A Love Story that Turned Ugly

Chapter 14

        After that terrible afternoon, Bradley didn't stop calling me, but I kept pushing the reject button. He also sent, like, a hundred apologize messages, making my cell phone beeped in every second. I didn't understand what that man was thinking. I came to my sense. A man like him should have been married instead of messing around with a teenager like me, who he had met in a summer camp. He couldn't be serious. Maybe Clarissa's analysis was right. Whatever. I decided not to contact him anymore. If I ignored him, he would just stop soon, I thought.

       "Sister, would you PLEASE turn off your phone or at least keep it silent?" said Kenneth, annoyed. He was busy doing something in front of our family PC.

       Seriously, didn't he have other things to do? He had been sitting there all day long. I turned my cell phone off and pulled the battery out.

       "Fine. You happy?" I showed my phone in front of his nose.

       "Good," he responded briefly, and continued typing. I was standing behind him, looking at the screen over his shoulder. After a few minutes, my brother turned around and said,

       "Listen, I need some privacy here. And it's very uncomfortable to feel your breaths brushing on my neck."

       "I'm just bored." I shrugged. Kenneth shut the PC down and stretched out his body.

       "How about swimming? We can go together with Clarissa and Abigail. So?" he asked me, grinning.

        "Really? Let's go!" I cheered excitedly, rushing into my room to tell Clarissa. She was brushing her wet hair, staring right into her own beautiful reflection without blinking. She smelled so good, sweet fragrance wafting from her body.

       "Oh. You just took a shower..." I mumbled, rather disappointed. I was sure that she would not come to the pool since she'd just had her skin scrubbed with fruit mixture massage cream.

       "Yes. Why? You look unhappy," she said, now staring at me.

        "I just wanted to ask you to join me and Kenneth to the pool. Well I guess you would not come."

       "Certainly not. Maybe next time. Besides, I'm going somewhere. I have something to do..." Clarissa smiled mysteriously, looking out of the window. Her expression said she was imagining something.

       "What, a date with Lyle Rodney?" I made a guess. She wouldn't have dressed that attractive if it wasn't for meeting someone special. Clarissa showed me a disgust face.

       "That bastard? No way. I broke up with him yesterday," she said.

       "How come?" I asked, surprised. She didn't say anything to me.

       "I don't wanna talk about it, okay," she replied coldly. When she said no, it meant no. I didn't want to waste my time and got out of the room immediately.

       "Okay, bye." I left Clarissa and knocked Abigail's bedroom.

       "She is not home," said my Dad, who just came out of the bathroom, still wearing pajamas and slippers. His hair was messy.

       "Abby and your mom are going to a dentist. They left about an hour ago," he said, yawning. Dad was very busy working. He just got home at five o'clock this morning. I understood that he preferred to have this weekend for sleeping.

       "Okay. Just go back to sleep. Take a rest," I said, smiling. But then I frowned as I saw a box of cigarette he was gripping. I was about to preach him again, but my dad quickly entered his room and locked the door. Maybe I'd better just let him, I thought. One cigarette wouldn’t kill, or would it?