Dinner was not any better than Kayla had expected.
From the moment that she looked at her grandmother, she could have predicted her diet. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, maraconi pie, plenty of biscuits. The only green options that she'd laid out had been green beans! Green beans with butter! Kayla might not have been a health nut about that sort of stuff now that she wasn't running track anymore, but just looking at that spread felt like it was clogging her arteries. She'd eaten some chicken, potatoes, and green beans before excusing herself to her mom's old bedroom—now hers.
"No wonder my mom used to be so fat when she was a kid." Kayla clutched at her stomach as she laid on the old country bed, "I ate like half my plate and I feel like I'm gonna barf..."
"Maybe that's the reason she sent you here." Blaire's voice came over the phone, "She's gonna try and fatten you up so you're too out of shape to run away from your responsibilities."
"Oh shut up."
"Or your best friend who offered to move in with you anyway."
"Sue me for not wanting to live with like five other people."
Kayla and Blaire had been friends since they were in middle school together. They were both athletes back in high school, with Blaire on the basketball team to Kayla's running track, and had more or less grown up together. Honestly, with how mad she still was at her parents, she was probably going to miss her the most out of all the faces that she was leaving behind.
"So it's just the two of you out there? No, like... neighbors or anything?"
"I moved to the boonies, not out into the woods." Kayla rolled her eyes, "We're in a neighborhood. There's houses and shit."
"So sue me, I didn't know... with the way you talk about it, you'd think they send you to, like, out in the woods."
Kayla put her friend on speakerphone so that she could rock back up to a standing position. Holding the phone in one hand and pacing around the room, the former athlete defaulted to keeping herself moving, even a year out of practice. As she and Blaire spoke on the phone, Kayla looked through window that opened out onto the street.
"So you have neighbors, then."
"Well I ain't met any of them yet."
"Listen to you—ain't—you're going native already."
"Stooooooop."
Kayla looked outside the window, and out into the neighborhood that her grandmother lived in. Not a lot of people were out this late, what with it being dinnertime and all. The long summer days meant that it was only just now getting to be a little dusky. Unfortunately for Kayla, it wasn't quite dark enough to blur the sight of an absolute heifer of a woman hauling herself out of the car. In cutoffs no less.
"Great. My neighbor's a cow."
"Damn you really are out in the boonies."
"No, not like a cow cow, like a big gal kinda cow."
"Oh lawd she comin'."
Her stomach burbled again. The sight of all that woman waddling around was enough to turn anyone's thoughts to diet and exercise. Not to mention her Granny Lee. All the incentives that she needed to get back on track with her jogging routine. She'd let herself get a little lazy during the Summer and had never quite gotten back on track. But sandwiched between those two butterballs was plenty motivating to keep her thin runner's physique.
"So you're like, really gonna stay out there for a year?"
"At least until the next school year."
"You're really doing this, huh?"
"It's a free place to stay, y'know?"
"I guess..."
Kayla sighed.
"You gotta unpack?"
"Yeah, I gotta go." Kayla frowned into the reciever, "Miss you bitch."
"Miss you back, bitch."
And with that, Kayla hung up and collapsed back onto her mother's old bed. The springs squeaked and creaked obnoxiously the way that old beds do, and the bedframe actually bowed a little due to age. Looking from the ceiling down to the piles of luggage that had been hauled in after dinner and on a full stomach, she really didn't want to do any unpacking. After all that driving, the lugging, the just... god, this whole situation had just worn her out.
I can do that tomorrow.
Kayla yawned.
It's not like I'm in a hurry to get comfortable around here..."
Changing into her pajamas, Kayla settled into the old bed for the night and drifted off to her first of many nights' sleep at Granny Lee's.
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