CHAPTER 26 - DRAMA
"So." I started playing with my fingers in front of me nervously as I sat opposite of my parents on Breakfast "My birthday is in a couple of days..."
My dad nodded but his eyes were still focused on his newspaper "Yeah we know. You're turning seventeen. You're almost an adult now" He looked up at me "That brings upon big responsibilities you know that right?"
Ugh, of course he would say something like that which only would make whatever I wanted to say next sound totally childish.
Nonetheless I nodded "Yeah I know." Come on Chloe you got this. You just have to handle it right. Use the right words. Be smart. Be –
"Can I have a party?" I said before I could stop myself, totally not handling the situation right and sounding like I was begging. Smooth Chloe. Really smooth.
Of course my parent's reaction was exactly what I expected; Sock and mostly confusion.
"A party?" my mom gasped out and the way she spat the word was like I had just said something unthinkable like... being an atheist.
Oh my god, what would she do if I ever said that? Kill me and herself I guess to save our family from the 'embarrassment' I guess.
"Yeah like... uhm... a house party?" I asked more than said.
I was ricking too much by bringing this topic up but the truth was I was being forced to. Okay, not exactly forced to but close enough. Annabelle and my friends wanted me to have a party for my birthday and convinced me to ask my parents. In other conditions, say if I had never met Ryder West, I would think this was more than a bad idea. But right now it seemed like a good idea. I never really had a party, not even when I was a little kid. Usually on my birthdays my parents would call all of my family members to our house to celebrate. At first, when I was like ten, it was fun since I got to have many presents but then I got bored of it and the idea of my birthday's only made me hate them.
But I was hoping now that I turned seventeen they would let me have a real one. I'm guessing... not?
"A house party." Repeated my mom chuckling and shooking his head. "Where is that coming from?"
I shrugged, feeling self conscious from their staring "I just... I thought it will be... fun to do something different for my birthday since all we do every year is invite our relatives."
My mom looked at me offended "Chloe Anderson are you saying you don't want to be with your family, who you haven't seen in ages, on your birthday?"
Well... yeah that's pretty much was what I was saying; "No it's not that-"
She shook her head disappointed "You don't know how heartbroken Aunt Liz is gonna be when I tell her."
"No please don't tell-"
"And besides it's...impossible, it's not gonna happen. You know how we feel about parties and all that kind of 'entertainment' that goes against God's will." Oh no, not again with 'God's will'.
"Also." My dad piped in "We already booked a table in advance a month ago at Chef's Table in Brooklyn Fare. You know how hard it is to book seats right?"
"We were gonna keep it as a surprise since we know you love Chef Ramirez's food but only because I wasn't expecting a last minute change of plans from you."
Great. Now, not only I was mad at them but I was also felt kind of guilty too. "No it's okay." I end up apologizing "I know how hard it must have been to book the seats so... never mind."
They both nodded satisfied with my answer and went back to eating their breakfast not even bothering to at least discuss the possibility of a party.
When I finished my breakfast I headed to the school with Seth none of us making the effort to start a conversation mostly because if we did we were gonna end up fighting. When we arrived I went to find Annabelle and tell her our plans hadn't go how we imagined.
Surprisingly she took it... 'well' –probably because she didn't even knew if her parents were gonna even let her come in the first place if I had a party. "it's okay." Annabelle tried to assure me, the disappointment clear in her voice. "To be honest I didn't actually believe they were gonna let you have a party either way because..." she paused "well because it's your parents we are talking about."
I closed my locker and gave her an apologizing look. "I know. I'm sorry."
The truth was; I was sorry. I was sorry for not being able to hang out with her once more because my parents were strict. I was also pissed off. So, so pissed but I knew better to not taking out on the others.
"Then... what do you want to do? See a movie on your house or something? We can do that right?" She tried to make "movie" like it was something fascinating, but we both knew she was just trying to cheer me up.
"Sure, that would be... fun."
She smiled. "Great." She said and we both headed to the Biology study lab and sat quietly in our seats waiting for the teacher to come.
"Dude c'mon put it before Mike comes!" One of our boy classmates whispered at another.
"Yeah, yeah ok. Where is he's bag?" Oh great. Another prank. What is this 6th grade?
Me and Annabelle looked at each other and rolled our eyes as the rest of the class began to fill and the teacher stormed inside late.
"Alright everyone." He said "Settle down. Sorry I'm late, let's begin." He begun taking attendances and when he was done he asked us to put our books out and begin dissecting a frog.
Both me and Annabelle looked at each other disgusted and I rested my head on the desk, lazy to pick up my bag and shuffled through my it to find my biology books. But as I was trying to find my book, my hand rested in something gooey and I froze, taken aback.
I looked down and grabbed my bag, putting it on the desk, my hand still inside it. I opened it more, put my books out and gasped at the sight of it. Immediately I got up from my chair with a scream and it drew everyone's attention as they all turned to look at me confused and kind of freaked out. Annabelle got up from her chair too as fast as I had at the sight of an alive frog gagging and foaming in my bag and my books.
"Ew!" she exclaimed her face full of disgust as the teacher came to our desk.
From behind me two of my boy classmates groaned.
"Dude I told you to put it in Mike's bag!"
I turned around and looked at them confused, taken aback and angry as hell. They had put the frog inside?
"I'm sorry Chloe." Apologized the one of them "I didn't meant to."
I chuckled annoyed; "Oh yeah, I'm sure you didn't meant too." I said sarcastically "I'm sure you meant to put it in your friends bag because 'hey here's something productive for today, I'm gonna put the sick frog inside my friend's bag so it can puke and oh isn't that just so funny?' right?" I groaned "God what is this? 'Trying to piss off Chloe Anderson's day'?"
Everyone looked at me taken aback and the boys said nothing just stared at the floor embarrassed. The only person who talked was the teacher who agreed with me and gave me a hall pass to go clean up myself and my belongings.
I took it and stormed out of the classroom, wanting to actually cry from the annoyance. The Day so far had went from bad to worse and usually I wasn't the kind of person who let small things like that get to me. Most likely I would just ignore it and said everything was fine, it was just an accident when the only thing I wanted was actually express how I really felt. I guess today was that day.
I shoved my bag & books inside my locker after I had cleaned them up and not finding another way to control my anger I started taking it up on my locker slamming it shut, then open it, then slamming it close again.
"Wow, what did that locker ever did to you." Said an amused voice from behind me.
I sighed "Not now Ryder."
He chuckled and leaned against the locker next to mine "Okay I see you need some extra tampons for your bloody rude attitude."
I looked at him offended "That's not-" I began to say but once I repeated it in my head I realized it was kind of funny and I crack a smile not matter how much I tried to hold it back. Damn him!
He laughed "Now that's better."
"Whatever." I said still smiling.
"So..." he smirked "Who got your panties in a brunch?"
"Stop it." I warned him
"Oh come on, no need to PMSing."
"Ryder -"
"Chill woman alright I'll bring you some tampons."
"Shut up." I cursed laughing and he looked at me taken aback and amused before joining too.
"Seriously though." He said "What's up?"
I shook my head. "Nothing, It's nothing."
"Tell me, its fine. I won't tell anyone." He promised
"It's... embarrassing." I said referring both to the biology accident and to my parents not letting me have a party.
"More reason then to tell me."
I sighed and decided to tell him since I knew he wouldn't let this go easily "Well my parents..." I started telling him firstly feeling like a completely idiot that I was admitting something like that to Ryder. From the other side though... I wasn't exactly embarrassed to tell him something like that. Ryder –thankfully- was open minded and he heard me out. He always did. He understood.
"I don't get it." He said, leaning casually against the wall when I finished "Won't you be seventeen soon? You'll almost be an adult, your parents can't force you to do something you don't want. Or tell you no to something that you want in this case."
You clearly haven't met my parents. "Yeah, this isn't how we work in the family Ryder." There were no 'no's' or 'buts' or fights in our family. This is how we worked. My parents told us what to do or what not to do and we just... did it.
"Did you try telling them that you want to spend your goddamn birthday with your friends?"
I gave him a flat look. "What do you think?"
He sighed "Right."
I shrugged "its fine."
"What else?" he asked me and I looked down the floor embarrassment.
"Nothing."
"Chloe." He warned me
I sighed "Fine. But it's embarrassing okay? One of my classmates put a sick frog on my bag and it puke on everything but actually he wasn't supposed to put it in my bag but on his friend's bag because he thought it was funny or whatever and I may or may not yelled at them and embarrassed myself in front of everyone and...yeah." I looked up from the floor to him embarrassed and I was surprised to see annoyance in his eyes.
"You should've told me that first cupcake. What's his name?"
"He's name is 'there's – no –way – I'm – telling – you –that – just –let –it –go – it's – fine." I said immediately knowing Ryder would definitely want to have a... 'word' with him.
He chuckled, looking at me amused "Well that's a pretty unfortunate name for a sixteen year old wanker."
I chuckled "Be nice."
He scoffed "Not such fucking promises."
He leaned closer taking a piece of my hair that had fall in front of my face and twist it around my ear making my breath catch in my throat. It was the first time he had touch me in that way for weeks and I found myself disappointed when he took his hand away. Did I actually... wanted him to touch me more?
"I got to go." He said "See ya later?"
I nodded "Y-yeah." I mumbled.
He walked down the hallway and right when he was about to turn around the corner he stopped and turned to look at me, a smirk playing on his lips as he had just thought another comeback for my previous... attitude. This one was definitely the dirtiest; "Then we can discuss what kind of affect I have in your panties."
My face flashed and I looked at him taken aback as I saw his smirk growing wider. Then I did something I'd never thought I would. Something definitely not lady like and something that made his laugh echo in the hallway.
I flipped him off.
What a jerk.