Patiently I Wait (2 page)

“What is wrong with you?” she yelled at Julie.

“I really thought you were hurt!”

“Come on sis, you know that was a good one,” Julie tried to reason as she saw the fury erupt into Shannon’s eyes.

“I’m sorry, but I really wanted it to be a big surprise.”

Yes, Shannon was furious, but staying that way was tough for her and especially when it came to Julie. Although she was shaking and sweating, she managed to muster up a smile and then a nervous giggle to follow.

“Okay, okay, you got me,” she said, “but don’t you ever do that again!”

Julie and the rest of the crowd chuckled, knowing that they caused Shannon a bit of distress and knowing they got away with it because of her forgiving nature.

Although it was late, and the girls had just left the bar, Shannon was still a little flustered by the events and decided to stay up and join the in on the party. Julie came from the kitchen with a drink in hand and passed it off to her.

“Whiskey for the southern bell?” asked Julie, knowing that Shannon loved whiskey, regardless of the reasoning.

“I haven’t seen some of these people in ages,” Shannon whispered, “and I don’t think I have seen some of them before at all”.

“Yeah, I invited a few people from school that I know just to make the event a little bigger; get to know them though, we usually have similar taste.”

As Shannon looked around, she started to notice what Julie was hinting at when she said that. Yes, Julie did invite a few people Shannon had never seen before, but not just a few random people. They were all young men that Julie had invited over; knowing Shannon would like them for their looks. This again, wasn’t an uncommon occurrence between the two of them. Shannon had always been shy when it came down to meeting guys outside of the bar and with Julie being the opposite; she had always tried to set Shannon up. Out of the three real boyfriends Shannon had dated, Julie had matched her up with two of them. In the short term picture, Julie did well. She found men that Shannon were attracted to but that was basically it. With Shannon’s looks the guys had no issue with being set up by Julie. In each case, Shannon always found that not only were the guys not for her, but looks couldn’t conquer all the flaws that were ever so apparent. So, as much as Julie was trying to help, she wasn’t going to fall for it again and risk hurting someone else because they weren’t what she thought they were when a glass of wine was doing all the listening. “This hasn’t worked before Julie, why do you think it would now?”

Julie calmly tried to reason with Shannon, telling her that it didn’t matter if she ended up liking them or not, but she thought she would enjoy meeting new people while she was in town. Of course, as much of a trick as it seemed to be on paper, Julie ended up talking Shannon into chatting with the men after a couple of the whiskey drinks that never seemed to end.

Matt, Brian, and Wade were all good looking, went to the University of Michigan, and showed extreme interest in Shannon. She worked on making it more of a friendly conversation by talking to all three together and not allowing any them to get the best of her in her inebriated state. The men each talked about things that they knew would or could possibly arouse Shannon. She wasn’t going to let this happen, not this time. She didn’t want to be in a relationship at the moment with all of her course work in the way. She didn’t have time to commit to a relationship and didn’t want to make the time right now either. The one thing she didn’t understand was how Julie, time and time again, made every guy seem perfect from the start. None of the three had any standout flaws, besides the fact that Wade was six inches shorter than her.

Julie walked over and interrupted the guys in mid conversation to offer Shannon another drink. Shannon had decided she wanted to lie down soon and another drink probably wasn’t the best idea. She did however need to go to the restroom so she politely stepped away and told the guys she would be right back.

When she got into the restroom, which she found on her own after a couple minutes of wandering the hallways, she found that she was a little more intoxicated than she had thought. The bathroom was immaculate and completed decked out with pictures, paintings, and artwork, unlike the rest of the house. She went to the sink to wash her face hoping to clear her mind a little bit so she could make a respectful exit before heading to bed. As she dried her face with the hand towel on the rack she noticed a picture of her on a shelf that seemed a little odd. Yes, she remembered the picture and when it was taken, but it wasn’t the same as it had been before. Her ex-boyfriend Dan was in the picture, which was taken by Julie at the Grand Canyon years before, smiling and holding her hand. He wasn’t in the picture now though as it appeared it had been altered to feature only herself, standing there, smiling at the camera. She thought for a moment and didn’t see why Julie would have done this, then  realizing this wasn’t the strangest part about the photograph. The picture, which had never been copied, was sitting in her bedroom on a dresser when she left her house in Durham. She hadn’t given a copy to Julie, and to her knowledge, didn’t remember Julie making a copy herself. She was puzzled, trying to remember if she had done so and not remembered. Maybe it was the drinks that were fogging up her memory, and if so, why was Dan cut out of it in the first place?

Regardless of what the explanation was, there had to be one that was logical, so Shannon decided it was time to hit the bed and get ready for whatever Julie had in store for her tomorrow. It was Christmas Eve the night before and now at nearly 5 am, Christmas Day was here and she felt she needed as much rest as possible considering Julie had big events planned.

When Shannon returned to the living area, nearly everyone was gone, likely back to their own homes. The only ones left were Matt and Julie, sitting on the couch watching TV together silently.

“Where did everyone go?” Shannon asked.

“It’s Christmas,” Julie replied, “They had to get home and get some sleep.”

Shannon could understand this as she was running on fumes herself and couldn’t wait to hit the bed.

“Well, I think I am done for the night Julie, can you show me to my room?”

Julie told Matt that she would be right back and led Shannon down the hallway she had walked through earlier in the dark. She walked into one of the rooms and flipped the light on, revealing a beautiful bedroom suite that looked brand new.

“Wow, this looks nice!”

“Yeah, I had to prepare for when my sister came into town,” Julie responded, flashing Shannon a huge grin as she closed the door behind her on the way out.

As Shannon took her pants off and laid them at the foot of the bed she seemed to fall into the mattress in almost the same motion. As she drifted off to sleep she thought about the picture in the bathroom again and how odd that situation was altogether. When did Julie make a copy of that picture and why would she change it? Maybe it was merely her only caring about Shannon and not wanting to display an ex-boyfriend in a photo of her best friend. Yes, that had to be the case. Shannon always over thought everything and made it much more complicated than it was. Julie wouldn’t ever do anything to hurt her, but not knowing she had done it at all had left her a bit perplexed. She would just ask her in the morning and find out what happened just to ease her mind a little bit more. For now, it was time to sleep and as Shannon closed her eyes, she drifted into a deep sleep in mere seconds.

CHAPTER THREE: BREAKFAST IS SERVED

At nine in the morning, only four hours after falling into a deep sleep, Shannon awoke to Julie yelling something from the other room. She cracked her eyes, only to reveal the bright light of morning. Immediately her head started throbbing with an intense pain. Shannon had only been hung over two times in her life and Christmas morning wasn’t the ideal time to have a third but it was a little late for that. She threw on some pajama pants Julie had laid out on the bed and made her way slowly to the door. She opened it and knew what was happening in no time. The aroma coming from the kitchen suggested that Julie had created one of her beloved breakfast meals that Shannon had missed for some time now.

Every time they would stay together when they were younger, Julie would wake Shannon up to what seemed like a five course meal for ten people, just because she loved to cook. When Shannon walked into the kitchen she saw that this time was no different. There were eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, biscuits, and gravy sitting on the table waiting for Shannon to eat while Julie was putting away the dishes that were already washed and dried from the cooking she had just done.

“How long have you been up Julie?” Shannon asked and wondered, as it must have taken hours to fix all of this delicious food, while also seeing the kitchen looking spotless again.

“Well, I got up around seven or so, but it’s not a big deal at all; I feel great.”

Shannon chuckled at Julie’s sarcasm, knowing that she couldn’t feel that well after only a few hours of sleep. They were both so intoxicated the night before; it was a surprise they weren’t still slurring their words to one another. As they sat down to eat, they discussed how fun the night before had been. They had both caught up with old friends and Shannon had met some new guys that she hoped she wouldn’t have to see again on account of how stupid she probably sounded because of the whiskey. They talked about each person at the party and gossiped about what they were doing today in their lives. It was like old times when Shannon and Julie would sit for hours on end and listen to each other blabber about things that weren’t important in the least bit. They loved every second of it, however, and wouldn’t change their relationship for anything. As they were talking about Sarah, one of the girls at the party that practically ignored Shannon the entire night because of a dispute they had in high school, Julie remembered something slightly more important.

“Oh no! We are supposed to be at my parents’ house in twenty minutes, I can’t believe I forgot!”

“Well, that’s fine, we will just get ready and go really quick,” said Shannon, trying to help the situation and not make Julie feel bad for sitting and talking with her.

Julie’s parents live about an hour and a half from Ann Arbor so Julie called them explaining that they would be there as soon as they could. They didn’t mind, knowing that Shannon had arrived into town the night before and they probably had been up all night catching up with each other.

The two girls rushed to get ready to go to Julie’s parents and were both ready in under an hour. Usually it took hours to fully prep for an outing like this but they didn’t seem to mind slacking off a bit in this situation. During the ride in the cab back to their cars they laughed the entire way about how drunk they had gotten and the way they both looked at the time. As they pulled into the parking lot of the bar, Shannon told Julie she would just keep her car there until they got back later that night. Before hand, she grabbed her charger for her phone that was in the passenger seat of her car.

Julie got into her car and pulled around to where Shannon was parked to pick her up. She saw Shannon sitting in her front seat, staring down with a blank look on her face at something that was in her hands. As Shannon seated herself in Julie’s small SUV, she was still holding the item that had her at a loss for words. It was the picture from Julie’s bathroom she had seen the night before. It was lying on the floor board when she got into her car and she was truly confused, hoping Julie would chime in and let her know what was going on.

“What is that?” Julie asked.

“I was hoping you would be able to tell me,” Shannon said, looking up at Julie with a puzzled look.

“Last night, when I went to the bathroom before bed I saw it on your shelf and was wondering why you had it.

Julie was just as confused as Shannon.

“I took that picture Shannon, but it’s never been in my house before.”

Shannon didn’t know what to say. Was she crazy? Had she had it the whole time or was someone playing an odd joke on her that she couldn’t figure out?

“Dan was there that day; why did you cut him out?” Julie asked.

“Not only did I not change the picture, but it was at my place when I left yesterday,” exclaimed Shannon.

The girls didn’t know what to think or what emotions should be linked to the picture at this point. Julie clearly seemed like she had no idea and Shannon was just as perplexed. They sat in the parking lot, staring at the picture and trying to make sense of it all.

“Someone is messing with you Shannon and I promise that it isn’t me.”

CHAPTER FOUR: QUESTIONS

The situation was getting creepier than odd when it came to the picture. Yes, it was only a picture and nothing had happened to anyone because of it, but it just didn’t make sense at all. Not only did the picture show up at Julie’s house, but in Shannon’s car as well. This showed that whoever was poking fun at Shannon with this little prank knew that she would be at Julie’s that night as well as come back to her car after during the next morning. She was a little shook up, with little explanation as to what was happening. Who was following her? Who was taking their time to make sure that she saw this picture? So many questions ran through Shannon’s head about the picture and she couldn’t answer any of them.

Shannon decided that she was going to keep a level head concerning the picture and go about her day the way that she and Julie had previously planned. She didn’t want to get stressed out on Christmas day with her best friend in the world by her side.

“It will be okay,” Shannon said to Julie. “Let’s just not worry about all of this.”

Julie nodded in agreement even though Shannon could tell she was shaken up as well. They had a pretty long drive ahead of them and didn’t want to think about the odd occurrence the entire time. So they tried to bring up other topics to take their minds off of it for the time being. Julie told Shannon how her parents had finally gotten everything squared away with money and were living the life they had always wanted. Her mom had been the manager at a tax preparation firm but got the chance to retire last year and took it without thinking twice. She had never enjoyed what she did at the firm but made the best of it for her family. She and Julie’s dad had always fought in the past because of the tension from work but Julie understood and didn’t hold anything against them. Shannon had actually first met Julie because she was upset at school and Shannon asked if she could do anything to help. It was then that Shannon learned what was going on in Julie’s home and never left her side again.