MONSTER LUNAUNWANTED

*Ring... ring...*

Emily Lee's phone rang for the third time in a row. She was still in bed and was finding it unappealing to open her eyes and reach for her phone, whose recurrent ringing sound was nothing but a disturbance to her sweet morning sleep.

After some long seconds of inner struggle, she opened her eyes halfway, and a tiny sound escaped from her lips. "Ouch," she yawned. She adjusted her body a little and tried to stretch her arms while still in bed.

At the moment, she was extremely weak, and for some unknown reason, it felt as if her bones had been mercilessly smashed by a sledgehammer the night before.

"Oh... what time is it? I can't believe that I slept off," she soliloquized with sleepy eyes.

*Ring... ring...* the phone rang yet another time.

"Now I better get that," she murmured, her eyes still feeling very heavy.

With her eyes closed, she stretched forth her hands to grab her phone, but she winced at the pain she felt coming from her arms. She groped for the phone on the bed but could not find it. "Damn it, you bitch," she cursed under her breath. "Where is this damn phone?" she hissed.

*Ring... ring...* the ringtone of the phone sounded again.

"Oh, sure... where else..." she murmured.

She finally opened her tired eyes a little and stretched her hands to the side table where the phone was. The room was a bit swarthy, and she assumed that it was already the early hours of the day. "I can't believe I got back home," she murmured with a yawn, her mind trying to recollect the events of the previous night, but strangely, she was completely blank.

Finally reaching the phone, she quickly answered without taking a look at the caller's identity. "Hey..." she said, believing that it must be her boyfriend, Tyler, whom she hadn't spoken to all night long.

"Emily..." a voice yelled from the other end.

"Mo... mother..." Emily murmured in shock and tried to rub her sleepy eyes with her palm, wondering why Elise Lee would take the pain of calling her this early. Her heart began to race because she could not think of a reason for it.

"Where are you, Emily? I've been calling your phone for what seems like an eternity." The voice sounded hostile.

"I... I... where are you...?" At this point, Emily's voice was beginning to waver.

"I don't want to wait for you for another second," the angry voice yelled, and soon the phone was hung up before she could think of a response.

Taken aback, Emily stared at the phone in her hand, not sure if she was imagining things. As it was, she still could not understand why her stepmother would resort to using a phone to reach her instead of coming up to her room to meet her.

"Another trouble..." she muttered in fear, and immediately slumped back onto the bed, deciding that she was too tired to face anyone at this early hour of the day. She was having a hangover from the previous night, and she was just not ready for any trouble.

Soon she closed her eyes and decided to take a deep breath. When will all this be over? She mumbled to herself. However, even with what was happening, Emily found joy in the fact that for now, things are beginning to build up between her and her half-sister, Samantha Lee, and hopefully, her mother, Elise, will soon open up to accepting her. And truly, she cannot wait for that day to come.