Thirty-Three:
"Ugh, it's been an exhausting week."
Lauren's voice rang loudly throughout her house as we collapsed through her doorway, schoolbags in tow.
The house was quiet as we entered. That, combined with the missing cars from the driveway, let me know we were the only ones there.
I found myself smiling in amusement at Lauren's antics. "Are you forgetting it's only Wednesday?"
She let out a groan as we crossed through the living room and into the kitchen. "Exactly! We're only halfway through the week and I feel like winter break never even happened."
"I wish," I muttered, slinging my bag onto the counter.
Lauren gave me a warning glare over her shoulder before opening the snack cabinet. "Don't you dare get all mopey. Here, have some chips." She tossed me a mini bag of Doritos, the sight immediately lifting my mood.
I pried the bag apart with my fingers, racing to open it as quick as I could. "I'm not mopey! Just a little...bitter." I was a lot more than bitter, but I knew Lauren had just about enough hearing about my problems, especially ones concerning her brother.
I settled into one of the bar stools with my bag of chips, biting off the end of one while Lauren still struggled with choosing the kind she wanted. She seemed to finally make up her mind, traveling across the kitchen to me with a bag of Cheetos in hand.
"Okay," she announced, climbing into the stool on my right. "I should get started on all this homework before I'm buried alive."
"Right," I nodded. I reached into my bag for my overstuffed calculus notebook, knowing that I, too, had a lot to do .
The next hour and a half consisted of me attempting to sort through my math problems, only to be constantly interrupted by Lauren.
"What now?" I asked in exasperation when she whined my name for the tenth time.
"Hey," she glowered at me. "Don't get mad. You're the one that's good at math. I need your help!"
I rolled my eyes. "Fine. But after this problem I'd like to at least do a few of my own."
Lauren smiled sweetly, popping the last Cheeto she had into her mouth. "Of course."
I looked over the complicated set of numbers waiting to be sorted and graphed, heaving a sigh. "You need a graphing calculator to do this. You have one?"
She looked up in thought, her eyes flashing with realization. "Yeah, it's upstairs on my desk...will you go get it?"
The pleading tone she took on towards the end had me letting out a groan of despair. "Seriously? Fine, but I better have a Dr. Pepper waiting for me when I get back down here!"
She grinned in victory, her voice keeping the same saccharine tone. "Did I mention you're the best friend in the whole world?" She hopped out of the stool, skirting around the counter to get to the fridge. "I'll even get your soda right now!"
I narrowed my eyes as I rose to my feet, leaving her with a warning that was only halfway joking. "You better."
I started the deceptively tiring trek down the hall and up the stairs, my hand sliding along the metal rail with every step I took.
Lauren's room was at the very end of the hall to the left, directly across from the guest room that, once upon a time, Tyler used to stay in.
I pushed the white door open, the sight of Lauren's room never failing to amuse me. With vibrant purple walls and mounds of pink pillows and blankets, it was much more...girly than one would expect from Lauren.
I padded across the carpet, stopping in front of her desk in search of the graphing calculator. Annoyance quickly registered as I flipped through stacks of books and papers and said calculator was nowhere to be found.
I was seconds away from giving up when I spotted it, sticking out from underneath a paper-clipped bunch of pictures. I sighed with relief and grabbed it, about to drop the pictures back onto the desk when the top one caught my eye.
It was of Junior prom, last year. That I recognized right away, because I had stood next to Carly as she took this very picture. My eyes took in every detail. Lauren was standing next to Tyler, sporting a fake glare because she hadn't wanted her picture taken. What I'd never noticed before was Trent, and how genuinely happy he looked. Standing in between Tyler and a girl I recognized from my math class, he looked almost exactly the same as he did now, except for the fact that his hair was styled neatly and there was a full, grinning smile stretched across his face.
I ran my thumb across the picture, a frown coming to rest on my face. What had happened in the past year that was so drastic it changed his whole demeanor?
Sure, he'd been arrogant and obnoxious for as long as I'd known him, but he wasn't always so uncaring and sometimes blatantly cold.
It obviously had something to do with his parents; I'd gathered at least that much from the way he clams up at their mention and the tension that develops when they're in the same room.
I pondered over it more and quickly grew frustrated. It had been building for weeks now along with my confusion, like an itch I couldn't quite reach.
But what? What could they have possibly done to make him hate them so much, and did the answer to that question have any relativity with his commitment issues? The same issues that ruined whatever I thought it was we had.
I jolted up and dropped the picture at the sound of a door slamming. Calculator in hand and confusions set aside, I moved to the doorway.
I peeked around the corner hesitantly, surprised by the sight of Lauren's mom. Her back was to me, thankfully, and she was standing in front of Trent's closed bedroom door.
I assumed Trent storming into there was the cause of the slamming noise. It was probably also the reason that she held her palm out in front of it, as if she'd tried to stop him from shutting her out moments before.
I heard her sniffle, letting me know she was either sick or crying. Given the situation, I was going with the latter. The sound made me hyper-aware of my movements, paranoid she would spin around at any second and see me.
The top of the stairs opened up right next to both Trent's and his parents rooms. I needed to get down there, but there was no way I could get by without being noticed and forced to suffer through an awkward encounter.
For that reason, I decided to play it the safe way and remain partly hidden behind Lauren's bedroom door until she left. And, okay, I'll admit I was a little curious as to what was going on.
After a few seconds passed, Mrs. Blake raised her knuckles to the wood of the door and knocked lightly. "Honey...Trent. Please talk to me."
She withdrew her hand from the door, bringing both up to rake through her normally perfectly styled hair. In all the times I'd been around her, I don't think I'd even seen her this shook up.
I watched her lean closer to the door again with a loud sigh. "You can't be mad forever, hon. Nothing can change the past; all we can do is move past it, as a family."
She might as well have been talking to a ghost, because it was radio silence on his end. The door didn't open, and there was no other sound until she heaved one last sigh and moved away.
I retracted further back into Lauren's room when she turned, padding the short distance until she reached her own room. I didn't move until I was sure she was gone, her bedroom door softly but firmly shut behind her.
Left once again with an empty hallway, my mind began to race. So it was about him and his parents.
Something had happened, and it was bad enough that Trent seemed to be unable to move past it.
The burn of my curiosity was getting too intense to handle, and I knew I was going to have to get some answers.
I wondered if this was connected to whatever it was Trent was so desperate to explain to me, or if he was just wanting to feed me some excuse as to why he did what he did.
Either way, I was too much of a coward to ask him about it, so I would have to go to the next best source.
Lauren.
...
I tried to return to the kitchen casually, despite the fact that I'd been upstairs for over fifteen minutes.
Lauren looked up from her phone at the sound of my footsteps. "Find it?"
I nodded, raising the long object in my hand as proof. "Yeah. Took me a while, though. You failed to mention your desk was a black hole of papers and trash."
She gave a sheepish smile, spinning slightly in her stool as I slid back into mine. "My bad. Sorry. Also, I'm sorry if you happened to hear my mom and Trent, which you probably did."
My face must've said it all, because the gleam in her eyes dimmed a little. "You probably didn't know how much they fight."
I flipped through the pages of my notebook haphazardly, trying to make myself seem only halfway interested. "Yeah..." I answered. "Why is that?"
Lauren's eyes fled from mine, down to the scattered papers in front of her as she avoided my gaze. "It's a long story," was all the answer she provided.
My eyebrow raised in surprise. Lauren and I never really kept secrets from each other (besides her fake boyfriend last year, that is), so it shocked me that she wasn't saying anything more. I tried to stop the hurt from trickling through me; I knew whatever it was must be too personal, even for me, but it still stung.
I blew a strand of hair out of my face, resigning myself to the fact that I would find out whatever this was all about, it just wouldn't be today.
"Whatever, then," I said with a shrug, purposely bumping my shoulder with hers. "Let's just get back to our homework. Maybe now I can do a few problems in peace."
I added a little extra teasing to my voice as I finished, relieved when it brought Lauren's usual grin back to her face. "Yeah, yeah," she said, picking up her pencil once again.
Yeah, well, doing my homework in peace never really ended up happening, but it wasn't Lauren's fault this time.
My phone buzzed just minutes later, drawing my attention to the front pocket of my jeans. I fished it out, remembrance and guilt hitting me simultaneously when I saw Austin's name flash on the screen.
"Shit," I muttered, slamming my notebook shut.
Lauren looked up in confusion. "What?"
I slapped my forehead in annoyance before typing out a response as quick as I could. "I totally forgot, I'm supposed to be meeting Austin for coffee."
She frowned, sitting up straighter. "Austin? Why?"
I started gathering all my schoolwork, which proved rather difficult due to it being spread all across the bar top. "Just to talk. We've been hanging out a lot for the past week." I didn't want to mention he'd been helping me almost forget about Trent.
Her nose wrinkled. "You can talk to me. Or Carly, or Lily. Not the guy you technically dated."
I rolled my eyes, standing up. "We only kissed once. It was pretty obvious to us we're only meant to be friends, anyway."
She still looked skeptical. "That's really weird. Isn't he with that girl, Allison, now?"
I shrugged. "I think he wants to be, but she's been sending him mixed signals." I sighed when she didn't say anything else. "Lauren, it's not that weird. You still hang out with Brandon!"
"Brandon's gay!"
I laughed, scooping all of my stuff into my bag. "Okay, you got me there. But it's fine. We're just friends now, really."
She grumbled under her breath and began hastily gathering all of her homework, too.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
She gave a shrug. "If you're leaving, I might as well be done for the day, too." She slung her school bag over her shoulder, brushing by me and walking towards the living room. "I have like 3 episodes of Vampire Diaries to catch up on, anyway."
I followed her, grabbing my can of Dr. Pepper from the counter at the last second. "You're not mad, right?"
She looked at me from over her shoulder, an almost smile toying at her lips. "Nope." Then she raised her voice to where she was practically yelling. "I'm totally fine with you abandoning me for Austin!"
I flinched in surprise at the volume of her voice. I opened my mouth in confusion for a split-second, before my eyes widened with understanding. "Lauren, what the hell is your problem?!"
I heard the opening and shutting of a door from upstairs, bringing a devious smile to her face. "You go have fun, I'm going to go watch my show now!" She even had the audacity to blow me a kiss, leaving me speechless as she dashed up the stairs.
I had the odd fight or flight feeling, a big part of me tempted to run out the front door as fast as I could.
I squashed the part down, though, and forced myself to act casual as I walked a few feet and stopped in front of the hallway mirror.
"I didn't know you were here."
I patted down imaginary hairs on my head, trying to remain unchanged when his reflection appeared behind me. "My cars been out front," I said emotionlessly.
"Oh," he gave a short, harsh laugh. "I guess I was focused on other things and didn't see it."
I didn't say anything, only giving a nod of acknowledgment. My eyes flicked up in the mirror, allowing myself one look at him before returning to my own reflection. The one look let me see his jaw clench; from what emotion, I wasn't sure.
"Are you really about to go see Austin?"
I gave a short laugh of my own, no humor present within it. "I'm surprised you got his name right."
"Audrey--hey, would you at least look at me?"
I spun around. "What?"
Facing him was a big mistake. I breathed in, taking in a big whiff of his familiar scent. The smell, a woodsy cologne along with some sort of mint, brought back unwanted memories.
I blinked, hard, blocking it out and regaining my composure. His dark eyes pierced mine, visible anger clouding over his face. "Are you really going back with him, even after what he did to you with that girl?"
I felt my phone buzz in my pocket again, reminding me that Austin was still waiting and I was bordering on 20 minutes late.
My mouth dropped open. "Really? You're going to say that to me right now? At least he didn't sleep with someone who I thought was my friend, on my birthday!"
His eyes widened, threatening to suck me in. "I--"
"Just stop," I cut him off. "I have to go."
He sighed. "When are you going to just let me talk to you?"
Never. I couldn't handle it. "Not now."
I turned, slipping around him quickly and striding towards the front door.
I felt his footsteps falling fast behind me, making me increase my pace and wrench the door open when I got to it. I let it fall shut, hard, behind me, hoping that would deter him from following any further.
I briefly stopped and squeezed my eyes shut when I heard the door open again. "Audrey!"
I didn't turn back, and I was secretly proud of myself for that, because it took a lot of willpower.
I had just reached the drivers side door of my car when he yelled something that shook me to my core.
"I didn't sleep with her!"
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Well then, how about that?
This update is a bit overdue so I'm sorry about that, but the good news is...after I get through finals next week, it's summer! And, of course, that means wayy faster updates...there's only a few left tho, cherish them ;)
Hope you guys liked this chapter!