Chapter 2: The call to home

Morgan woke up to the sound of Khelani singing that she needed a gangsta coming from her phone that was still on the countertop from last night, "ouch" she exclaimed softly as she sat up , lightly touching the back of her head before wincing. The phone's continuous ringing giving her a headache or 'that might just be from the fall,' she thought to herself, carefully picking herself up from the floor so she wouldn't slip again, walking to the phone and picked up the call saying, "what's up buttercup," expecting to hear her best friends' Jo's equally cheesy reply only to be met with the cold distant voice of her mother Addison as she said, " your grandmother is in the hospital in critical condition, you should come see her before she passes away," " what, what happened" Morgan asked with her voice already shaky, but all she got back was her the beep of the phone that signalled the call had been ended. She stood there for a few seconds motionless with tears dropping from her eyes, with a lump in her throat, wiping her eyes and rushing to her bedroom to pack some clothes for the trip ahead of her to see her grammy. She set her phone on her mahogany nightstand after dialling Jo's number, thankfully it didn't take long before Jo picked up saying "top of the morning to ya," " hey Jo" Morgan replied hoarsely with a sniffle, " Morgan, babe are you okay you sound awful," she inquired softly with concern, " yeah I'm not doing great right now my mom called-," " what did that bitch want?," she asked with hate and a little curiosity evident in her voice, " my grammy's in the hospital and it's really serious, I called to ask if you could cover for me at the diner; while I'm gone ," " of course anything for you babe," Jo replied, "thanks a ton Jo you're the best, I really owe you for this," she replied relieved and with a little sniffle before ending the call. As she frantically stuffed clothes into her her bright pink carry-on embroidered in cursive with her name and some symbols that her grammy had gotten her for her 20th birthday, it took what felt like all of her strength not to break down then and there, breathing in and out until she calmed enough to book a flight to New Orleans for 12 pm looking at her clock to see it was already 10:29 am rushing into the bathroom for a quick shower carefully minding her head, ''I should probably get this checked out,'' she muttered under her breath to herself staring at the spectacular bruise at the side of her head in the mirror, before turning on the hot water and hopping into the shower putting her face into the water to hide the tears streaming down her face as if ashamed, 'God, hope she's okay, she's all the family I have' she thought to herself with tears and water running down her face. She came out of the shower with a blue towel wrapped around her, glancing at the time to see it was already 10:49 am, she swiftly put on a blue polka dotted bra and pantie set, before tugging on some distressed skinny jeans and a tank top with a leather jacket. Putting her hair up in a bun quickly with some curly strands framing her face, heading to her bed zipping up up the carry-on glancing to her the nightstand at the picture of her and grammy at the suprise birthday party they threw her when she turned 20 feeling tears well up in her eyes at the thought of her passing away, blinking the tears away she looked away from the photo, sighing as she picked up her phone and put in her pocket, slinging her carry-on onto her back heading to the door passing through her kitchen staring at the kettle wishing she could go back to when all the worries she had were nightmares, bending over to pick up the kettle and setting it on the counter, brushing the walls as she walked to the front door feeling strangely somber at the thought of leaving her frankly shitty apartment, opening her front door only to be met in the hallway with the moans of an amorous couple making out next to her apartment feeling as though she'd seen them before, 'strange' she thought to herself feeling like she was experiencing deja vu, looking her door behind her and walking past the couple before a bulb exploded suddenly startling her and as she looked behind her the couple that was getting it on was gone, ''they probably went into their apartment,'' she muttered under her breath as if to reassure herself before walking out into the muggy Chicago morning to get to her flight putting the strange incident out of her mind.