Missing Pieces - J.M. Hurley (reading cloud ebooks .txt) 📗

of alcohol. Lacey took a step back and looked her mother up and down. Her normally smooth red hair was frazzled looking, her ironed dress shirt was wrinkled and un tucked and her green eyes were bloodshot as she glared at Lacey.

“That damn plant over there fell down!” Lenora shouted, pointing to the potted plant lying in the grass.

“Pick it up!” she ordered and Lacey let out a sigh. If only she could see herself now, I’m positive Ms Perfect wouldn’t be so happy if she knew how she acts when she’s drunk.

Lacey thought silently to herself as she picked the plant up and set it back near their shrubs.

“You listen to me Lacey!” she shouted pulling Lacey close to her face. Lacey coughed, the scent of alcohol being to over powering for her to handle.

“I’m listening Mom,” she said pulling at her mothers hand, desperate for a clean breath of air.

“Don’t you ever talk to them again, you hear me?” she said releasing Lacey and sending her tumbling. Lacey land butt-first in the grass and looked up at her drunken mother.

“Understand?!” her mother yelled and Lacey gave a quick nod.

“Good, now get inside!” she yelled as she marched through the open door.

Lacey picked herself up out of the grass and brushed her dress off. She caught sight of her reflection in one of the houses windows and gasped. The fall had left a huge grass stain at the bottom of her Betsy original dress. Great! Drunk or sober, Mom’s still gonna kill me now!

She thought as she desperately tried to rub the stain out of her dress. She sighed, the stain still present, and began walking towards the open doorway. Her phone let out a shrill ring from her jackets pocket and saw she had one missed call. She called her voicemail and waited.

“Hey Lace! Where are you? You’re missing out on the party!” Miranda’s voice rang out through the receiver.

Suddenly a man’s voice spoke from somewhere in the background, “Hey! Quit messing around and give me what I paid for!” he shouted and Miranda’s giddy giggling paused.

“Oh it’s in the drawer on the bottom,” she called, her voice muffled sounding. She thinks I can’t hear her,

Lacey thought silently as she pressed the phone closer to her ear.

“Sorry about that! These customers are always so pushy!” Miranda said and in the background the man muttered ‘thank-you’ and a door shut a little while later.

“We'll talk later sis, bye!” Miranda yelled and the reception cut off. That was an odd drunk dial,

Lacey thought to herself as she put her phone back into her pocket and made a mental note to check her sisters bottom drawer before going to bed. Then she pulled her jacket tighter around herself and started off into the house with only one thing on her mind, how she was going to contact Isaiah again.


Chapter 3

As Lacey hurried up the steps she went over the evenings events, replaying them in her head. When she reached her room she opened the door and plopped down into her chair.

“Hey Lace!” Miranda called from behind her, making her jump.

“Oh hey Miri,” Lacey said as she turned her chair around to face her sister.

“Did you like the party?” Miranda asked and Lacey gave her a small shrug.

“It was okay I guess, how about you?” Miranda shook her head causing her long dark locks to fall forward into her face.

“It sucked, totally boring,” she said and Lacey looked over at her questioningly.

“Did you hang out with anyone tonight?” she ventured, hoping to get more information as to who the man was in the background.

“Nope, I stayed a loner tonight,” Miranda replied as she looked up at Lacey with her dark, suspicious eyes. “Why, did it look like I was with someone?” she asked, a hint of fear in her voice.

“Oh no, just wondered in my little sister had met someone cute, that’s all.”

Miranda’s facial features relaxed and she went back to her overly happy tone, “Where’s mom?”

Lacey pulled her shoulders up in a shrug then let out a sigh, “Probably drunk dialing.” Miranda’s smile disappeared in an instant and her features became tense again.

“Oh?” she asked, her dark eyes looking over Lacey’s face, searching for any signs weakness.

“Yeah, mom got totally wasted today,” Lacey said as she turned her head away from her sisters questioning gaze and pretended to examine the grass stain on the front of her dress.

“Oh,” Miranda replied as she got up off of the bed and brushed herself off. “You should check your e-mail, I saw mom talking to Robert earlier.”

Lacey’s heart gave a shudder as she thought of what her drunken mother had said to the professor and scrambled over to start up her computer, “thanks sis!” she called to Miranda as she headed for the door.

“Yeah, no problem,” she replied as she slipped out of the doorway and shut the door behind her.

Lacey bit her lip out of nervousness as she logged on to her e-mail and saw a letter from the office of Harvard was sitting in her inbox. Open it!

She silently urged herself as she nervously moved her mouse over the message. She took a deep breath and double clicked on it, no backing out now,

she thought silently as she began to skim the long, typed letter. “We were very grateful for your submission…Thousands of submission each year…blah blah,” she muttered as she scrolled farther down the page.

“We’re happy to inform you that you will be part of Harvard’s 2011 Class! Ah!” She screamed as she hit print and jumped from her seat. “Miri! Miri, get in here!” she screamed across the hall as she picked up the paper and hugged it close to her body.

“What, what happened?” Miranda asked as she quickly ran into her sister’s room. “Are you dancing around the room with a paper?” Miranda asked as she looked at her sister with apprehensive eyes.

“Read it! Read it, Miri!” Lacey sang as she shoved the paper in front of Miranda’s face.

“You’re accepted?” she shouted and Lacey gave her an eager nod.

“I’m accepted!” Both girls let out shrill screams and danced around the room until they both collapsed onto the floor in fits of laughter.

“Lace, you’re going to be an Ivy League student, an actual Ivy League student.” Miranda squeezed her sister’s hand tighter and tried to force her feelings of guilt away from herself.

“This feels so surreal,” Lacey whispered as she got up off of the floor and brushed herself off.

“Miranda, come down here please!” Lenora’s loud, tired voice echoed off of the walls. “I’d better go, but just remember, I’m proud of you sis,” she said as she gave Lacey one more quick hug then bounded off down the stairs to meet their mother.

Lacey let out a sigh and plopped back down into her computer chair. My childhood dream just came true, so why aren’t I happy?

She thought to herself as she brought up her Facebook page. She moved her mouse over the search column and typed in: Isaiah Bachman. 50 different results popped up and she scrolled through them until she found one of Isaiah’s smiling face. She clicked on his profile then began to compose her message to him.

Dear Isaiah,

Maybe I’m being silly, maybe I misunderstood your actions, and maybe I’m way off base here, but I thought I saw a connection between us. I feel stupid saying I’m falling for someone that I just met today, but I’m not sure what else to call it. Perhaps you feel differently, and if so, that’s fine. But if you’d be so kind, I’d like to talk to you, just once more. Then, if your heart so desires, I’ll give up on this newly found attraction, however hard that may be.

Yours Truly,

Lacey Arson

Lacey clicked send and just seconds later her inbox lit up with one new message. Eagerly, she clicked on the message and read it.

Dear Lacey,

You aren’t wrong, there was definitely something there, something real. I’d love to meet with you again, but there’s an issue with that. I’m not sure about your mom, but my dad doesn’t want me socializing with anyone in your family. He’s still upset over the fight, and just left for the airport, he’s flying out for work. Meet me at Midnight in your driveway. We can talk then, can’t wait to see you again.

Sincerely,

Isaiah

Lacey felt her heart clench out of pure joy and got up out of her chair and went and flopped down onto her bed. “Today rocks,” she whispered to herself as she checked her watch. “Only 2 more hours until I get to see him again,” she said with a sigh then added, “I love my life.”

~***~

Miranda ran down the stairs and nervously bit her lip. How did she find out?

She thought as her panicked brain came up with worse case scenarios. “Oh there you are dear,” her mother said and Miranda gave her a weak smile and hid her trembling hands behind her back.

“What do you need Mother?” she asked as pleasantly as she could, her mother tisked under her breath.

“I’ve been a bad mother tonight dear, I’ve broken my streak,” she said and Miranda held back her sigh of relief.

“Oh no mother, how bad did you get?” she asked and Lenora shook her head back and forth slowly.

“From what I remembered, I didn’t think I’d gotten that bad but I check the liquor cabinet and you wouldn’t believe it!” Lenora said as she threw her hands up in the air, unaware of her daughter’s nervous glances. “Seven whole bottles of my finest wine were gone, seven!” Lenora exclaimed as she paced the room. “How I’m not still drunk after all that alcohol, I’m not sure, but I will tell you- no promise you, it won’t happen again, okay? I’m not going to put you girls in that type of an environment again…” Her voice trailed off and she walked over to the sink and began scrubbing at the dishes.

“Those are clean mom,” Miranda said as she walked over and took the soapy sponge from Lenora’s hands, “and don’t you think you should tell Lacey this too?” she asked and Lenora took a deep breath and let out a chuckle.

“I’m a coward,” she said and Miranda shook her head furiously, “No you’re not mom, why would you say that?” Lenora laughed some more to herself and then her eyes stared off into the distance at an invisible object.

“I can’t face her…Not after letting her see me like that again…Not after I promised,” Lenora said, more to herself than to her daughter. “You know what honey? It’s late, you should probably head upstairs.”

“But-”

“No, buts, go get some rest, you have school tomorrow,” Lenora said as she ushered Miranda over to the staircase.

“Okay, and mom?” she asked and Lenora’s brown eyes flicked up to meet hers.

“Yes dear?”

“I love you,” she said and she held back a