Moments
Of
Reckoning
By: Savannah Stewart
Moments of Reckoning Copyright © 2013 by Savannah Stewart
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages for review purposes only. If you are reading this book and you have not purchased it or won it in a contest, this book has been pirated. Please delete and support the author by purchasing the ebook from one of its distributors. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Cover art was created by the author, Savannah Stewart.
Published by Savannah Stewart 129 Saddlebrook Drive Coxs Creek KY 40013
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http://www.facebook.com/AuthorSavannahS
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Everybody has those moments in life, the moments that seem to stand still and freeze time right in its steps. Unfortunately not all of these moments are the moments you enjoy happening, or want to happen for that matter. Here is how one moment, one stand still moment, changed my life…
Reckoning - retribution for one's actions
(phrase: day of reckoning).
Chapter 1
Early Friday morning I woke to the sun glaring at me through the shades on my apartment window.
“Ugh… Why can’t I just sleep all day? Who really needs college anyway?” I said out loud to myself as I rolled out of bed.
“Just another day”, I thought. Another crazy, busy day of running from class to class and being ever so bored in Psych 101. I looked over at the clock sitting on my computer desk and realized if I don’t get my butt in gear I will definitely be late for my first class. Running around the apartment I grabbed whatever I could find to throw on myself before I headed out the door.
“Hannah! HANNAH...WAIT!!” I heard Abby, my roommate, yelling after me as I ran down the driveway to my car. I spun around to see why she was yelling and found her standing there holding my books for class with her usual smirk of laughter strewn across her face. Dear lord, can I forget anything else today? I thought to myself as I threw my hands in the air.
“Thank you so much Abs, what would I do without you?!” I said as I hugged her, grabbed my books, and continued running down the drive.
I was finally in the car and on my way to the third day of my junior year at The University of California in San Diego. Needless to say my major is that of my father’s choice, Psychology. He is a well renowned Psychologist here in San Diego and also graduated at the top of his class at UCSD. He also handles a lot of “high risk” patients in his practice. I do respect his work and respect the fact that he helps them get better, but I’m unsure if that is the career path for me. My parents kept telling me that it was just my nerves that were making me think this way, but I am not so sure about that. I really enjoy writing music. It has always been a passion of mine. There is nothing like leaving bits and pieces of your soul within the words of a song, in hopes of touching the souls of others. If I had my choice, I would become a song writer, but my parents do not see that as a career path.
My father’s words of wisdom, “Psychiatry is a prestige career, Hannah.” play on repeat in the back of my head all day—every day. I remember those words day in and day out because it’s the only way I’m actually going to go through with my degree. Although I am unsure about it, I decided on going forward with my Psychology major. I can always turn to music after I graduate, even if I have to pay for it myself. I have truly been blessed with my parents paying for my college; lord knows I couldn’t afford it on my own, working part time at my father’s practice.
I pulled into the student parking lot and realized that I actually had ten minutes to spare. This came as a great relief to me because it meant that I had time to get something from the coffee shop downstairs. Mornings without caffeine might as well be a blur to me, and since I have yet to have had my morning caffeine fix I am lagging a bit. I decided to take the stairs, in hopes that they would wake me up. I rounded the corner to the first flight and took off down them. Five flights of stairs later and I was gasping for air and realized just how out of shape I was. Not to mention what a stupid idea taking the stairs was. Geezzz, I need to start running again. Yes, the line is pretty short! I sighed in relief and jumped in line to decide on what to order.
“Hannah! Hey, what are you getting into tonight? I was thinking about getting some people together to hit up some bars on the strip.” Jason mentioned as he jumped in line beside me.
Jason Malone is the tall, dark, and handsome type that all the girls just swoon over; yes, I said swoon. His body is definitely some nice eye candy. He stands slightly over six foot with broad shoulders that fall into a lean physic. His chocolate brown hair slightly curls onto his forehead—and those honey-brown eyes of his see straight into my soul. I have known Jason since I was the dorky girl with glasses in the eighth grade; he being the only guy that ever looked my way. Although we never dated, I would have jumped on the chance to. I always figured he only wanted a friendship since he never made the effort to be more than that. So why ruin a good thing? Friendship is what I settled for.
“Jason... Hey! Umm, I’m not really sure about tonight, it really depends on how much homework my wonderful Psych teacher gives for the weekend. I don’t believe they realize we need a life outside of our books.”
“Yeah, I know what ya mean, just let me know and I’ll spread the word between now and then.”
“Sure thing, Jason.”
“See you later, Hannah.”
I found myself so caught up in the possibilities of the weekend, homework, and classes that I didn’t even pay attention to what I had ordered. “Order for Hannah Davis” the coffee clerk announced. That’s me. I waved my hand at the coffee clerk.
I sipped on my steaming hot drink of choice—oh good it’s the usual Caramel Macchiato… YUM!! And off to class I went.
∙∞∙
Two hours later and I was on my way to American Literature. Hopefully this one will be more entertaining than the past two have been today. I decided to shoot Jason a text to tell him to count me in for bar hopping tonight. No matter how much homework I have, I would make time for a night out. Lord knows I need one.
To Jason’s Cell:
Count me in for tonight. I am in need of some drinks and the wonderful company of my lovely friends!
Reply from Jason:
That’s what I like to hear! I’ll let you know the details after class.
To Jason’s Cell:
Kk, just let me know. Looking forward to it!
I put my phone away before I walked into class and noticed Abby sitting alone in the lobby area of Literature hall. I had a few minutes to spare before class started so I decided to see what she was up to and why she looked so grim.
“Hey, chick! Why are you sitting here and what’s with the long face?” I said as I plopped down beside her on the couch.
Abby looked up with a distraught look in her eye. “Well… Alex and I had plans to go out tonight since he was actually going to be in town, but he was called in to work another week before he can come home. This means it has been well over a month since we have seen each other in person. Face Time just isn’t cutting it you know…”
Alex is Abby’s boyfriend of two years. He landed an awesome job for this Fortune 500 computer company. The downfall is that they are always having him go from state to state redoing systems, so she never really gets to see him. I honestly don’t kn
ow how they even have a relationship anymore. Abby spends more time being alone and unhappy than she does being her old outgoing self.
“Well my dear, I have got a fix for you! Jason was trying to get some people together to go bar hopping tonight on the strip, wanna join?! It will be a great way to get your mind off of not seeing Alex.” I said as I gave her my famous puppy dog eyes.
“I don’t know Han…. Ugh not the puppy dog eyes!!!” she whined as she placed her hands over her face so mine was no longer visible to her. A few minutes past before she finally responded, “All right, all right... Count me in...”
“We are going to have fun tonight, Abs, I promise you that! See you after class, darling.”
I bounced through the classroom door, fell into my desk, and off I went into the lovely world of American Lit for the next ninety minutes.
∙∞∙
Surprisingly, today’s American Lit class wasn’t as boring as the rest had been. It actually went by quite a bit faster. Time to head home, knock out some homework, and get ready for a night out.
Santa Monica by Theory of a Deadman started blaring from my back pocket; I was half tempted to keep rocking out to my ringtone, but I decided to answer it instead.
“You are just who I was waiting to hear from! What’s on the agenda for tonight?!”
“Oh you know, the usual drinking, dancing, and acting like fools…” Jason responded with his attempt at a girly voice as he tried to stifle his laugh.
“Well that sounds exactly like a night I need! Oh yeah, Abs has decided to join us since Alex won’t be coming in for supposedly another week.”
“The more, the merrier. Sounds like she needs a night out anyway. I can swing by about nine to pick you ladies up if you like.”
“That would be great! See you then.”
∙∞∙
Traffic was bumper to bumper on my way home and unfortunately the heat was unbearable. It looked like another overly warm summer in San Diego. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love summer, but I do not love sweating like a pig all day—every day. Beach days always made the summer heat bearable, but I have missed hanging out at the beach this year because my father had me so overwhelmed with all of the case studies I interned on. He was trying to propel me to be ahead of the rest of my class when it came time for my internship.
The beach has always been my “go-to-place”, the one place I can get away from the world, soak in the sun, and smell the ocean. Hearing the wave’s crash into the land was always such a soothing sound to me, I remember falling asleep numerous times and getting sunburned because of it, but it was worth every minute of relaxation.
Back to reality, I realized that traffic was at a complete stand still. Just lovely… I won’t be getting much homework done at this rate before I go out tonight. With nothing better to do I decided to crank the radio and wait out this hellacious traffic jam. One of my favorite bands, Halestorm was blaring from my speakers and the people around me glared at me like I had completely lost it. Dancing like a lunatic in my front seat made for a very comical use of the forty-five minutes it took me to reach my exit. It’s so blistering hot today! Hopefully, when the sun goes down, the night air will cool things off a bit. I really don’t want to go out tonight half- naked like the typical bar bimbos on the strip. Lord knows how modest I have been my whole life. Most people think I come across with an “I don’t give a shit attitude” but unfortunately I do give a shit. You could say I’m pretty average, 5’6” and around 125 lbs with dark brown shoulder-length hair and hazel-green eyes. There was nothing spectacular about me in my book, just little ole Hannah Davis from San Diego, California who studies Psychology because her father “required” her to do so. My mother tried pushing me into pageants as a child, until I threw a complete melt-down fit and demanded that they let me out of them. I made such a scene at the last one I attended, back when I was ten, she snatched me up in the middle of the thing and drug me back home without saying a word. Needless to say, she was very unhappy about this since she grew up in pageants until she hit her mid-twenties. She wanted her daughter to be “just like she was growing up”, but that ship sailed. Her life was just not for me.
Sometimes I wonder how a child can be so different from their parents—I mean I am like night and day compared to mine. It’s so strange to me that we have hardly anything in common, maybe I was adopted? Nah... I doubt that, but sometimes I truly wonder.
Finally it was my turn to take the exit to my apartment. We only lived a couple buildings down once you get off the exit to the right, so it wasn’t that far of a drive as long as you didn’t get stuck in crazy traffic. Our building was more like a duplex than an apartment. We shared it with a couple of girls that went to a community college here in San Diego; they seemed pretty down to earth, but we didn’t have much contact with them. I pulled into the driveway and saw that Abs had made it home before me somehow. How was that possible? I’m pretty sure my class was over before hers, but yet she is home before me. I need to know her secret route; if she knows a short cut and didn’t share I’m probably going to kill her. I walked into the apartment and saw Abs laid out on the couch snoozing away.
“Abs, are you asleep?” I asked softly so I didn’t scare her to death, even though I knew she was obviously asleep.
“Errr…I was half way, what’s up?”
“How in the world did you beat me home and are already taking a nap? My class ends before yours, doesn’t it?”
“Well, I kind of skipped out on my last class. After talking to Alex, I was over being at school for the day. Good thing I did it though, seems the traffic is ridiculous right now.”
“Umm, yeah, I was stuck in that shit for a good forty-five minutes to an hour. I was about to beat you if you had known a short cut and hadn’t shared the info with me—just so you know.”
“Calm down little miss crazy… I would have shared that info—I wonder if there is a shortcut… Anyway, what are the plans for tonight?”
“Jason is going to be picking us up around nine so neither of us have to drive…and we’re kind of going from there I suppose.”
“Awesome, so I have at least an hour to take a nap before I have to start getting ready! This night keeps getting better by the moment.”
“Why, yes, you do! I will let you sleep until I finish up one of my short assignments and then it’s time to get your sleepy self-up and at ‘em.”
“Thanks, Han, now go be the overachiever that you are.” Abby says in her sarcastic tone as she waves me off.
“You know me…taking on the world, one book at a time!” I acted like Superman flying as turned to walk out of the room. “Before I go Abs…you only live once, don’t let Alex being away get you down. Go with your gut and things will end up how they are meant to. Sleep tight, my dear!” into my room I went before she could even respond.
Chapter 2
Glancing over at the clock I noticed the past hour had flown by and I was finished with, not just one, but two assignments. Maybe Abby was right about the over achiever in me…
“Aaaaabbbbbyyyy….AAAAABBBYYYY!” I started gradually getting louder as I tried to wake her.
“It’s that time already?!” Abby whined as she flopped around on the couch.
“Yes ma’am, now get your butt up and in gear…” I smacked her backside and darted out of the room.
Cranking the MP3 player in the living room with our favorite Theory of a Deadman tunes as we get ready is the usual ritual. Oh what to wear…The agony of being a female took over. Picking an outfit for a night out seemed to be the hardest decision to make, simply because I didn’t go “all out” throughout the week for class. I’m more of a simple kind of girl. Jeans and some kind of graphic tee or band tee paired with one of my many pairs of Chucks or sandals was the extent of my everyday getup. Except at work, work required the comfort of nurse scrubs. If I could, I would live in those things, it’s like wearing pajamas all the time! I mean who doesn’t love pajamas?!
Ab
by on the other hand, was the go-to girl who keeps up with all the fashion trends. She has a little bit of everything in that closet of hers. I won’t even lie; I secretly envy her for that. I have never been good about putting together outfits. I guess you could say I have never been the “girly girl”. So maybe, just maybe, I could talk Abby into putting together an outfit for me to wear out tonight. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t mind—plus it should get her into her “zone” and out of that funk she’s in.
“Oh, Abby dear…” I called out to her from my room.
“Yes, ma’am!?”
“Would you be ever so kind as to make me a real life Barbie doll by finding me something wonderful to wear out tonight? Please!? Oh, Please?!” I responded with a fake twang to my voice.
“Ummm, of course!!! How many times have I begged you to let me dress you up for a night out?! Operation turn Hannah into sexy Barbie is officially in full swing!”
Abby’s lifelong dream is to be involved in the fashion industry. Some way, somehow, she simply adores it all! I keep telling her to go for her dreams because she doesn’t have parents pushing her into something she doesn’t adore—like I do. Abby was currently an undecided major at UCSD and I keep telling her to go ahead and transfer to The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising San Diego (FIDM). By doing this she wouldn’t be too far from where we were now and we could still be roommates. She seemed to be slowly gaining the confidence to do so and I really hoped that she does. Everybody deserves to do the things in life that they love, even if your parents don’t approve.
“So Hannah… What are you feeling for tonight? Do you want classy, sassy, or sexy Barbie?!” Abby’s voice carried from her closet as items of clothing came flying out.
“Hmmm... as you know, I am quite the modest type.” I tapped my index finger against my chin as I decided on which angle to go, “So let’s...ummm…Step out of the box for once. Just not too far out of the box. ”
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