The next morning I woke up early, so I stayed in bed a bit, until I couldn’t take it anymore, so I turned my MP3 player back on and scrolled through my song list looking for a slow song until I decided on Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri. I picked my computer up off the floor and logged on. I decided to check Facebook to see if anyone replied to my post last night.
I smiled when I saw Carly Fisher was the only comment.
Sure, I need a new outfit for Kate’s party!
Carly wasn’t a close friend, but she wasn’t an annoying popular girl. I clicked on the white space to comment.
Great, that’s what I need, too.
I went to fashion designer to check the time I had left on the dress I designed yesterday morning and was surprised to see that it was ready to be taken off the manequin. I clicked on it and decided to design a new one.
I clicked on the job icon and read a job I had to do. It would take 24 hours to make, so I continued and designed a cute straight skirted dress with one shoulder in a dark purple color. It was sexy!
“I ought to find a dress like that. It would look amazing on me, especially with my pale white skin.”
Just then the song “100 years” by five for fighting came on. I loved that song, but I didn’t really need to think about… no, not gunna think about it. I switched it off and smiled at the next song, which was “A drop in the ocean” by Ron Pope and the district.
“A drop in the ocean,
A change in the weather,
I was praying that you and me
Might end up together.”
I have loved that song since it came on at the end of an episode of the Vampire Diaries once.
When I looked back at my screen, I had a chat message from Carly.
Carly Fisher: hey! So we going to the mall?
Me: Yup! ill pick you up at noon?
Carly Fisher: um… would it be okay if we head out sooner? I don’t want to be stuck her much longer.
I knew why that was. It was no secret that Carly didn’t have the lifestyle Katie or I had. Her dad left when he found out her mom was pregnant with her, and her mom’s been drinking since. If it weren’t for Carly’s job at Olive Garden, they wouldn’t have their small apartment. She was really smart, and had a full scholarship to the university of Virginia, but she wasn’t an anti social nerd r anything (not that there’s anything wrong with nerds).
Me: hey, why dont you just come over right now? We can hang here, watch TV for a while until the mall opens.
I had to wait a minute before she replied
Be there in five minutes.
Then she was offline.
I felt kinda bad for Carly. Carly never got hit at home or anything, but she has come to school with bruises scattered on her body from running to her room when she saw her mom drunk. Carly was a little timid, but I liked talking to her anyway.
She had a home life that was the exact opposite of mine. I had two happily married parents who worked a lot. My dad was a Lawyer, which made us enough money to get by, but Mom still had her job as a nurse at the ER.
Then there was Luke. After me and my brother, my parents couldn’t have any more kids, which tore my mom apart, because she always wanted a lot of kids.
I looked at the time which was 7:30. I took a quick shower in my bathroom and then turned on some faster, funner music I could dance to while I got dressed. “D.J. got us fallin in love again” came on my speakers and I jumped around doing some fun dance moves as I got dressed in a ruffled light blue tank top and white shorts that came mid-thigh. My hair was still wet when the doorbell rang.
I ran downstairs and let her in. she looked around and I realized that she had never been in my house before.
“Wow! Your house is so nice!” I laughed. This probably meant that she’d never been to Katie’s house.
“Katie’s is better.” She looked at me and smiled.
“Thank you for letting me come over at such an ungodly hour. My mom had an episode last night and you do not want to see my mom with a hangover.”
“No problem, Carly.”
“So why don’t you go shopping with Katie? Not that I mind going with you or anything.”
I nodded. “Katie’s getting ready to pack for college. Besides, this way I get to buy her present.”
We started walking to the family room which had a backdoor that we could see the backyard through. She looked outside and smiled. “You have a pool? I love swimming!”
I looked at her. Her dark hair was a little messy and she had a huge jacket on covering her clothes. “We can swim later if you want. But how about right now, I take you upstairs and let you brush your hair a little better.”
She nodded enthusiastically. I didn’t want to take the time to get it pretty. My outfit also doesn’t look very good. Blue and white zebra print doesn’t go very well with brown sweat pants.” She giggled a little and I smiled.
“No problem, you look about my size.” We rushed up to my room and she got to work brushing her hair while I found a cute outfit for her to wear. I chose a yellow and black striped short sleeved shirt and some light blue short sorts. She put them on and I had to admit that she looked better than me.
She looked at my necklaces and I looked at the mirror, checking to see how I looked. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her hold up a necklace, but I couldn’t see which one.
“Can I borrow this?” I was about to say yes as I looked up, but then I saw which one it was. The gold heart locket with a half of a pearl embedded on the front. It was beautiful, but I never wore it because of where it came from.
“NO!” I walked over and snatched it out of her hand before I knew what I was doing. She looked scared for a moment. Then whispered an apology.
“I’m sorry, Carly, I just, it’s a really special necklace. I don’t even wear it.” She looked at me and I could tell she wouldn’t push for any details, which made me glad.
I took a deep breath before changing the subject. “So, did you eat anything for breakfast, or do you want to make pancakes or something?”
As if on cue her stomach growled. Or maybe it was mine. All I knew was in the next few minutes we had a plate each of steaming pancakes and homemade maple syrup.
“So, Carly, where do you want to go first? Pennies has cute clothes if you know where to look.
She smiled. “There’s actually this one store I like that no one else really goes to very often. It has these really cute dresses that I’ve had my eyes on for a while. It’s really cheap there, too.
I nodded.
We hung out at my house for a while. My mom and dad woke up and went out to work after stealing the rest of our pancakes.
At about ten o’clock the mall opened so we headed out at ten thirty after watching some dumb werewolf movie. It was kinda creepy but Carly kept laughing at it, so I figured I just didn’t get the jokes or whatever.
We went into the entrance through the food court and she towed me to the end right by Pennies in the second story. There was a small store I had never even noticed before, but since it’s right in between J. C. Pennies and Holister, I understand why.
We went inside and Carly ran to a dark red strapless dress that looked like it would go to just above her knees. It had criss-cross type design on the bodice. I looked at the price tag expecting at least fifty bucks, but instead read only thirty dollars. “You should buy it! It’s cute and cheap!”
She looked at it longingly but then shook her head and said, “no, I can hardly afford it.”
I looked at her like she was crazy, “then I’ll pay half.”
“No, I can’t let you do that. You go look for a dress for yourself. I’ll find something else.”
I shook my head. “No, you can consider it an early Christmas present. Now go try it on!” she looked at me and then sighed as she reached the rack to find her size. Once she found it she went to the dressing room and I looked around for a dress.
It didn’t take long. I decided to look for a purple dress, and the store was set up in a way where the clothes were sorted by color. In the purple section, one of the first dresses I found was a dark purple dress with only one shoulder strap and what looked like slashes on the sides, then under it was a light pale lavender lining with a shoulder strap on the other side. I tried it on and it came down mid-thigh and the light purple showed a lot, but the dark was dominant. I loved it, and it was only thirty-five dollars so I bought it.
I walked out of my dressing room stall and saw Carly standing, looking at herself in the mirror. I walked over quietly and said, “so I would go with a side ponytail with that. That would be really cute.”
She stood up straighter and hugged me quickly. “Thank you for your offer to pay, but I will just pay for this myself.
I looked her in the eyes. “You sure?”
She nodded and I did as well. “But you really look amazing. That dress is perfect.”
We changed back into our regular clothes and bought our dresses I already knew exactly what shoes to wear with it, and I told Carly that she could borrow a pair from me if she wanted. I looked at my watch and saw that it was only twelve o’clock. “Hey, you want to go get some food really quick before going to look for Katie’s present?”
She nodded, so off to the food court we skipped.
That afternoon Carly came back to my house and Katie came over, too. We went swimming for a few hours, and then Katie drove Carly home. And I went up to bed.
The next day I got on my computer and checked my email. I had a new message from Luke.
Hey sis,
I will be there in a week or so. Don’t tell Mom and Dad though.
Luv ya, see ya soon,
Luke
I smiled at the thought of seeing my brother again. I wanted to call Katie so bad, but decided to let him show up on her door step with a rose or something. She didn’t even know about my contact with him.
Their relationship was always complicated. When we were seventeen, they sort of fell in love and in fact, she was there the night he got arrested. She says that he got in a fight because of her. She won’t talk about it much, but the night it happened she came home with Luke after he got bailed. She told me what happened later when we were safe in my room.
He had taken her to the park that was close to her house and they watched the sunset, and you know, did whatever couples do at parks. When it was dark they started walking back to her house. They had to walk past this alley right by a liquor store, and there was a drunk man there, and he came towards her. He was saying stupid stuff and when he wouldn’t leave them alone, he touched Katiie’s arm and Luke (who was a black belt and on the school wrestling team) hit him. One thing led to another, and pretty soon the guy needed an ambulance.
So that was how my brother got arrested. Katie is mad because she thinks it’s her fault he left. If I told her I’ve had contact with him she would feel betrayed.
I thought for a moment. He would probably try to be here for her birthday on Friday. I hoped so. I missed him.