Chapter Two

Farther into the Life of Ella

Chapter Two

Buzz, buzz the phone went. Stepping out of a sleepy haze, I checked the number. “Grandmothers Cell” it read. I sighed as I picked up the phone and attempted not to be annoyed with her.

“Hello?” My tone made it instantly clear I knew I was going to fail.
“Hi, sweetheart. Sorry about the absence last night. How was everything?” she paused, then I guess decided she didn’t care enough to hear and continued before I had a chance to talk, “we won’t be home for the rest of the weekend. Do you remember where we keep the extra money in case you need it? Use that if you need anything. Have fun!” she said, and hung up.
I slammed my phone against the bed. The point of living and coming here was to have someone to watch over us.
But today wasn’t the day to get mad. I got dressed, and slipped into my grandparents bedroom. The money was hidden under their bed. Grabbing it, I realized just how much there was in here. Nearly five thousand. That’s a lot for “just incase we need it.” Anyway, I grabbed a portion of it and shoved it into my purse.
“Antonio, we’re going out!” I yelled, waking him up.
I grabbed my phone and called a familiar number. “Hello? I’d like a taxi to the Kostic residence. Yes, it’s Ella. Antonio is coming with me. Yes, I’m paying. Thank you,” I finished the conversation and hung up.
Antonio had snuck up behind me. “Taking a taxi somewhere, eh? Decided you might actually want to have a little fun? Where are we going?” I grabbed my purse and started out the door.
“Come wait outside with me. We’re going to the mall.”



Thirty minutes and too many red lights later, we showed up to the biggest mall in the state. I agreed to meet up with a friend, Patricia, here.
In our school, this place is the biggest hangout. It’s hard to look into any store with recognizing someone from school. Here is just the place to go when you want to be with people. Antonio and wandered through the mall until Patty (Patricia’s nickname) eventually caught up with us. We were inside a clothing store, looking through the most fashionable tops, listening to Antonio complain. (His whines are infinite. From “we got too much stuff; it’s too much to hold” to “can’t we look at something NOT for teenage girls” to “why can Patricia be called Patty but I’m stuck to Antonio?” Actually, I guess his complaints were pretty warranted -not including the nickname one- to be honest though, that day, I didn’t really care what he thought or whined about.)
Patty pointed out an adorable pair of jeans, when, from behind, a guy called out,” Plumpy Patty, shouldn’t you be looking in the XXL section?” My jaw dropped as I spun around. Tommy, Melanie’s not-so-nice science partner, was the speaker of the awful comment. He was hanging out with a bunch of jocks, and they all cracked up.
“Don’t you have something else to do?” I asked, not daring to look back at Patricia, who was no doubt tearing up. They ignored me and just kept laughing. Anger swelled inside me. Patty was one of the best friends anyone could ever have, and Tommy made her life miserable everyday by picking on one of her biggest insecurities.
I don’t think I have ever been that mad. Ever. All I wanted was hurt them how they hurt Patty.

And suddenly, the clothing rack beside him tumbled down and all the clothes onto it buried him. Clothing went everywhere. A display table of pretty sweaters fell onto it’s side. Salesmen ran over, threatening the boys, saying, “get out of my store or I’ll put you in jail personally” in as many different ways as possible. The boys hadn’t touched the clothing, much less made a rack topple over and cause a mess. It most definitely wasn’t their fault they’re getting in trouble. I didn’t feel an ounce of pity for them though. They deserved it.

“Woah, that was weird,” Antonio said. I just nodded. So much, it reminded me of last night. When the lamp moved.

Gah, I’m such an idiot.

That’s what I repeated to myself a million times over that day. I’m not causing things to move. I tried to believe that.

I went over and hugged Patty, who seemed to be okay. I was probably in more distress than she was. “I can’t believe that happened,” Patty mumbled curiously. Over her shoulder, I saw a man in dark clothing staring at us. Staring at me. He kind of smiled, nodded at me, and walked away. What a creep, I thought. Something inside me made me not mention him to Antonio and Patty though.
“Let’s just go shop some more. Forget about this,” I said, leading them out of the store. I think they did forget all about it. Unfortunately, I didn’t.

Author's Note

grammar should be good, but please ignore any small errors. Thanks for reading! This is the first part of chapter two! Let me know what you think