Cry Me A River

Friendships Don't Have Rules

I see a lot of authors on wattpad write a little bit about what's going on in their lives in their a/n before or after the story and I totally have nothing against that. I just want to tell you- instead of doing a mini rant...what you all are reading is bits and pieces of my life mixed in with some of my friends experiences within this story. This is basically all real stuff, though it may not be MY life in particular. So just you all reading this helps a tremendous amount....thank you. OK ON WITH STORY.
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I rolled my shoulders back and sighed before entering the coffee shop. It's such a cliched job, but it brought in enough money. I hadn't been in a few days but Amanda, my boss, knew that Jason had been sick so she let me off easy. She was young, twenty four or twenty five, but she had made a remarkable amount of money from opening her story Mandy's Mocha. It was the only decent cafe within a good ten miles, so a lot of the neighborhood came there. Amanda gave me a smile when I entered, the little bell ringing from its perch on the door, the two boys following in after me.

"Hey Char, hey kids." They waved and slid into their normal booth, located in the far corner of the shop so they wouldn't bother anyone. I gave Jason his coloring book and Ryan took out his sketch pad. My younger brother had a large amount of artistic talents, whereas, I had none. He had the ability to transfer looks, places, expressions and feelings onto a page in a way I would never be able to replicate. As I pulled on my apron, I glanced at the two boys and saw them both concentrated, one on a picture of Nemo and Dory and the other on his scratching charcoal.

The shift started at six and ended at nine, it was shorter than other jobs but there were a lot of customers. The place was filled within minutes and every person kept me busy with an order. I made more hot chocolates, pumpkin spice lattes and steaming teas than I could count. My hair had been in a messy bun, but after a good hour and a half, little dirty blonde wisps fell onto my face. I was too tired to brush them away so they stayed there, probably making me look like I had a wild lion mane. The boys were quiet for those three hours, doing their artwork. I would glance over from time to time and see them both bent over the table. Once of twice I caught Ryan's eye and he gave me a grin before I had to turn back to a nagging customer.

"Okay girl, you're done." I sighed in relief as Amanda closed up shop. Normally there was another girl, Sammy, working with me, but apparently she had called in sick, which left the two of us. I gave her a hug and hung my apron on the hook by the counter. It had my name, Charlotte, stitched in with pink thread, standing out on the chocolate brown fabric.

I beckoned my brothers out the door and waved to my boss before hopping into the car. The drive back started out silent, so I asked Ryan,

"Did you finish your homework?" He nodded.

"Yup. Math was too easy as always but the rest was okay." I sighed, frustrated. Ryan was in what his school called the 'gifted' program, but it was still too easy for his racing mind. I glanced in the mirror and saw Jason fast asleep against the window and I smiled before asking,

"Hey Ry?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you like math so much?" He shrugged.

"All you have to do is memorize things: equations, problems, rules and numbers. I like the rules part a lot...you can't screw up if you remember all the rules. It's not like life at all or anything. If I screw up with friends then I can't go back and erase everything and check the rules to see what I did wrong. But I can do that with math." I noticed the change in his voice when I heard the word friends.

"Ry did something happen with your friends?" I made the turn onto our road and into the driveway. He shrugged again and I sighed, getting out of the car. Carrying Jason into the house wasn't too difficult and I was able to put him into his bed without him making so much of a peep. I headed back downstairs to find Ryan on the couch. I sat next to him, my entire body facing him,