Chapter 10 - Part 2

I thought of giving him a snarky remark but I didn’t care. I ripped open the bag of chips and popped one into my mouth. I closed my eyes and relished in its taste. All was right with the world.

”Damn! I have never seen anyone enjoy crisps like that. I feel like I witnessed a private moment. Should I leave you and your crisps alone?” Caleb said, rudely interrupting the euphoric moment. 

I sneered at him and continued to eat my chips. “It’s chips by the way,” I said.

“What?” he asked, looking confused.

“It’s chips, not crisps. You keep saying crisps.” 

“Oh! I’m sorry, I guess.”

“Don’t be. I was just pointing it out. You don’t need to change it.”

“Cool.”

We continued to stand there as I polished off the rest of my crisps. I got to the bottom of the bag and contemplated licking the crumbs up as I would normally do but that didn’t seem like the kind of thing I should do in front of Caleb. It was rather undignified.  I finished my packet and threw its wrapper in the bin. He went into the pantry and got another one.

”Did they have an endless supply?” I asked myself.

“Come. I’ll give you a house tour,” he said as he gestured for me to follow him.

He showed me the living room, entertainment room, and study, then we finally went up to his room. When he opened the door, I was shocked. His room looked nothing like I thought it would. I expected to see clothes on the floor, a raunchy poster on the wall, leftover food from days ago; what a typical boy's room looked like in the movies.

Instead, it was spotless. The walls were bare except for a signed Manchester United Football Club poster. His bed was made neatly, there was nothing on the floor and he had a study area in the corner of the room with a dark wooden table and chair and a small leather sofa. It was actually really nice.

“Welcome to my humble abode.” He said.

I walked in and went to sit on the bed.

“Don’t get too comfortable. This isn’t our final destination.”

I hesitated. Where else were we going? Where else were we going?

“We are going to the movie room. I thought that we could hang out there for a while.”

They had a movie room? Who were these people? We got to the movie room and I gasped. I had imagined that it would just be a room with a television and some seats but it had a huge screen, theater seats, and even had a snack station. When I realized what movie was playing I squealed and ran to find a seat. I could not help it. Harry Potter was my favorite movie franchise of all time. I had all the DVDs, and books and had even gotten some of the merchandise for my birthday. 

I decided to sit in the front row. When I got there, I realized that there was someone else in the movie theater. It was a kid who looked a little younger than us. I didn’t need Caleb to tell me that they were related. The resemblance was uncanny.

“Tori, this is my little brother Eric. Eric, this is a new friend of mine. Her name is Victoria.”

“Hi!” he said in a small voice. He was absolutely adorable. “Is this the Prisoner of Azkaban?” 

Caleb asked as he took a seat beside me. I looked at him, very impressed that he was familiar with his Harry Potter books.

“Yeah,” Eric responded while his eyes stayed glued on the screen.

“Nice.”

We all stayed silent and started watching the movie. A buzz from my phone ringing in my pocket broke my concentration. I checked to see who was calling and saw that it was my mom.

“Oh no!” I thought. I was so engrossed in it that I lost track of time and to make matters worse, I forgot to text her, informing her about my little detour.

I stepped out of the room, braced myself, and finally answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Victoria Marie Johnson, you better have a good explanation as to why you are not home young lady. No note, no text. I have been worried sick about you. Where are you?” I gulped.

When she used my three names I knew that I was in trouble but her quiet even tone is what scared me more. It meant that she was absolutely furious with me. My mom had always been the cool parent. She gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted within reason as long as I was honest and transparent with her. I understood why she was upset.

It was just the two of us. I could not even imagine how scared she must have been when she got home and did not find me there past my curfew.

“I’m really sorry Mom. I am at a new friend’s place. We were watching a movie and we completely lost track of time.”

“Come home right away.”

She hung up on me.

I went back into the movie room.

“Is everything okay?” Caleb asked.

He must have seen from my face that I was not okay.

“Yeah! I just need to go home. Could you take me? I don’t know how to get there from here.”

He stood up immediately and looked at his watch.

“Of course, I’ll take you. Eric, when Mom and Dad get home, tell them that I stepped out for a little bit. I will be back soon.” Eric nodded and waved goodbye to me.

“I hadn’t looked at the time. It is late, I am so sorry. Are you in trouble?” he asked as we walked out of the room. He sounded even more panicked than I was.

“Yes but it is okay. I’ll handle it.”

“I am so sorry, Tori. I promise that it wasn’t my intention to get you in trouble with your parents.”

He was walking so fast that I had to jog in order to keep up with him. We got to the car and he drove off. 

“It’s just my mom and me. My dad died when I was twelve.”

I didn't know why I volunteered that information. I was never comfortable with sharing pieces of myself with anyone. Caleb stayed quiet for a while keeping his eyes on the road. I turned and leaned my head against the window.

“I am really sorry. It must be hard sometimes,” he finally replied.

“It is.” He took my hand and squeezed it.

It was a small gesture but it felt so comforting. It scared me how easy it was for me to open up around him. We both stayed quiet, Caleb only breaking the silence when he was asking for directions. He continued driving so fast that the cars blurred together. I got home in record time. 

“Good luck in there. I will text you later to see how everything went.”

I nodded and got out of the car. I walked to our front door and took a deep breath.

“Here we go,” I said to myself.

Immediately I opened the door, my mom came and pulled me into a crushing hug. I hugged her back. We stood there holding each other for a minute.

She finally pulled away and said, “I’m glad you’re okay. I am still very upset that you didn’t think to tell me where you are but I am so glad that you’re home.  Now, explain yourself, young lady.”

I sat down and told her everything. She didn’t say a word until I finished.

“I’m happy that you are finally making friends and branching out but I need you to promise me that you won’t scare me like that again. It’s just the two of us. When I reached out to Sam and she didn’t know where this Caleb lived, I was terrified.”

I took her hand in mine and squeezed it. 

“I promise that I won’t do that again Mom. I am sorry I had you worried.”

“Good girl. You’re grounded this weekend though and you will do all the dishes.” I groaned.

It’s not like I had anything to do but it was still annoying. I was hoping that she would let me off the hook this time and doing the dishes was my least favorite chore. I stood up to go upstairs. I needed to freshen up and change into comfier clothes.

“Don’t take too long. There’s some food in the microwave that you can heat up. What is that boy’s other name by the way? If you’re going to be spending time with this person, I need to know who he is and where he lives.”

“His name is Caleb Stallone. They live at the Greenstein residences on the other side of town,” I responded.

“Wait, Stallone? As in Thomas Stallone’s son?” she asked again with an expression on her face that I had never seen. How did she even know who that was? I had never heard her mention that name before.  

“I don’t know who that is but I could ask him if it would make you more comfortable.”

“No, don’t do that,” she said way too fast.

“There is no need to do that. I would like to meet this boy. Invite him over one of these days.”

I shrugged. That was a very weird interaction. I ruled it off assuming that she had heard about the new British people who moved into town