Page 1 of One More Chance
Chapter 1
2004
Billie Jo cracked open her eyelids and winced as they were assaulted by the blare of the early morning sunlight. She groaned, her sister, Lauren was an early riser and must have left the curtains open. She rolled over and saw the emerald green dress on the wooden chair in the corner. It looked deflated, its skirt crumpled onto the floor, a pool of green satin. She felt a lump in her throat as the events from the previous night flooded back to her. Questions swam through her brain as she tried to make sense of why her date for the prom hadn’t shown up. There was no apologetic phone call, no note with a lame excuse, there was just nothing. She wanted the day to go away and reached up to yank the curtains shut. Shrouded in the security of darkness, she curled up into a ball to try and escape back into the safety and emotionless sanctity of sleep.
It didn’t come.
Her anger and sadness wrestled with each other, neither of them letting her sleep, but anger eventually won. She ripped the covers back and shot out of bed. She then pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, ran her fingers through her brown hair and fastened it into a messy ponytail. She headed downstairs and saw Lauren sitting in the living room, reading.
“You left the curtains open again,” she said and shoved her feet into a pair of old running shoes.
“Oops, sorry,” Lauren replied without looking up. She always had her nose buried in a book.
“Yeah, well. Thanks,” Billie Jo snapped.
Billie Jo waited for the nasty retort she had coming to her, but Lauren’s narrowed eyes quickly softened. “Sorry about the curtains, Billie,” she said and raised her book back up.
Pity. From her sister of all people; the nerd of all nerds pitied her for being stood up.
She pulled on her jean jacket and as she set off running down the street, Lauren yelled, “Get some milk.”
Her breathing was heavy as she sprinted across the tracks and into the nice part of town, determined to get an answer.
Did she get one? No.
Logan’s house was dark. She rapped on the door and peered through the window for any sign of life behind the lace eyelet curtains, but the Brush house was still. Could there have been some kind of emergency? Her anger subsided, replaced with a touch of worry.
She headed downtown to pick up some milk at the general store where her mom was working the day shift. The store also included a gas station, convenience store, and even a diner, and was locally dubbed the G-Spot.
She pulled opened the door to the store, “Hi, Mom,” she said as the bell chimed over her head.
“Hi, Sweetie,” her mom replied. She was organizing the packages of cigarettes behind the counter.
The smell of deep-fried pastries and cinnamon lingered heavily in the air from the adjoining diner. “We need milk,” she replied and headed to the back of the store. As she pulled a jug from the fridge, she heard giggling, or rather cackling, coming from the diner. She peered through the display of potato chips and saw the flick of a blonde ponytail. Stacy and her clique were hanging out in the diner. Billie Jo bent down and tried to slink away without being seen by any of the cheerleaders, but froze when she heard the name, Logan. She paused and held her breath, listening to the girls as they whispered stories about her.
“I heard that the guys bet him that he wouldn’t take a loser to the prom and he didn’t want to show his face with her.”
Billie Jo’s heart sank, when they first started hanging out, she had wondered if it was some cruel bet, but had grown to believe that Logan was truly into her.
Stacy said, “No, I heard that she blew all the guys on the hockey team, and Logan was getting his BJ instead of going to the prom.”
“No, I heard...” Billie Jo couldn’t take any more. The heat in her face burned the tears away to nothing before they could reach her chin. She slunk to the checkout and saw her mom’s face, it was white. “You go and set those girls straight,” she said. “Or I will.”
Sharon’s nametag was slightly crooked, her hair was pulled back into a bun, the gray from her tough life had overtaken the dark brown. Thankfully, her missing bottom tooth only showed when she smiled, which wasn’t all that often.
“No, Mom. It’s okay,” she said. “It will only make it worse. You know the truth.”
She smiled weakly at her mom, and Sharon mirrored the same smile back. There it was, the missing tooth.
“It will be okay, honey,” Sharon said and handed her the change for the milk.
It wasn’t going to be okay. Rumors about Billie’s Jo’s mom, unfounded rumors, ran rampant in the small town, and it looked like the slut torch had just been passed on to Billie Jo.
“See you at home,” she said and pocketed the change. Billie Jo cried the entire walk home until the tears wouldn’t come anymore. Her face was puffy and red and all she wanted to do was crawl into bed. She had to get out of this town.
