"Jake's brother. I mean sister." The boy nodded and turned to face the hallway again. "JAKE!" he screamed, matching my volume. I smiled. Well, at least I didn't need to be self-conscious about anything. "WHAT, SEAN?" Jake screamed back. I was surprised by how easily Jake used an angry tone with someone else's older sibling. It wasn't like him. When Max's older brother, [or sister, to be quite frank, (which is a weird expression,)] yelled at him like that, he shrunk like a snail in its shell. "THERE'S A CHICK HERE FOR YOU!" I laughed outright, imagining my brother's reaction to that statement, (and wondering if he had honestly not heard me scream a minute ago.) "What?" Jake said, calmer and in a surprised tone. "Your name?" Sean asked me. "Angela," I replied, smiling at the scene. "CHICK NAMED ANGELA IS HERE FOR YOU, DUDE!" Sean screamed back to Jake. "Oh," Jake replied, quieter now, "that's just my sister." Sean lowered his volume too, "Just? No respect, man, no respect." Jake came onto the staircase then and punched Sean in the arm. "Hey, sis," he said. I smiled sarcastically and held out his bag. "Thanks," he said, smiling at me as he came quickly down the stairs and took his bag. "Dude, this is weird," Sean said, studying my face and then looking back at Jake. "What is?" Jake asked, turning his back on me to face Sean. "You guys being brother and sister."
"Why is that weird?"
"Well, 'cause she's hot, man, and you're not." Jake ran up the stairs and punched Sean in chest. Sean laughed. I would have blushed, but I was having one of those act-like-Dustin days, so I simply replied, "Jake's hot, too, man." Sean looked at me for a second and slowly smiled. He ruffled his hair through Jake's hair playfully and said, "Yea, he's ok. Nothing special."
"Shut up," Jake replied, pushing Sean and going back down the hallway to Sam's room. Sean walked down the stairs slowly, (and dramatically, geez,) "I'm Sean," he said, smiling at me. "I noticed," I replied, forming a bubble of my gum in my mouth and popping it as he got closer to me. "And you are?" he continued, seeming to be nervous but trying to look confident. "I think we went over this," I said with a tilt of my head and another sarcastic smile. He blushed slightly and looked out the window, "Holy crud." I looked out, "What?" I saw that the light snow had turned into a storm and I groaned. "Looks like you're snowed in," he said, sticking his hands in his pockets. "I'll go hang out with Jake," I replied, hurrying towards the stairs. He came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder, "No, its ok, you can hang out with me." I blinked and he walked up ahead of me into the hallway. "Come one, my room's this way." I followed him slowly, suspiciously. He opened the door and stood by it, seeming to invite me to go in before him. "Ladies first," he said after a moment. I shook my head. "Nope. How do I know you won't lock me in?" He laughed and walked in first. I walked in behind him and he sat down at a desk and opened his lap top. He glanced back at me with a shy smile. "Could you close the door?" I narrowed my eyes and he chuckled, "Its just a pet peev."
"You can deal with it."
"Touch-y!"
"You can deal with that, too." He laughed and shook his head. "Alright. But at least sit down. You're making me nervous." I shrugged and sat down on his bed, "I do that a lot."
"That's humble."
"Hey, you said it, not me." His smile got bigger and he just looked at me for a minute. "What?" I asked after a minute. He shook his head, "Nothing...its just...you're cool. And...you kind of look like my old girlfriend."
"Wow. That's a great pick-up line. Remind me to write it down." He laughed, "No, seriously. Here, let me show you a picture." As he reached into a big drawer stuffed with papers and photos and envelopes, (with more photos sticking out of them,) he said, "She was really cool. You would've liked her."
"Oh yea? So she ended it, then?" He was quiet as he pulled out a photo and held it so that he could look at it. I looked at his face as he was silent. "Um...no. She...passed away." I gasped, "Oh, I'm so sorry." He sighed, "Yea, its ok. Its just...I really loved her, you know? And the thing is, she hadn't even told her family that we were dating by the time she died." He held up the picture and I gasped. I looked at the picture for a second and then stared at his face in shock.
In case you haven't figured it out already, it was her.
© 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment