Today was Friday and this was the day of the week that mom and I had what we called ‘Friday Fun Day’. This was a thing that mom and I did every Friday if we were free. Ryan never joined us on our Friday fun days because he thought that we do only ‘girly’ stuff on that day. So he just spends the day at his friend’s house and returns late at night. He actually was rarely at home. He was either at school after classes to do football practice or at a friend’s house doing God knows what. But of course, he had strict warnings to not to indulge in… inappropriate activities like sleeping with someone, drinking or smoking. He was just sixteen. Okay, okay turning seventeen in a week but still it didn’t mean that he was allowed to do anything of that sort.
So it was our Friday fun day as usual. We weren’t able to do this thing for a few weeks now because we were so busy. After my hasty exit from school I had gone straight home. Ryan was leaving for his friend’s house.
“Hey,” I greeted as I walked past by him on my way inside the house.
“Hey sis. Give me your car keys,” He said urgently.
“What? Why?” I frowned at him. No way was I going to give him my car keys.
“I asked mom’s permission so give it to me.”
“Isn’t Brody going to pick you up?” Ryan always went to Brody’s house on our Friday fun days.
“No. I’m not going at Brody’s. I’m going to Shane’s place.”
“Oh,” I said as I reluctantly gave the car keys to him.
“I’ll be home at around eleven.”
“Okay. No drinking, no smoking and no slee-”
“Yeah okay, okay. I know that. I won’t do anything. Jeez, girls are such control freaks. You don’t let me do anything exciting!” Ryan whined.
“We don’t let you do anything dangerous and stupid,” I corrected him.
He rolled his eyes at me.
I watched him pull out of the driveway. After he was gone, I walked inside the house.
I went to my room and put my bag on my bed. I went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on my face.
As I dried my face with a towel, I stared at my reflection in the mirror.
I had brown eyes and black hair, unlike Gemma’s who had blonde hair with some purple highlights and green eyes. She was pretty, I knew it but I wasn’t. Of course I wasn’t. I could be compared to a potato and the potato would be more good looking than me. Gemma was also thinner than me. It was not like I was fat or anything but-
Jeez why was I comparing myself to Gemma?
I shook my head to clear my thoughts and put the towel in it’s place. I climbed down the stairs to meet mom.
“Hey mom,” I greeted as soon as I saw her in the kitchen. “What’re you doing?”
“Baking.”
I nodded. My mom had a big fascination with cooking and especially baking. I remember when I was little and dad was still alive, she tried out a new recipe every Sunday and my dad was the guinea pig. Not all of the dishes that mom prepared were… edible. But some of them were really good. Especially the baked ones. Her baked goodies were always the best and famous in our family. I smiled at the memories.
It was a Christmas morning and mom was trying to cook for the first time. My grandmother was teaching her to bake a cake. And I remembered how she got it wrong and the cake tasted so horrible that Ryan threw up after eating a bit.
But now she had mastered the art of baking and baked delicious cakes and cookies every now and then.
I picked up a freshly made brownie which was laid before me and began stuffing it in my mouth.
“It tastes awesome, mom,” I complimented her with a full mouth.
“Thanks,” She said, wiping her hands dry on her apron.
“So what’re we going to do today?” I asked as I picked up another brownie.
“Um… How about we go to the mall? It had been nearly two months since I last went there and I should really shop. My closet is getting limited.”
“Okay. I also need some new clothes.”
“Okay then. I’ll change and then we can leave. I’ll be there at the car in five.”
I nodded my head, my mouth too full to say anything. I heard my mom say something behind me, from the kitchen.
“What?” I asked.
“Ask Claire if she wants to come with us too,” She said.
Claire.
Of course she wouldn’t come. Her boyfriend would be angry at her. I hated how much he bossed her around like she was his slave or something. She completes his homework most of the time, if they get in an argument she’s the first one to say sorry even if it wasn’t her fault and she even bunks classes and went with him to God knows where. He shows up at her house at any time of the day or night when her parents are not at home.
She shouldn’t trust him so much. I was afraid that he would use her again. I didn’t think I would be able to control myself from killing him if he hurt her again. And he?!
I didn’t even want to think about him.
She hardly talked to me nowadays. It was like I didn’t even exist for her. It all revolved around Jesse.
I sighed, “I don’t think she’ll come.”
“Is everything alright between you two?” I still hadn’t told mom about her.
“Yeah.”
“Call her. Maybe she’ll come.”
I nodded as I took out my cell phone out of my jeans pocket and dialled her number.
“Hello?” She picked up after four rings.
“Hi, Claire,” I greeted her.
“Brooke? What’re calling for?” She asked, seeming in a hurry.
“I and my mom are going shopping at the mall. She asked if you could join,” I told her.
“Oh,” She said.
“So… you coming?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Um… I would really like to come, Brooke but-”
“It’s fine. I was expecting that. Bye,” I said, a bit rudely than I intended to.
“Brooke wait-”
“You don’t need to say sorry, Claire. I can understand if you choose Jesse over me. Have fun at your date,” I cut her off once again. I just randomly threw the date in.
“How do you know about the date?” She asked.
She was really going on a date with him. I didn’t knew she was going and I had mentioned the date just like that.
“I just know. Have a nice date with the douche,” I said sarcastically. “Bye,” I said and without waiting for her reply, hung up.
My mom came out precisely after I hung up. She raised her eyebrows at me, awaiting my answer.
“She’s coming?”
I shook my head, “Nope.”
“She must be having some work. Homework or something. Don’t worry.”
Oh, mom. If only you knew what exactly her work was.
“You ready?” I asked her.
“Yeah, let’s go,” She said, grabbing her car keys.
I locked the front door and walked over to my mom’s car. I opened the passenger door of the car and hopped in.
After an hour, we were only just through two shops and my mom still hadn’t bought anything.
“Mom! Just buy some tops! You don’t really need to see if it fits every occasion or not.” I whined, fed up with my mom’s behaviour. My mom was a big shopaholic and I never really liked to go shopping with her. She had checked every top on every rack and still hadn’t decided what to buy.
“But Brooke, what if I buy a top that I won’t use at all!” She asked, her hands full of different types.
“But why would you do such a thing?” I asked.
“I won’t. But I want clothes that suit me. I just don’t want to pick up anything that looks pretty. What if it won’t suit me? What if it looked too girlish or too pinkish for a thirty nine year old woman?”
“Forty, mom. You are forty years old. You just celebrated your fortieth birthday five months ago.”
She glared at me. “I don’t want to be forty! That’s so old! And I still look young,” She protested. I just rolled my eyes at her.
“Mom, Just buy whatever you want and hurry up.”
“Hey which one is better?” She asked, holding up two tops. One was a simple cream coloured full sleeved top which had a simple design on it. The other was more fancy. It was a purple one with a bit of a deep neckline.
“I like the cream coloured one.”
“But I think the purple one is better.”
“Then buy the purple one.”
“But you said the cream coloured one is better.”
“I just thought it looked simple and decent and is perfect for almost everything.”
“So you don’t like the purple one?”
“It’s good. If you want to buy it, then buy it.”
“So-”
“Oh God, mom. Can’t you decide for yourself. You are the one who’s going to wear that.”
She frowned at me. “Fine! Don’t help me.”
Another hour later my mom was almost done shopping and I had looked for some clothes for myself in the shops that we went to but none of them caught my eye. In the end I just ended up buying a pair of blue denims, a skinny jeans and some simple tops.
My mom whined about what I bought, saying I didn’t have a good choice in clothes. I didn’t care. As long as I was wearing clothes, it didn’t matter. It was not my life goal to impress someone. Like Gemma was trying to impress Brian. She really was trying hard to impress him. And I think it was working.
I sighed. Why can’t I get all the Gemma drama out of my head?
We were in the car right now after eating something because I was so hungry.
I looked out of the window, at the trees and houses going past us.? It was getting darker. I glanced at my watch.
7:28 pm.
“Brooke,” My mom called from the driver’s seat. I turned my head toward her.
“What?”
“Why aren’t you picking Claire when you go to school? She always rides with you, right?” She glanced at me for a second before turning her attention to the road ahead of us.
“She doesn’t ride with me anymore,” I informed.
“Why not?” My mom asked, cocking her head to the side to look at me.
“She got a new ride.”
“Who?”
“Jesse Winters.”
“Who is he?”
“Her boyfriend.”
She gasped dramatically, “You didn’t tell me she had boyfriend.”
“You never asked. And what’s so surprising about that?”
“So you’re mad that she’s not coming with you?”
“No mom. I can understand if she doesn’t want to ride with me. It would be perfectly fine. It’s just that, I hate Jesse. She had been in a relationship with him and he left her… after using her. I just don’t want that to happen to her again,” I confessed.
My mom didn’t say anything so I went on about how Jake liked her (and maybe still likes her) and how she slapped him.
“Oh,” She said simply after I presented the whole story to her. “Brooke, she’s in love. She thinks she’s in love. And when someone is in love, nothing seems right or wrong. We just go with it.”
I couldn’t believe she was supporting Claire here. I knew that Claire was doing a mistake. Jesse was not a good person.
My mom went on. “We feel that the person we are with, is the only thing important in the world. Nothing matters more than that. But if that love betrays us, we are completely broken. I don’t like this Jesse too but Claire does. You don’t have to like him. Just warn her about things and if she falls, if she gets her heart broken again, be there to catch her like a good best friend.”
“Seriously, mom? She’s choosing the wrong man!”
“I know. She’ll realise that when she should.”
“I just hope nothing bad happens to her.”
“I don’t think it will,” My mom whispered to me.
You never know.
I went back to staring out the window.
Twenty minutes later we pulled up in front of the house.
“How about a movie marathon?” My mom asked me cheerily.
“Sounds good,” I replied.
After I changed out of my clothes and had a shower, I went downstairs. My mom had already made popcorn.
I made myself comfortable on the couch while my mom selected a movie.
The Notebook.
One of my favorites.
My mom didn’t want to cook and I was also feeling lazy so we just ordered pizza.
After a few romantic comedy movies, I was too tired and so I went up to my room to sleep.
My mom wanted to watch some more movies so I just wished her a good night and went up to my room.
As I came out of the shower, my phone buzzed. I picked it up. It was a text from Darren.
Hey! Come to the party at my place tomorrow. I’ll be picking you up at 7 🙂
I narrowed my eyes at the text. I had perfectly made it clear to everybody that I wasn’t going.
Darren, I SAID NO!
Don’t be like that sugar 😉
I am NOT coming to your stupid party. Get that in your head.
Don’t make it difficult for me. I’ll kidnap you?:/
Go ahead. I’ll cut your dick off and feed it to you.
You hurt me
You were meant to be.
Stubborn nerd
I’m not! You’re an egoistic douche
Whatever. Good night
Good night
Sweet dreams princess? xoxo
Princess…
That was what Brian used to call me.
We used to chat like this. He came to my house. Twice. Once we almost kissed.
But now he liked Gemma.
Here I went again. I always keep coming back to Brian and Gemma. I just couldn’t seem to get them out of my head.