Bay!

“Bay, breakfast is ready.”

“Coming, Mom!”
Being Bay Richmond is not an easy task. My mother and I live in a two bedroom apartment on Maple Drive in Kentish, Arizona. It is a small town about thirty miles north of Phoenix. I’m seventeen years old and live with just my mom. My dad, we don’t hear from him much, has been in and out of jail since I was five. Being on our own was hard at first and I always wondered what it would be like with a father around to teach me stuff like how to throw a baseball and things like that. Now, I could not care less if he was around or not. All he ever did for me was donate tward me being alive. And that’s that.
“Bay! Hurry up already.”
“I’m coming,” I said walking into the kitchen. I quickly take in the sight of pancakes, eggs, and bacon and immediately get the feeling that something is wrong. “What’s up?”
“What do you mean, sweetheart?” She has this look of complete innocence on her face.
“You know what I’m talking about, Mom.” I know I have an aggravated look on my face at this point and I think she gets the hint. “What is all this for?” I gesture to the food in front of me.
“We aren’t moving, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Well that’s a relief.” The sarcasm heavy in my voice, and the roll of my eyes telling her I knew something big was about to happen.
“Well, hun, I’m getting married.”
“WHAT!?” I could not believe what I had just heard. “You’re getting MARRIED!”
“Well, yeah.” She was staring at me like it was no big deal that my mother had just announced a marital status to me.
“Oh. Okay then. What about me?” I was almost to the point of hyperventilation at this point.
“Well, I know how you really aren’t into the whole ‘mom getting married’ thing. So, you’re going to be living in an apartment by yourself near the house I will be moving into and if you want later on you can move into the house with me and Joshua.”
“Whoa, wait. Joshua? As in big time movie producer that lives in that huge house, no, mansion up on Sherlock Avenue?”
“Yes. That’s the one.” She smiled sheepishly at me.
“I’m not okay with this. At all, whatsoever.”
“He is going to buy you a car.” She has a hopeful look on her face.
“A car, a real car?” I’m actually thinking about this. A place by myself, with a car and no rules.
“Yeah.” She nods her head to reinforce what she said.
“Anything I want?”
“Anything you want.”
“Okay. I agree, I guess. I have to get to school though before I’m late. Bye Mom.”
“Bye Bay.”
As soon as I got to school I was greeted by Ella. We were best friends, but we were totally different. She was tall with red hair and green eyes. I was shorter with blue eyes and brown hair. Don’t get me wrong I am pretty and all but not by any means compared to Ella. Ella is like a supermodel. She is beautiful in every way. She never had acne or pimples. Today, she was wearing a green plaid skirt that was almost short enough to be out of dress code and a pale pink tank top with a silver Glitter cardigan. Glitter was our favorite clothes store to shop at. It was the ritziest store in town. The cheapest thing there was twenty bucks. Compared to Ella, I looked like a hobo. I was wearing a pair of Glitter rip jeans, the only pair of Glitter jeans I own and only because Ella grew out of them, and a sweat shirt that had the Glitter logo on the front in, of course, glitter.
I wanted to tell Ella about my mom getting married and us moving. She would not believe it at all. I stared down at my All-star sneakers and thought about how to introduce the topic. She had been babbling on about the latest fashion trend up at Glitter for the past five minutes while we were at our locker getting books for our first period, Honors English.
“Hey, Ella?” She immediately gets quite.
“What’s wrong, Bay? You seem like you’re out of it today.” She cocks her head to the side and puckers her lips together.
“Well, the thing is I’m moving sort of. I mean not out of state or anything, just across town. Closer to you, actually.” I said it in a rush so she couldn’t interrupt. At last, I took a breath.
“So, where are you moving too?” She asked slowly.
“You know those apartments next to that huge mansion?”
“You’re moving in there with your mom? Those apartments are huge for only two people.”
“Well, it’s only going to be me there. My mom, she’s moving into that huge mansion, with her new fiancé, Joshua.
“Whoa, wait!” The look on her face makes me want to laugh in spite of myself. “You’re moving into an apartment alone?”
“Well yeah. I am.”
“Holy crap, Bay!”
“I know, I know.”
“Can I move in with you?”
“Oh, umm, I’m not sure about that Ella.”
“Why not? That would be so amazing.”
“Girl, you’re rich and I am so not. You can move out anytime you want and you choose now to do so. I don’t really understand why you want to do that now.”
“Because, Bay, I’ve been wanting to forever and it seems like the perfect opportunity too.”
“Let me think about it, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Now, let’s go to class,”
“Oh, alright.” She rolls her eyes in the most dramatic way possible.
“Oh, come on, drama queen.”
I was walking… and thinking. About moving and Mom getting married. I was so ready to move. I had prepared myself for it, and I was ready. As I was walking a car pulled up beside me.

“Hey, girl.”
I looked to my felt and saw this grungy guy of about twenty-three setting a slow pace beside me. I was on my way home and only about three blocks away. I wasn’t sure what to do about this guy chilling beside me and eyeing me like I was a piece of meat. Suddenly, a van, that I recognized immediately, pulled up behind him.

“Hey! Get in!” Ella called from the front seat.

“Coming.” I ran up to the passenger seat and hauled myself into the van. “Thanks. I wasn’t sure what that guy was about to do to me.”

“No problem.”
She dropped me off at my house and I went inside quickly in case the creeper was still riding around trying to find me. As soon as I entered the house I heard laughing. I didn’t hear that often.
“Bay, is that you, sweetheart?”
“Yeah, Mom, it’s me.”
“Come here, please.”
“Let me put my books up really quick.”
“Okay. Hurry please.”
“Alright.”
I hurried to my room, up the stairs and around the corner, and threw my book on my bed. I went back down the stairs to find my mom, and Joshua Linfield in our living room.

“Hey.”

“Hey Mom.” I look at Joshua briefly then turn back to my mom.

“I meant to tell you this morning, but, well, we’re moving, today.”

“Oh. Okay.” I was excited and trying not to show it very much.

“I also forgot to tell you that you would be having a roommate.”

“Oh really. When was I supposed to find out about this exactly?” the disbelieve heavy in my voice.

“This morning, but I didn’t want to upset you further.”

“Oh. Okay. So who is it?”


“His name is Emmett. He is also, deaf.” This time Joshua spoke.

“Oh. Okay. So I have to like take care of him?”

“Oh, umm, no. He can take care of himself.”

“Great. So why is there like four cars outside?”

“Well, one of them is for you. If you want it.”

“I don’t really want a car like those, but it will work for now.”

“I have a Charger at the house that I have for you. I didn’t figure you would want one of those.”
Wow. I got a Charger. A Charger like what the police drive. He is rich. This could so work out.

“Okay.” I am in complete disbelief.
We all pile up into a car and start on our way to drop off all our belongings. First, we go to my new apartment. Waiting outside is a very nice looking guy around the age of eighteen. I’m guessing that this is Emmett. Joshua gets out of the car and walks around to the other side of the car to open the door for my mom. As Mom gets out, Joshua turns and waves to the guy I think to be Emmett. He waves back and smile as I climb out of the car. Joshua pops the trunk and motions the guy over.

“Bay, this is Emmett.” He turns to Emmett. “Emmett, this is Bay, your new roommate.”

I was speechless. Not because he was deaf, but because the entire time Joshua was speaking, he was also signing to Emmett. All I could do was offer a simple smile and a short wave.

Joshua grabs two of the five bags in the trunk and hands them to Emmett. Emmett, then, motions to be then grabs the bags and turns around.

“He wants you to go with him.” Joshua says in a gentle voice. “Try to understand him and be polite.”

“I’ll try.” I offer a smile and Joshua smiles back.

I walk in the direction the Emmett was going and notice that he has stopped to wait on me at the door of apartment seven. I look at Emmett as he sits down the bags and pulls a lanyard out of his front pocket and hands it to me. I stare at it for a second. There are three keys on it. A car key, and two house keys. I look up and Emmett motions to the door. I quickly figure out that he wants me to unlock the door.

“Oh, okay.” I feel really stupid saying this because he can’t even hear me. I insert the key into the lock and twist it. The door opens easily and as soon as it does Emmett walks through the door. I follow him and he leads me to a large room that is labeled “Bay’s Room” in purple font with a zebra stripe background. I recognize this from my house. I smile remembering when I made it. I had to print out the zebra pattern from the computer, cut out each individual stripe and then trace it onto the canvas I was using to paint on. I wrote my name in buttons that I had spray-painted purple and hot glued them to the canvas. The whole project took me about two hours to complete. I could tell that this was going to be the start of a great life.