only thing he seemed interested in was me.

Damn it. 

“Hawkins and Joie are still going strong,” Maria announced, causing me to snap my neck around in her direction again. The magazine must have been an outdated version I realized and said a silent prayer thanking God.

She gave me a little lopsided grin at the mention of Hawkins’ name. I had seen the same star struck look on a million other hopeful faces before, but I wasn’t exactly in the mood to hear how ‘strong we were still going’ when we weren’t.

“Yep,” I nodded thinking that if I kept it short and sweet that I would get out of the place before the paparazzi could swarm in around me. 

Unfazed, Maria continued to babble on, “What’s Hawkins
really
like in person?”

Kind of an ass, the pissed part of me wanted to say, but the jealous insecure girl from high school who knew whatever I said would get back to Jake, added frankly, “Really,
really
good in bed.” Her eyes suddenly widened in surprise, probably not expecting to hear this juicy tidbit.

“You know he looks like he would be,” she giggled and I hung my head in shame because I couldn’t believe that I was having this kind of conversation about Hawkins in the first place.

With another quick glance over my shoulder, I realized the guy leaning against the coin machine wasn’t there anymore. I quickly scanned the front and back looking for wherever he had gone, but I didn’t see him anywhere.

“Your total is one-hundred and forty-two dollars,” Maria announced bringing my focus back to her again. I quickly pulled out my debit card to pay for the groceries before taking another tentative look around the store, but as far as I could tell both of the guys had left the store, probably to get their cameras.

“I never thought you’d have to rely on your own money now that you’re dating a millionaire,” Maria cocked back her head in surprise. “But then again he was a part of that marketing scandal,” she sighed under her breath causing me to roll my eyes. The nerve of some people I thought to myself.

After I had paid for all the groceries and was ready to leave, Maria presented me with the magazine and a pen. “Can I get your autograph?”

Looking down at the magazine of Hawkins and me at a happier time in our lives wasn’t something I actually wanted to sign. Lord knows, Maria would just pass it around for a laugh when the news of our relationship being over eventually hit the stands.

“Actually no,” I took a moment to be real since I was sick of all the Gwyneth’s in the world. “You were my best friend up until our eighth grade year and I bent over backwards to be a good friend to you even when everyone else was calling you a slut behind your back.
Yet
, I can still remember that it was
you
who walked away from
me
that day I got in a fight. So no Mary,” I called her by her high school name. “You can’t have my autograph.” I smiled with fake sincerity and pushed off with my cart to leave.

“You know, you’re
not
supposed to eat something before you actually paid for it!” Maria shouted after me and I thought ‘
ewwww
’ that’s the best you got? Quickly grabbing up what was left of the bag of Cheetos I dramatically shoved one after the other into my mouth.

Wanting to put the whole experience behind me, I made a beeline for my mom’s red Grand Am, just grateful that the paparazzi hadn’t arrived yet. I flung open the trunk and tossed in bag after bag knowing that at any minute they could pull in like gang busters in the mostly deserted parking lot and get away with whatever they wanted to do like block me in with their SUVs. Hawkins said he was sending me back for my safety; yeah right.

I threw in my last bag; thinking that I might get out of there unnoticed when someone suddenly yanked a cloth around my mouth. At first I didn’t know what was happening to me as my eyes snapped opened wide from shock. This wasn’t the paparazzi I realized, as I struggled to free myself, this was some deranged person or fan.

The thought sent my into a panicked state, I couldn’t handle being at the mercy of another Cyrus. I swung my arms over my head to smack and claw at my attacker’s face trying to do anything to break away from his firm grip. When that didn’t work, I kicked my foot up and pushed off the trunk of my car for leverage, but every time I rammed myself into the man’s chest it was like trying to push through a brick wall.

I screamed, but the noise was instantly drowned out by the cloth over my mouth. It seemed like the more I tried to shout out for help, the more I became woozy until my knees became weak and buckled underneath me. What was happening to me?

The man pushed me forward in the direction of my opened trunk, causing my eyes to snap open wide again. When I realized what he planned to do with me, another rush of pure adrenaline raced through my body, giving me the ability kick my foot out one last time in an attempt to save myself.

“Josephine?!”
I heard someone shout out from behind us.

The man holding me turned around enough for me to see Maria standing there like a deer caught in the head lights before, she quickly backpedaled into the grocery store with a scream that could cut the sky.