What I Hate About You (#1 What I Hate About You)

Chapter 12

Mum is preparing dinner when I walk into the kitchen. She tells me it’s almost ready. She is cooking meatloaf. I ignore her, walking over to the fridge to grab a can of Coke. I open it, taking a sip and then head back towards the stairs to my room. I walk pass my sister’s room, whom I have not seen or spoke to since I had arrived home. We both had hid ourselves in our room all afternoon. It’s better that way so we don’t have to see our identical faces. I hear Lindsay talking on the phone, mentioning my name. I press my ear against the door, eavesdropping on Lindsay’s conservation. I make sure I don’t make any noise that will give me away. I’m not sure who she is talking to, but I think it might be Emilynn. I wonder what her dirty little mouth has to say about me.

“You know, I don’t get it with Alex,” Lindsay says. “She is just plain weird. How on earth can you hate everything and everyone? She doesn’t even have a reason why to hate everyone. And she got me into trouble for nothing. All I did was kissed Simon. There was no reason for her to tell me I couldn’t kiss on the school grounds. She isn’t a teacher. Sometimes I don’t know why we’re twins. We don’t even act like twins.”

I turn from the door. I feel like I have been kicked in the stomach by Lindsay’s words. I don’t know why we’re twins. I may hate my own sister, but how could she even say that? Did she really mean it or was she only saying it to Emilynn? I can’t help the fact we are twins. Even if we aren’t acting like twins, we are still sisters and nothing can change that. I just have other things on my mind that I don’t want to involve my sister.

And she is wrong about me for not having a reason why I hate everyone and everything. I do have a reason. I hate everyone to protect myself from being hurt when I get close to someone, just in case they leave me. Just like what Dad did. I hate everything because they remind me of him.

I’m about to move away from the door and walk back to my room when I hear Lindsay talking about Nathan. I press my ear back against the door. I couldn’t really hear much since I have no idea what Emilynn was saying on the phone. Mostly all Lindsay wanted to know what Nathan did once we left the school.

The doorbell rings. I move away from the door. Dereck. He just has to show up didn’t he? Why can’t he just go away and leave my family alone?

I hear Mum answering the door, asking him how he was. I walk over to the stairs, seeing them kiss. I quickly hid behind the wall so they don’t see that I’m watching them. I bite my lip, stoping me from screaming.

“Lindsay, Alex, come on down,” Mum calls. “Dinner is ready.”

I don’t move. I don’t want to move. I don’t want to see his face. He is trying to take over the role of my father. Why is Mum letting him do that?

Taking a deep breath, I force myself to join my mother and her boyfriend downstairs. Dereck smiles at me when I turn from behind the door. I didn’t return the smile. I see Mum glancing at me. She is giving me a look to tell me I need to be nice. Why should I even bother to be nice? Lindsay pushes pass me, knocking me into the wall. Mum sees her do it and warns her not to do anything that will cause me to be mad. Lindsay doesn’t apologise. Instead she greets Dereck happily. He hugs her.

I continue down the rest of the stairs, hanging onto the banister. Dereck greets me and offers to give me a hug, but I step back. He gets the message and puts his hands up in apology. Mum insists that we start our meal. We follow her into the kitchen and take our usual seats at the table. Mum serves us our food.

“Before we start eating, Dereck and I would like to tell you girls something,” Mum announces.

“Something we think you both might like,” Dereck adds. “Well, what one of you might like, but hopefully you will like it too, Alex.”