I flip my phone closed and sigh extra deeply. She's crazy if she thinks she's dressing me and getting me to go over there. "Emma! Come down here please." I groan and get up, locking my bedroom door behind me. Jackie likes to snoop and I learned a long time ago that if I want something to stay private I need to lock it up.
I tromp down the stairs and groan again when I see what Bren's got on the table. "Good, there you are. Come here and help me." She's been talking forever about redoing the bathroom, and apparently she picked tonight to volun-tell me that I'm helping her. Quick thinking.
"Can't, Alyssa and I are going out tonight. She'll be here in a few minutes." She looks up at me with a frown on her face.
"It's a week night." I go over to the fridge and grab two Cokes.
"So? Despite all appearances I am an adult and it is summer vacation."
"You need to be up early tomorrow morning."
"I don't recall planning anything, so sorry Bren, no can do."
"I'm going to Bed, Bath & Beyond and need someone to come with me."
"So why don't you take Jackie, you know, your actual daughter?"
"I'm letting her sleep in tomorrow." I snort.
"Whatever Bren, I'm not going with so save it for someone else."
"Well what time can I expect you back?" I shrug.
"Dunno. Maybe I'll spend the night at her house. Either way, don't wait up for me." Just as I'm starting back up the stairs my cell rings. I hurry to get up and unlock the door, but whoever it was that called hangs up before I can answer. I check caller ID and smile. Brax. I hit redial and open my Coke while it rings. After the 4th ring Brax finally answers. "You just called, how could you be that far away from the phone?"
"Bathroom. Anyway, how are you?" I shift on my bed and cross my legs.
"I'm fine. I don't have too long cause Alyssa's coming over. She tricked me into going out tonight."
"Tricked you?"
"Well, sorta. Some guy moved in next door and she's determined to get us together for the summer. I made the mistake of going downstairs cause Bren was waiting to ambush me with bathroom samples. Snore. Anyway, my quick thinking came up with going out with Alyssa." Brax laughs.
"I thought you didn't have any neighbours with kids?"
"That's what I thought, too. But apparently Mrs Findlay was married and has a daughter or something. Adrian is her grandson."
"Ooh, first name basis, huh?" I look up as Alyssa enters my room and shuts the door behind her.
"Not really. Gotta go though. I'll call you later."
"Keep me updated." I chuckle and hand Lyss her Coke.
"Will do. Love you, Brax."
"Love, Em." I shake my head as I close my phone. Brax, also known at Braxton, is my twin brother. Instead of staying with our dad and Bren, he moved in with our uncle, our mom's brother. I haven't seen him in weeks. I'm supposed to be visiting him for a few days before I leave for school.
"How's Brax?" Alyssa has had a crush on him since she was 7. I keep telling her to give it up cause she's not his type, but she doesn't listen to me.
"Fine I guess. Dunno why he called." She takes a long sip of her Coke and then goes to my closet, surveying her options. "I told Bren we're going out. She wanted help with bathroom stuff."
"I know, I saw the books. Warm enough for a skirt tonight?"
"Depends on how short we're talking." She holds up my favourite pale blue skirt. "And that's definitely too short." She rolls her eyes and tosses it to me.
"Oh please. You can always wear leggings if you want. Or a sweater or boots. Hey, that's not a bad idea." I sit back and watch as she goes through my wardrobe and mumbles to herself. I'm not sure which is worse, her having a boyfriend or her not having a boyfriend. When she doesn't have one she drags me out every weekend looking for potentials. When she does have one, she seems to think I need one, too.
Half an hour later she's finally done rifling through my clothes. "Here, put this stuff on." I look down at what she's picked. That blue skirt, my calf high leather boots, a semi-form fitting tank top, and a 3 quarter hooded sweater. I look up at her and roll my eyes.
"Alyssa, seriously. I'm gonna get picked up by the cops for being a whore. I'm not wearing that." She goes back into the closet and takes out a pair of jeans that I could wear as a second skin. Where do I get all this stuff?
"Then wear those instead." I sigh and give up. She won't back down until she gets me dressed and out of the house.
"Ugh, fine, but you owe me." She smiles and crosses her arms.
"I think landing you Adrian Mill will be owe-ance enough. Now hurry up, you're wasting precious time."
"He's not even home yet, chill out." As soon as I say that a car pulls into the driveway next door and Adrian gets out. Alyssa shoots me a smug look and I roll my eyes. I grab the clothes she picked out and head to my bathroom. I'm lucky enough to have a door connecting my room and the bathroom together. Pretty handy considering the other door to get in the bathroom is on the other side of the top floor.
"Hurry up, Em."
"I can't get the stupid pants done up. Give me another pair." While I'm waiting I look at the tag. Size 2? Where on earth did I get these? "Hey, I don't own any size 2's."
"Oops, sorry, those must be mine then." She opens the door and hands me another pair of jeans and takes hers from me. She's always leaving her stuff here. She's probably got dolls here from when we were 6. "Done yet?"
"Jeezus chill out, eh?"
"Emma, did you know you can see his bedroom from your window?" I ignore her and finish putting my clothes on. I look at myself in the mirror and sigh. "God, your hair. Where's your brush."
"You know, you're kind of annoying sometimes." She grins and shrugs and picks up my brush. I glare at her. I have this thing about people touching my hair. I won't even go to the hairdressers and usually cut it myself. And Alyssa full well knows that. "Get that thing away from me."
"Oh please, Em. It's not gonna kill you."
"That's what you think. Just let me do it." She rolls her eyes but hands me the brush. I put it half up-half down with a clip that Brax got me for our birthday last year.
"That'll do. Now come on. We need to get over there before he makes other plans."
"And what exactly do you plan on saying to him?" She shrugs.
"No clue. You're gonna do all the talking anyway." I just stare at her.
"I think not."
"Oh come on. Since when are you shy?"
"Since never. But like I said yesterday, that'll sound totally lame.
"Oh please. You saw him earlier and you said 'see you later'.
"Yeah but I didn't actually mean tonight."
"Well you do now. Come on."
"Yeah, fine, let me lock up first." She also learned the hard way that I need to lock my room. Jackie found the diary that she kept at my house and showed Bren, who in turn showed Lyssa's parents. Short story, big drama. I grab my cell and my keys and follow Lyssa down the stairs. Brenda's now harassing my dad with the samples. I give him a sympathetic smile as we walk by and out the house.
"Okay, here's what's gonna happen. We're gonna go over, you're gonna say you're just welcoming him to the neighbourhood, and you're just gonna casually mention that you're going out tonight. If he's got half a brain at all he'll ask where and you'll invite him along. Good?" I roll my eyes at her in the dark. She's pulling me along the street to Adrian's house.
"Doesn't look like I got much of a choice, does it." She throws me a look over her shoulder before pushing me up Adrian's front walk. "You so owe me."
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