My Time or "Me" Time?

I had made my way through this cold winters week, and I was looking forward to a weekend of rest. I had not been obtaining my normal 10 hours of sleep lately. Just a sad 4 or 5 hours due to loads of homework and my dad's constant pleads for me to call my mother. Finally he had a 12 A.M. to 10 P.M shift today. Long enough to take a warm soaking bath and get to sleep before he gets home. After all, I had not had "Me" Time since…well I hadn't had any of it. Despite that, I was going to make tonight my night!

I dropped my binder and library books on my bed and turned on the electric heater. My jaw dropped when it refused to start is usual hum of warmth. Just as I was about to loose my cool and smash the thing against the wall I heard the phone ring. I pulled myself together and walked to the kitchen counter to pick up the phone.

"Hello?" I said.

"Oh great you're home! I got worried a bit!" My brother Jordan gleefully blabbed.

"Yea, hey where-"

"That's good, its going to get down to below freezing tonight and its quite chilly now, I just didn't want you to freeze on your way back from school!" He cut me off.

"Uh, thanks for caring, bro. Now where are you?"

"Oh remember? I said I was staying with Kendra this weekend!"

"Oh." I said with no feeling whatsoever. "Tell her I said hi."

"Okay, dad wanted me to tell you dad works overnight again"

"Okay!"

"Good, enjoy the time you have alone. Keep the doors locked and…Don't let Deedee come in…you sly girl, you!"

"Okay" I laughed lightly. "Bye."

"Alright bye, keep warm!"

-Click-

"Keep warm?" My light smile turned into a frown as I looked back at the broken heater. No use in letting those old blankets go to waste anyways!

Before I could drag myself to my dad's bedroom for the blankets the phone rang again.

"Hello?" I answered with teeth clenched together in frustration.

"Hey dear," A calming voice said "Sorry I wasn't at school today."

It was Deedee, my one and only redheaded wonder. Out on a cause of 'Family Reunion In Houston –itus'

"Oh, glad your back."

"Glad to be! You sound sad."

"Oh, I'm just trying to go about the rest of my day without freezing over!"

"Heater is broken?"

"Yes."

"Aw, bummer, its supposed to get below-"

"I KNOW." I rudely interrupted.

"Uh…Sorry."

"No I'm sorry…I just have to have some 'me' time right now!"

A quick silence that lasted like an hour to me came in went. Oh god what did I say now?

"So are you saying that we should be apart…well, you seem so frustrated-"

"No!" I interrupted again. "What I mean is I just want to take a warm bath, read a book and, crawl into bed. That kind of 'me' time!"

"Oh…okay. I'll let you get to that, have a good night, baby."

"Okay, I love you."

-Click-

Man, that mushy-gushy "I love you" stuff at the end of our phone calls always gets me.

Back to what I was doing.

I ran to my room and into my restroom quickly without hesitation. I plugged the drain, poured some lavender bath fizz and strawberry bath foam and let the water run. The two smells combined and made me melt. I began to shed my clothes and before I knew it the bath was full. I turned off the water and inched myself in slowly.

"Oh god this is hot!" I thought to myself.

I sat for a second to let my skin get used to the heat, and then I relaxed and sat back with my eyes closed. "My goodness, this isn't bad." I thought as a smile slowly crept across my face.

A while later, I began to think about how this wasn't exactly 'me' time. I had heard about it on Oprah Thursday. I figured since I was basically a mom around here, I could take a few hours of peace to get back to myself. But that was the thing. I needed to do all of this just to regain "Delaney the Mother at Arms and Worked Out Beyond Belief" so I wouldn't lose my marbles if dad added more chopped onions to the Monday night pasta. I looked at my hands and noticed a rash. How long it was there was beyond me. I remember when I had a rash break out on my legs and the school nurse told me that it was due to heavy stress. But I figured out that it was due eating chocolate by the bars, which I should've known I was allergic to, during the studying for my 9 weeks terms. Stress from studying or from wanting chocolate. Good grief! Stress? I only knew it was for people like my dad!

I closed my eyes and sat back again. "Relax, Delaney." I thought. "Relaxxxxx." I began to hear a quiet shuffling sound. Like waving paper or something. I tried to ignore it when I just could not stand it anymore. I opened my eyes.

"HOLY CRAP!" I screamed.

I swear I could have jumped three feet out of the foam filled tub at the sight of Brendon Urie's face. I covered my chest and screamed "GET OUT YOU PERV! GET OUUUUT!"

I looked around then put my hands on my face. I sounded like I was going mad. I screamed at the sight of an old 'Tiger Beat' Poster of the Panic! At The Disco lead singer. I looked again at the bowl cut haired guy and noticed the words "Haha, gotcha lil sis! Love Jordan."

Again at his old tricks. Where the heck did he get that anyways?

I decided that maybe the bath would not help…at least not now. I got out, dried off, and got into my old blue nightgown. It was thick strapped with white lace trimming at the hem and it stopped at about 3 inches above my knee. It looked like an ordinary dress I would wear to some elegant party. But it was an old gift from my aunt when I turned 13. I didn't even want to know why she gave this to me.

I avoided examining my face in the fogged up mirror and unplugged the drain. Before I shut the curtains I looked at the poster that was about to slip off the wall. I nicked it off and looked at it. "You're such a great singer…" I said to the poster as if it were the real guy. "but you're a dirty boy too." I giggled. I folded it up and threw it into the trash.

So I gave the bath a try, and aside from getting scared out of my wits, I felt okay. "Maybe tea would do the trick!" I thought to myself. I walked into the kitchen and opened the cupboard. There it was, the green tea and…ants? Sugar ants? I took a closer look to find ants swarming around the small yellow box.

"Note to self, call the exterminator!" I yelled to myself as I quickly grabbed the box and chunked it into the trashcan nearby.

I shut the cupboard and ran to my dad's bedroom. As I entered what felt like some dark freezing cave I bumped into what felt like quite a few random objects before finding the light switch. There I saw his handmade white dresser. Ah the dresser, besides being filled with stinky underwear and socks there hid a marvelous hoard of blankets. I opened the cabinet and found two fuzzy throws. Good enough to keep me warm for the night. As I shut the cabinet I notices a bit of red stuff on one of the throws. As I stared at them more just came popping up. Then I felt an odd sting on my forehead. I suddenly dropped the blankets and ran to my dad's bathroom to examine myself in his mirror. To my surprise I found a small cut off to the side of my forehead. But that wasn't it. Blood was leaving rivers under my nose! I grabbed a few tissues and blew my nose. Bad idea. This outburst of pain came over me as if I had a knife shoved p one of my nostrils. I stood there dabbing my nose with the tissues until there was barely any blood spilling out. I threw my bloody mess away and walked out of the musky smelling bathroom and picked up the blankets. On my way out I thought to myself "Why is the light switch all the way to the other side of the room anyways?"

I went to my room and jumped into my bed. I lied down and covered myself. It actually hurt when I lied there for a few minutes. Then I began laughing. "Me time?" What the heck? I looked at the clock and noticed it was just 6:00. Two and a half hours almost and not one second was focused on me! Then just kept laughing. Laughing at myself. Suddenly I felt a buzzing sound next to me. My cell phone was ringing, Deedee was calling.

"Hello?" I said trying to conceal my giggling.

"Uh, hey baby I really sorry to bother you during…uhhh…your time but I-"

"Sorry for interrupting you…but 'me' time? How about some hot chocolate and Us time?"

"Well…okay!'

"Be here soon!"

-Click-

I ran towards the pantry and found an unopened box of hot chocolate. As I prepared out two cups I thought.

"This is going to be better than some dumb book reading before bedtime!"