Page 57 of Reviving Kendall

I groan and roll myself up in the blanket, so not ready to be up yet. It feels like I just fell asleep. Peeling one of my eyes open, Ryleigh grins back at me, “Wake up sunshine.”

“Oh my god, dude,” I groan. “You sound just like your brother in the mornings.”

She turns her nose up, “I don’t know whether to take that as an insult or compliment, considering I know how much you looooove the sound of his voice.”

Flipping my pillow on top of my head, I try to hide my pink cheeks, “What are you doing here anyways, and where’s said brother?” The guys drew straws last night after the fiasco with Billy. Teagan won, but I passed out before anything could get interesting.

Shaking my bum again, she says, “I kicked said brother out a little while ago and told him to go do boy stuff. We’re having a girl’s day.”

“Don’t you and Eddie have plans today?” I ask, my voice still muffled with the pillow.

“Yeah duh,” she answers, “but not until tonight. I’m going to go get my hair and nails done. Plus, I need a new outfit. I haven’t gone shopping without you, so my retail therapy has been at an all-time low this past month.”

If I wasn’t already feeling guilty about not calling her before, I am definitely feeling it now. I uncover my face and roll onto my back, so I can see her face, “I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner, Ryleigh.”

She smiles sadly at me, “No need for apologies. It’s been a rough month or so. I’m just sorry that I couldn’t be here for you when everything happened with your Gramps. If I had known, I wouldn’t have given you a chance to not have me around. I would have been here.”

Digging my way out of my blanket cave, I grab her hand, “Please don’t. I know that you would have been here if you could. I should be the one apologizing. Everything happened so fast and yet so slow. If I’m honest about it, I don’t really remember much over the past month. It’s like living in a fishbowl. You know what’s happening around you, but it’s not happening to you, if that makes sense.”

“Sounds kind of crazy,” she says before a true smile lights her face. “But that’s just one of the reasons why you’re my bestie. Our crazies match each other.” I laugh as she wiggles her eyebrows, “Besides, I know of two ways you can make it up to me.”

“By getting my lazy ass out of bed and having a girl’s day,” I guess the first one.

Nodding she says, “And turning your fucking phone back on so someone can get in touch with you.”

I laugh, and it makes her giggle. The thought hasn’t even crossed my mind. I’m normally with one of the quad, except school, but they drop me off and pick me up. I haven’t had the need for it, but I know that I need to. I tease her anyways, “You can always call me on the house phone. I never leave the house anymore.”

“Yeah,” she says sarcastically, “Unless you’re off bumping uglies, or pretties I should say with Lucas.”

My gasp is loud, and it makes her giggle again, “They told you about that?”

“Teagan did,” she admits. “He needed someone who wasn’t a dude to talk to about it. His words, not mine.”

“What did he say?” I ask curiously.

A look of shock falls across her face, “You think that I’d betray my brother’s trust like that, after he asked me not to say anything?” I must let my disappointment show, because she laughs again, “I’ll tell you on the way if you’ll get up and spend the day with me.”

I was going to do that anyways, so this is just an added bonus, “Deal.” Unwrapping myself, I make quick work of getting ready. Before we leave, though, I need to check the bank. There was money in there, but between bills for a month and me not having a job, it’s dwindling down fast. I tried to find out who paid to have the lights turned back on, but the guys wouldn’t tell me, even when I threatened maiming.

Sorting through the mess of crap on my dresser, I locate my phone and turn it on. Someone had it connected to the charger. That definitely wasn’t me, unless it was one of those moments of non-clarity. When it finally fires up, I see that there’s still service on it, which is weird because I thought that it ran out back in January. One of the guys has been paying it, had to be. Oh, they are in so much trouble. The phone beeps and chimes endlessly for at least a full three minutes before it quits.

“Jesus,” I exclaim out loud.

Ryleigh is laid across my bed with her phone in her hand, “What is it?”

“There’s three hundred and twenty-six fucking texts on here. And it says my voicemail is full,” I marvel.

She lets out a small disbelieving snort, “That’s what happens when you ignore people who care about you for over a month. I may or may not be half of all of that.”

Her confession and the tone in which she says it have me laughing. Opening the bank app, I ignore the other stuff for now. It takes forever to pull up, but when it does, I almost sit on Ryleigh as I plop down on my bed to keep from hitting the floor.

“Hey,” she squeals trying to move out of my way.

I feel her look over my shoulder, “Don’t mind me as I’m nosy for a second.” Then she gasps as she sees what almost put my ass on the floor. “Is that for real?” she asks quietly.

“It has to be,” I tell her when I can find my voice. “Gramps had a lawyer who handled all of his stuff before he passed. A will and a life insurance policy that I didn’t even know that he had. He told me that the claim would be coming through within thirty days, but I never got the amount from him.” No wonder all of Gramps’ checks were going to his policy. There’s a quarter of a million dollars sitting in my bank account right now. The screen goes fuzzy as tears cloud my eyes. My heart wrenches hard, and the phone drops to the floor as I use my hand to cover it. Propping my elbows on my knees, my face falls into my hands as tears run into the carpet. Ryleigh’s hands rub smooth circles across my back as she lets me cry it out.

It’s just so unbelievable. Not that he would do this, but that it was for so much. I could pay off all our debts on his and Nana’s medical bills, go to college and still have some left over to have a decent start on a life away from the trailer park. Once the water works dry up, I apologize to Ryleigh again.

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