VII.
THE MUSIC IN THE CAR blared out from the stereo as I pulled onto the by-pass heading towards town with the heat on high, the weather has taken an unexpected cold turn over the night, everything the chilled, wind touched turned to frost and ice. I couldn't help but sing and dance when I stopped at a red light, the driver in the car next to me gave me a strange leaving my cheeks burning when I turned around and face forward to act like I wasn't doing anything. When the light turned green I accelerated towards the hardware store where Amanda worked at. Our weekend arrangements were decided a few weeks ago after the incident in the library with Chrissy and Ryan's hound telling her where we were and it's better this way. Amanda can work on the weekends for extra money for opening up the store and booking in the new deliveries. I didn't mind taking her to work in the mornings and I don't mind picking her up when she finishes.
I'm glad for the fresh start and newfound friendship, opening my eyes to see that Amanda wasn't as bad as the other two and that she tried to keep out of mine and Chrissy's feud. It took me a few days getting used to her being in my house instead of me being on my own, Ryan still having his hissy-fit from our argument, however, he still texts me to check I'm okay but reminds me that he is still mad and that I owe him an apology.
My eyes quickly looked at the time in my car, giving me five-minutes to arrive outside of her work, I always made sure I was there early rather than late and with how cold it is this afternoon, the sun failing to make the day somewhat warmer as autumn was slowly moving on into winter a lot sooner than I'd have hoped for.
I pulled into the car park taking a space closest to the store and waited idly as I scrolled through my phone to occupy myself, glancing up now and then. It wasn't too long until the car door opened making me jump a little in the seat, I greeted her with a warm smile as she clambered in, a heavy sigh coming from her when she slumped back into the seat before she smiled at me.
"Hi," she breathed and done her seat belt up.
I once said that I didn't like to pass around small talk but the longer I've been hanging around with Amanda which has been almost a daily thing, I now look forward to hearing about her day and how work has been, I mean she listens to my days even if I just moan she still shows interest. Being friends with a girl that isn't related to Ryan is nice, at least I'm not sat here listening to what guy she slept with the other day, that we hold a conversation that lasted longer than ten minutes.
It wasn't long until I pulled up outside her house, cutting short what would have been a forty-five-minute walk into fifteen. I turned my head to see her staring at me when I gave her a questioning look.
"Rebecca, you're going to have to come in at some point." She commented as her handheld onto the door handle, "a promise, is a promise." She laughed when I let out a long groan and turned the car off to get out too.
I walked around the front of the car until I came to her side the both of us walked up to her driveway. She pushed open the front, she called out to her mother that she was home and just going to get quickly changed as she leapt two stairs at a time leaving me alone in the hallway as I wished I stayed in the car. I stayed by the front door awkwardly, silently telling Amanda to get changed quicker. My head snapped towards a door frame down the narrow hallway when a head peered around the corner, assuming the person is her mum. I gave her a small smile and a wave hello when she came into full view.
I was a little taken back by how different Amanda looked to her mum, she was fair-haired instead of a deep brown, her skin complexion was a lot lighter to Amanda's which was a dark olive colour.
"You must be Rebecca, I'm Amanda's mum, Joy." She spoke with a smile.
"Nice to meet you," I smiled trying to act confident when I felt like I was under scrutiny.
"Are you and my daughter... Just friends?" she asked making me frown a little at why she would ask a question like that, not understanding what she meant by 'just' friends.
"Yes." I gave her a simple answer, hoping it was the one she wanted to hear.
"Nothing more?" she pressed even further, Amanda coming down the stairs in time before I could answer, finding it strange until I thought back to what Ryan had told me about her being gay.
"I'll be back tomorrow, mum. I love you." She quickly said kissing her on the cheek while I just waved goodbye and walked out the house back down to my car.
That had to be in my top three of the awkwardest conversation I have ever been involved in.
I turned towards Amanda when we were both inside my car, "why was your mum asking me if we were more than friends?" I questioned her as I slid my car keys into the ignition and turned the engine on.
"She's just being a mum." She said nonchalantly like my question didn't bother her even though her mum was insinuating if she was in a lesbian relationship with me. I haven't met many mothers who like to ask them questions on the spot, normally they ask who you are and how you met their child and so on, but since then I guess parents have changed since I met anybody's mother, making a mental note to stay in the car next time, with a simple nod of my head and pulled away from her house.
If it was my mum questioning if I was involved with a girl she'd be flipping out at me and not for the reason of being overprotective, but more of the reason for me being with a girl. In the past, she has thrown an odd comment here and there if she assumed someone was gay or as she calls it allowing the devil to sin. That's another thing, my mother wasn't religious, she never went to church or went to any event to 'help' raise money for the church even though they don't pay tax and whatever else, the money probably lined the minister and priest's pocket. When it came to homosexuals she would shout from the rooftops how it's not gods wish for a woman to be with another woman or a man to be with a man. It would never matter if you told her repeatedly that times have changed. She was nothing but a cold-hearted woman made from stone.
The longer we drove in silence I felt myself become curious of Amanda, multiple questions running through my head that I wouldn't dare to ask regarding the people she dates or has dated. I bit my tongue the majority of the way home to keep me from invading her privacy and wanting every dirty detail. It's a good job I'm not one of the girls that thrive for the gossip.
She let out a sigh causing me to look at her while trying to keep my eye on the road, my brows furrowing when concern washed away the curiosity.
"Everything okay?" worried when the atmosphere started to shift.
"My mum asked because... I don't know how to put this other than being blunt." A click of her tongue while she looked out the passenger window before swivelling in her seat to look at me. "She asked because, at one point when I was grieving, I let myself go numb and fall into a hole. The only way I could cope was to find it in someone else, so I ended up bringing people home to make me forget. I promised her that I don't do that anymore and that I'm coping better but I guess part of her wants to believe me but deep inside I know that she has her doubts and I don't blame her but she will never admit to me that she has these feelings." Opening up to me for the first time since all of this happened, learning something about Amanda DeCeno that isn't the typical icebreaker.
I stayed quiet to soak in what she had just told me when I noticed she started to feel uncomfortable, seeing her shuffling from the corner of my eye. I noticed she didn't comment on who she slept with in regards to it being a boy or girl, then again it did come from the horse's mouth, already knowing Catherine is a shit-stirrer. And if she did sleep with a girl I'm sure she would have made a point about it so I can't assume she's something she's not, else I'd be acting like Ryan with how he is towards me.
"Who am I to judge, we all act differently when we are hurt and grieving, are you hungry at all?" I asked as I pulled into a fast food joint's drive-thru.
"Who's turn is it to buy?" she asked as I pulled near the menu.
"It would be mine. So what are you wanting?" I asked, taking a twenty out of my purse.
"Just a burger and a strawberry milkshake." I pulled a face at what she wanted with her pulling one back to mimic mine, a smile replacing the look of disgust when I couldn't keep it back.
"Can I take your order please?" a bored voice spoke through the intercom.
"One cheeseburger with a strawberry milkshake, and one vegetarian salad burger with a vanilla milkshake, please," I spoke when I felt Amanda's hand touch my arm to grab my attention to ask me to add on some sweet potato fries too. "Also, can I have large sweet potato fries?" I quickly added, not understanding how she was so slim but she ate like she had been starved for weeks.
"That will be eleven-twenty-seven." He spoke as I pulled forward to the first window to pay.
I handed over the note receiving the change as I gave it to Amanda to count because last time we got handed the incorrect change, only to realise when we arrived back to my house. I pulled towards the next window when the car in front drove away, I grabbed the bag of food the women handed me smiling at her as I handed it to DeCeno while I drove away to park my car up to eat at a table bench.
Another thing that I have learnt about DeCeno, she hates eating inside the car the and I have yet to find out why.
Walking along the pavement towards the table the cool autumn breeze sent shivers through my body as I sat down opposite her, the bench feeling cold as ice on my ass. I held my hand out for my bean burger when she placed it into my palm and slid my milkshake over to me.
"So, why eat outside and not in the car?" finally asking the question, finding it strange the third time she did it.
"Don't you like your food hot?" she quipped back, not answering the question.
"It will be hot inside the car too," I started slowly not understanding her logic.
Knowing I wasn't going to get anywhere, I shut up and ate my food hot, at the end of the day she wasn't hurting anybody except me, forcing me to freeze before my food did.
Out of nowhere, we heard an obnoxious laugh that was louder than the passing cars, I found it hard to make out who it was coming from when I noticed Amanda sit up straight and broaden her shoulders. It took a few seconds when I realised it was Catherine, not spotting the others with her but not understanding why she is coming towards us alone.
"Amanda, what a surprise to see you here, and on a date with Rebecca... I thought you didn't do dating and skipped to the end process... Or is Rebecca one of the lucky ones, I didn't know you swung for the opposite team," her voice sounding patronising when she looked me up and down then turned to face Amanda.
"Is the dog pound doing a clearance?" I snapped back and to think that I thought she was alright before Chrissy got to her.
"Your snarky remarks are starting to grow tiresome Rebecca," rolling her eyes when Amanda sat up and cleared her throat.
"I mean, people grow tired of a bitch in heat, I mean hasn't Ryan fucked off to the next piece of meat. You on your back yet for Chrissy because if I were you, I'd be careful who you piss off next. Chrissy will drop you quicker than she got you." Her voice was cold and emotionless.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Amanda, I'm not a dyke." Catherine said with disdain dripping from the last few words while looking at Amanda.
"What the fuck did you just say?!" She half-shouted as she shot up onto her feet, the distance already closed when Amanda shoved her by her chest as she took a couple of steps back, "Well, come on. Say it again. I double-dog dare you," her voice colder than ice, hoping I never get on this side of Amanda.
Before a fight broke out between them I stood in the middle as I stared down Catherine, ready to hit her if I had to but I was hoping it wouldn't come to that and for the first time I was protecting Amanda.
"Leave Catherine." My voice low, giving her one chance to turn around before this took the next step, feeling the adrenaline rolling off Amanda.
"Don't worry, I'll leave you two at it." She smirked and started to walk backwards before turning around to crawl back under the rock she came from.
When I turned around to Amanda my instincts took over when enveloped her into my arms, holding her tight when I felt her tense body relax against me, the familiar smell of strawberry coming from her. We stood there hugging for a minute or two before we broke apart we both cleared our throats and got back into the car to carry on to mine.
The drive was silent, I knew what Catherine called her to hurt her hit her harder than she's showing. I didn't even know her and Ryan had broken up, the last thing I heard they were going great and he wouldn't shut up about her, acting like she was God's gift to the planet.
"I'm sorry Rebecca, but your car is so messy, it needs to be cleaned." She pointed out like she has been holding it in and waited to tell me when I pulled up in the driveway.
"Are you being serious?" I asked back when I looked at her.
There were a few papers from science class sprawled over the back seat and a couple of empty drink bottles, and maybe there were numerously screwed up receipts.
Okay. Maybe she was right, it did need a clean.
"Wilson, it's getting done," she spoke matter of factly.
"Fine, let me get a black bin liner then," I spoke walking up towards the house.
I unlocked and pushed open the front door, walking inside to the kitchen I opened up the cupboard where we kept spare bags from shopping. Standing up I noticed a letter on the counter side, the handwriting on the front to be my mums. My jaw clenched together when I didn't read it and went straight back outside. This house didn't feel like a home when you'd wake up and wonder if you're alone or if someone was going to be there. In a house this big, it always felt empty for two people, not understanding why she never sold. My dad would always tell me it's because she was spiteful, she wanted to gloat how she won the house. She didn't bat an eyelash when the family animals came into it, all she wanted was the materialist side of the marriage. She wanted to look and feel wealthy.
Putting a smile on my face I went and joined Amanda back at my car, her face looking unimpressed. I don't know what more she wanted, I thought I was the perfect person to stand there and hold the bag open, and besides, she's the one who wanted to clean it not me.
We must have only been sorting out the papers and numerous things I wished to keep when at the end of it she decided for me, kind of like how a dictatorship goes. They make you feel like you have a say and go do what they wanted anyway, the inky good thing about this was... Her. Every time she bent forward to get into my car I would catch myself looking. It was a normal thing to do, straight girls check out girls all the time, it doesn't mean anything.
"You're a pig." She said placing her index finger in the middle of my chest before she made her way into my house leaving me to follow behind after throwing the bag into the bin.
We made our way into the living room her laptop already on her legs as we waited for it to turn on before we talked about the project. I joined her on the sofa, sitting a little too close for my comfort so I could see her laptop screen, the strawberry smell of her shampoo becoming the only thing that I could smell.
I watched her open up the document that contained all our information in the order of what the project was going to be presented as, and why no better than using ourselves as the source, the two of us best get extra credit for originality.
"So, anyone in your family got two eyes?" she questioned, while I tried to stifle a giggle at what she asked. Guessing her mind was somewhere else.
"Well, we all have two eyes," I spoke in a serious voice making her look at me strangely until she realised what she said.
"I meant, two different eye colours." She said looking up at me our face so much closer than I would have anticipated, my throat going dry as I tried to swallow and move away without her sensing my sudden internal panic
I cleared my throat a little, "The only member of the family to have heterochromia iridium is me and my grandfather, but it's skipped, my mum. And I know for sure my father's side doesn't have it. Mutated cells for you," I joked as she wrote down the bullet points
I watched as she got back to writing about her background where the Spanish came into her family. The words appearing quickly across the screen, making my eyes feel weird. I looked over at the T.V. Deciding to put it on but turning the volume down low so it was just background noise, my arm resting along the back of the settee behind Amanda's head.
"What does your surname mean in English?" I asked without thinking about it her head dropped back to look at me.
"DeCeno in English means Decene. Which is just a chemistry thing," she shrugged, guessing she has already been asked that question a million times over.
After half an hour the two of us got distracted by the television, concentrating on some sappy breakup programme, leaving me to roll my eyes at how cliché it was with the girl running after the man in needless hope for him to hear her out. To take her back and stay with her.
"You ever been in love, Wilson?" she asked me, catching me off guard as I looked down at her. Her eyes still trained on the T.V.
"Never really stayed with anyone long enough to know what love feels like." I answered without having to think about it, "have you?" I asked back making her look up at me, her eyes a deep shade of chocolate brown that had e]e s.lowly drowning in them.
What the hell is wrong with me? Mentally scolding myself, feeling like everything was falling on top of me with Amanda's mum asking our social status, then Catherine saying our meal together was more than a meal. My head felt like a whirlwind and this headache felt like my head was going to explode.
"Once, I was the only one in love, though." She replied her eyes looking into mine, as I stared back at her with hopelessness.
"What happened? If you don't mind me asking." Not wanting her to feel like she had to answer.
"Well at the time I was in a vulnerable place and she was a very manipulative person and still is. She said all the write things, did all the right things, except I was a pawn in her game and I got played." She shrugged, going around it brief enough you knew what she was talking about without revealing it.
"Well, as the saying goes. How true is really?" wanting to know the answer.
"Honestly and don't go by me on this, but no, it's not. The pain feels like its lasting for a lifetime, if you see them with someone else it still hurts no matter how long ago it was and as time goes on, that love is then replaced with hatred. You can never be friends with someone you was once in love with. Don't listen to the bullshit fairy tales." Her being as honest as anybody could get.
I just nodded my head slowly and took it all in, saving it in that special, cobwebbed corner of the brain labelled as relationships. If love ever comes around, I'm going, to be honest, I'm not looking forward to it.