Corey looked over to Nate for a cookie, who let out a loud sigh.
"Why can't anyone walk downstairs to get their own?" Nate complained, as he picked up a handful of pieces that had crumbled in his fight with Bailey. He walked over to the bed where Corey was and motioned for him to hold his hands out.
"Seriously?" Corey looked at him incredulously.
"I'm dropping these on your bed if you don't hold your hands out right now," Nate threatened.
Corey looked between Nate and his hands a few times.
Corey rather reluctantly held his hands out underneath Nate's.
Nate chuckled, "Wait, wait. Say "I'm Nate's bitch" first. I like this power." As he spoke, he made a few movements that made it look like he was going to drop the crumbs.
I rolled my eyes and fell back onto the bed at the same time Corey jumped up and tackled Nate onto the ground.
"So much for not spilling the crumbs," I said while watching them scuffle for a bit. I was about to turn my attention to the ceiling, but I saw Bailey up and heading over to the desk to steal Nate's remaining full cookies. She looked at me while getting back onto the bed and shrugged her shoulders, trying to look innocent before taking a bite.
"The crumbs, they're everywhere," Nate yelled in a high pitched voice in between fits of laughter.
Bailey was watching with a grin on her face, "I could marry his mom's cooking." She started licking her fingers and I couldn't help but laugh.
"You're cleaning up all of these," Corey ordered before he started to yell in protest of something Nate was about to do.
I raised myself off the bed, propping myself up on my elbows. They were both down on the ground and Nate had his hand up to Corey's mouth.
"Eat the crumbs,," Nate exclaimed and after a second removed his hand and Corey's mouth was closed.
"Did you eat them?" he questioned. Corey responded by spitting everything out at Nate.
I scrunched up my nose.
"Gross," Nate said before standing up off and running his hand threw his dirty blonde hair a few times, causing crumbs to fall out. I don't even want to know how they got there. Corey followed suit.
"Calm down Sparks, you're talking too much," Nate said, looking over at me with his light blue eyes and a smirk on his face.
I narrowed my eyes at him. Corey sat back down on the bed next to me, "Don't look for trouble," he warned the bumble bee.
He looked at Corey before throwing his head back and letting out a groan that sounded a lot like "Fine," he plopped himself down on the desk chair like a three-year-old that had been put in time out. I watched eagerly as he turned to look at the desk.
"What the hell? Where are my cookies?" He yelled with surprise and horror etched on his face, causing me to laugh.
Bailey raised her hands up, "Whoops?"
"I bring all those up and I don't even get one!" he glared accusingly at her. I took this time to finally speak.
"You had your mouth stuffed when you came up, don't act like you didn't get any."
Nate looked at me with a smirk and was about to open his mouth to talk until Corey butted in.
"Nate, don't," he warned.
"But did you hear that sentence? How can I not?" Nate argued.
I sighed "Do you only think perverted things
Corey cut in again, "I was telling Brooke earlier I think we should have a sleepover Friday..." he trailed, looking at everyone.
I quietly laughed, "A sleepover," I whispered, remembering teasing him about it earlier.
He must have heard because he pointed a finger at me. "King," he said, which brought unwanted thoughts from before and I immediately stopped. Just thinking about Nate being my king made me want to puke.
"That would be awesome. We haven't in awhile. Oh my gosh. Yes," Bailey yelled, now on her knees, jumping up and down on the bed.
Corey and Bailey high-fived. Nate, who was sitting with one hand propped on his knee and the other arm lazily resting over his leg, started clicking his tongue while looking directly at me.
"Is she going to be there?"
Alright, I take back what I said earlier about him not riding in my car ever again. Maybe just once, right now. We could take a casual drive to the park - lots of trees I could run him into there.
"She will probably not, if you're going to be there," I said, annoyed that he was asking Corey that and not me.
"Aw, why? Too afraid that you won't be able to keep your paws off me?" he smirked. I scoffed.
Was he really that disillusioned? The weather was lovely out for that drive, we could have the windows down. The sun might even be setting by the time we arrived at the park, providing great scenery.
"I'm leaving," I said, not answering him as I got up off the bed and straightened my clothes out. Bailey pouted a bit.
"I've got to get home for dinner, anyway," I explained and she gave me a hug before I waved bye to Corey and her.
"Bye guys," I yelled as I left the room. I heard an echo of "Bye's" and a "Sparks" after one of the goodbyes as I skipped down the stairs. I rolled my eyes before letting myself out and running across the grass to my own house.
I kicked off my shoes and walked into the kitchen where I heard my dad humming. I laughed when I saw him dancing around the table as he put silverware and plates down.
"Hey there Brooke," my mom greeted from the stove. I walked over and saw her pouring pasta into a bowl, my favorite. I followed her to the table where my dad was now seated.
"And dinner is served," she said in a horrible Italian accent as she placed the bowl in the middle of the table.
It was just the three of us and though it tended to get lonely, it was what I was used to. I couldn't really picture having another brother or sister - that actually lived here, that is. Bailey and Corey I counted because I'd known them all my life practically, but it wasn't technically the same. It was just Nate and I for a little bit growing up, but it was so far back I don't really remember it. To be honest we didn't socialize much, barely anything until Corey moved in when he was six. Three years later Bailey came into the picture. My laughter soon stopped though when my mom spoke next.
"How was school?" she asked and my dad's laughter died down. Question time.
Maybe I could play it cool, like nothing had happened last night. Ever since the incident that happened two years ago, I'd been having the dreams. They used to be more frequent but have started to die down and only pop up every now and then.
"It was fine, just your normal day at school. Why?" I asked, laughing a bit.
"Brooke, we know you had a nightmare last night. Are you alright?" My mom asked again, giving me that 'look'. The one that said 'You'd better not lie to me again, young lady'. So, maybe I won't going into any career fields that required you to lie...
That question made me sound like such a tough eighteen year old. Yeah right.
"It was fine, I'm fine," I stressed, digging into my pasta. Always with the questioning. He really needed to learn to come over quietly. Oh, and I don't know - not have a conversation with my dad on the way out in the morning. Then I could lie about having one, no problem.
"You sure, sweetheart?" my dad asked and I nodded. Was that why we were having pasta? A 'cheer her up' meal? I thought against it, figuring I was thinking into it too much.
I woke up the next morning at the sound of my phone,
'Love you, Brooke. Today's going to be awesome!'
Bailey was under the impression that if you started the day off with pleasant thoughts it would undoubtedly be pleasant. Her texts were my alarm clock. I loved her for her cheeriness.
Nate's car was apparently out of the shop because when I trudged down my front steps there was no blue eyed annoyance standing near my car. I smiled to myself at this, never again was that wasp riding in my car.
Walking up to the school, the wind picked up and started blowing my hair in multiple directions. I mentally groaned and ran my hands through it a few times to try to straighten it out and prevent it from getting too knotted.
"Oh baby girl, you look fine. Don't worry," I heard the voice of Mason to my left and a large grin erupted on my face. Apparently he wasn't too sick if he was here today. I ran up and was quickly engulfed in one of his hugs.
"Yesterday was not fun without you, don't do that to me again, Mason." I pointed my finger at him as we entered the building and headed to the lockers.
"Quite sorry. I'll put up my anti-germ shield now to deflect any future sicknesses, just for you," he said and then made a motion with his hands, acting like something was around him.
"Hottie at twelve o'clock," he said and I turned my head away from him to see Justin waiting at my locker for me.
"Hey!" I greeted happily as we walked up next to him. I opened my locker, maybe Bailey was right, today would be an awesome day.
"Want to go to a party with me Friday night?" Justin asked as I grabbed the necessary books for my first two periods. I looked over to Mason to see him winking at me, causing me to roll my eyes.
"Erm..." I drew out, not exactly eager to go to a party where he'd have a reason to dance and get close to me. A few of his friends came up behind him, chatting to each other but I ignored them.
"It's okay, how about we go to a movie instead?" he offered and I looked at his face. A chimpanzee could figure out that he looked a bit too eager to have me say yes. I wasn't dumb and after multiple questions like this that I'd received from him I knew why he wanted to go to a party or a secluded movie theatre.
"I can't... I've got, um. I'm going to this sleepover thing with some of my friends. I already told them yes, and uh, they would kill me if I bailed," I stumbled out faster than normal. Maybe I really did need to work on my lying skills.
Justin narrowed his eyes at me before glancing back at his group of friend and then to Mason. He took my hand and pulled me slightly away from everyone.
"Look, Brooke... " he started. Oh great. Apparently today wasn't going to be so lovely. I watched him as he raised a hand to the back of his neck. He was having trouble with this, I don't get why. It wasn't that hard to say, I managed it all the other times with his friends when they got annoyed that I wasn't as physical as they'd want.
"Look, the thing is..."
I'm looking. I've been looking.
"It's just, the thing is. Look." If he says look one more time, I swear. I rolled my eyes at his incompetence. I don't know how he managed to carry out plays on the football field, being a member of the team. Now, I half expected him to stutter up to the other team. 'Look, look. Let's just talk about this game, look.'
"It's okay, Justin. I know what you're going to say and you're right. It's just not working out, " I said for him.
His eyes shot up from his shoes and he looked at me, surprised. You're not really that hard to see through, don't think you're a mystery.
"But we could work on it?" he hoped.
"I don't think so, I'm sorry," I said before walking over to Mason who was still at my locker. I don't know where Justin's friends went. I shut my locker and sighed, another one down. I really didn't like the feeling of being alone, even if I never paid much attention to who my boyfriend was.
"Can I take a shot at him?" Mason asked, watching Justin walking away. I shook my head playfully.
"Sure Mase, whatever you want," I continued laughing as we went down the hall to our first period class.
When I walked in I saw Justin giving me rude glares. I didn't even think there was much of a relationship to be mad about. Regardless, I survived all of my classes without Justin murdering me. What had I done? I tried not to think about it too much and instead listen to my Chemistry teacher though he wasn't very interesting. I started to draw on my notes until I felt my phone vibrate. Pulling it out of my pocket I had two new messages.
'THIS IS GOING TO BE GREAT, I CAN'T WAIT. I'll bring extra snacks!'
I looked at the message I received from Bailey, confused. Brushing it off, I checked the next message that was from Corey that left me even more perplexed.
'I'm a man of my word, I'll take you out for ice cream.'
I was about to text back but the bell rang, signaling the end of school. I could ask them after.
Walking through the halls to get out of the school and to my car I knew one thing. The bee population in this school was overwhelming.
"Sparky!
I scrambled as fast as I could through people, trying to zigzag and make him lose my trail.
"So do you know what I heard?" Nate asked, catching up to me.
"If it's about Justin I don't want to hear you make fun," I narrowed my eyes at him as I pushed open the school's main doors. The breeze from earlier this morning hit me once again.
"I'd like to have some fun with you, " he wiggled his eyebrows and my mouth fell slack.
"God, " I groaned throwing my hands up to my head. I swear this a 24/7 type thing with him.
"I go by Nate, too. God makes me feel so, I don't know, superior but I just want to have a normal life, you know? " I walked quickly away from him. My second realization of the day: I needed to invest in bug spray. "But enough about me, I hear you're going to the sleepover Friday?" A large grin was plastered on his face and his words were coated in sheer amusement.
"Where would you hear something as stupid as that?" I stopped, looking at him. Was that what Bailey and Corey were going on about?
Nate looked at me like I was stupid. "Uh, you." The confusion on my face must have been obvious. "You said it this morning before crushing my dear friend's heart."
"How would you know that? Do you guys gossip like preteen girls or something?" I raised an eyebrow.
"I was there when you told him, Sparky. Seriously, you would miss a meteor if it fell in front of your face. You really need to open up your eyes and ears sometimes," Nate went on, but all I could hear was Sparky over and over again. I narrowed my eyes. I really wanted to choke that nickname out of him.
"I was lying, obviously. I'm not going," I clarified.
"Well, I don't know how Justin's going to feel if he finds out that you were lying but I do know how Core and Bailey will feel if you back out now. They were so excited when I texted them..." he drew out, his palms in the air in an explaining manor.
"You had no right to tell them that." I started hitting him with my backpack which only caused him to laugh.
"Not to mention, if I'm correct you said and I quote, 'they would kill me if I bailed'," he continued his laughing and I only hit him harder. Right as I was about to tell him off for finding this funny, someone else spoke up.
"Nate," Justin yelled and ran over to us. Nate's head whipped around to see who it was, "You coming over? We're all about to head out," his eyes travelled over to me and he glared. Nate must have seen because he started chuckling to himself.
"Yeah, let's go. See you later, Sparky," he said before turning on his heel to leave with Justin. I continued the walk to my car, fuming but not before I heard a few words between them.
"What was that about?" Justin seemed annoyed.
"Just had to pass a message to her from my mom," Nate answered, brushing it off like it was nothing. The liar. How was he able to lie so well and I wasn't? More reason to hate Nate.
Now, how could I get out of Friday?