We slowly walk back to Reid's house and get there in seemingly less time than what it to get to the book store. Not even in the house for a minute and my phone starts ringing. I hesitate, but answer it after a couple rings.
"I haven't seen you in two days!" My mother cries from the other end.
"Hi." I say calmly.
"Hi, nothing!" She shouts. "Where are you? Why aren't you home?" She sounded more upset than worried, and that only made me upset. Reid and I walk into the kitchen where I put down my book on the table, make a sign telling him "one minute" and I walk into the living room to answer my mother.
"Calm down!" I whisper/yell. "I'm practically down the block, you're acting like I ran off to China with my boyfriend or something. I'm only at Reid's house." I don't know why I bother trying to calm her down because I'm only getting her more angry with me.
"You may as well be in China with you're boyfriend because I don't know where you are and who this Reid kid is. Down the block or not, just a friend or not, this is crazy-"
"Take a breather, will you? And you say I overreact?" I say, pushing my luck a little but what do I care? She's already pissed off.
"Corah!" Ouch my eardrums. "That's enough." She says a little quieter. A little. "I would like to speak to his parents." Oh great.
"So would I."
"What? Aren't they there?" Oh crap.
"Uh, no..." Crap, crap, crap.
"What?!" Yep, there it was. "You're alone with this boy?" She was losing it.
"God forbid I'm alone with my science partner." I am to be yelled at for saying that but it was worth it.
"Yeah, well I'm quite convinced it's not just science you're doing!" Not worth it, not worth it. Oh, god she did not just say that. I hope Reid didn't hear that.
How could he? He's in the other room, dummy.
Oh, shut up.
"Mother!" I shout. Ok, he heard that for sure.
Your own fault.
Ugh.
"You have to come right now, missy." What the hell is a 'missy'. Sounds like something you would name a fat lazy pig. Reid! Oh ok, that makes sense.
"No, mom. I don't want to go home and I'm not going to." I lower my voice a little. "Reid's mom is gone, his brother's leaving and his dad's hardly around. I know what it feels like when people leave you. I'm not gonna be one of those people. His dad comes back Monday morning. I'll be home Sunday night." And I hung up the phone. I start to stomp out of the living room, my eyes on the floor, silently cursing at my mother. As I come to the doorway, I bump into Reid, who had been standing there, already.
"You heard that?" I ask, my eyes tracing the floorboards.
"Yeah," I look up, and find his eyes. "Corah, you don't have to-"
I cut him off by throwing my arms around his neck, and giving him an unexpected but well needed, hug. For a moment he's frozen, but soon raps his arms around me tightly. I feel my face flush red, and I'm glad he can't see me. A huge wave of emotions washes through me. If he wasn't holding me right now, I swear I would fall. I wasn't someone who liked to be touched, I feared hugs and ran away from human contact, but all I was thinking of right now was how I never wanted him to let me go.
That's not creepy.
Ugh. I hate my mind. Yes, I know I'm weird.
I get my thoughts under control and it takes every peace of sanity inside me to pull away from him. He looks down into my eyes and I just smile. He smiles back we walk back into the kitchen. We take the pictures we took from the waterfall and put them in our own little photo album.
The rest of the day is just a blur. Time really flies. We snap photos, play random card games, fool around in the back yard, and really just have fun, laughing and joking around. We each read each other a chapter from the book we bet on reading. It wasn't to painful. Just a little "cheesy" as Reid would say, but I couldn't blame him. Romantic stories are not something we admire, why we're putting ourselves through this? No idea.
It was almost 5:30 the next time I checked the time. My phone died and so I stole Reid's charger. Gladly, we both have Samsung. It was a bit colder out now and I didn't want to wear my shorts. I also did not want to encounter my mother. Ugh.
"Can I use your phone?" I ask him.
"Uh, yeah. Why?"
"I want to call my house to see if my mom is home but she'll recognise my number."
He looks confused but hands me his phone nonetheless. I dial my home number and wait for someone to pick up.
"Hello?" Came a man's voice.
"Hi, Bill. It's me."
"Cor-?" He started to say.
"Shhh. Is my mom home?" I ask hoping he doesn't rat me out.
"Yeah but we're leaving soon to go to dinner. Me, your mother and Kate." I let out a sigh of relief.
"Why?" He asks.
"When are you leaving?" I ignore his question.
"Like 5 minutes. Why?" He asks impatient.
"I need to go home for a minute." I explain at last.
"Do you want us to wait-"
"No!" I shout. "I mean, no." I say quieter. "Just get mom out of the house."
He sighs, knowing he's taking my side. Yes! That's one less adult I need to worry about. We say bye and I give Reid back his phone.
"I'm gonna go home for a minute and change and stuff. I'll be back." I smile at him and he throws me his keys. Still completely amazed he let me drive his car, I walk over to his side and to his greatest surprise and to mine as well, I give him a little kiss on the cheek, then skip out of the room leaving him looking totally shocked. It was hilarious. I laugh at my strangeness and start Reid's car, again, driving as slowly and carefully as possible. I cautiously approach my house, and make sure the car is gone before I pull in.
The house is empty when I walk in. Thankfully they took Katie with them this time. I run up to my room, shower, change into sweat pants and a t-shirt, shove a bunch of random stuff into a bag and all that stuff. I'm one of the slowest people in the world so I take about 30 minutes of walking around the house, mostly looking for my phone charger. Deciding that I'm pushing mt luck staying here so long, I run out the door and start Reid's car. I slowly make it back to his place and when I open the house door the smell of something cooking fills the air. In the kitchen I see table set, candles lit, and just to add affect, the kitchen light on dimmer. Oh, and Reid standing there smiling as I walk in. I smile at him and he laughs.
"What are you doing?" I ask, laughing with him.
"I made dinner." He says, leading me to my chair.
"Why?" I ask, sitting down.
"I, uhm, don't know." He smiles shyly. "I hope you like it." He places a plate in front of me, that had salad, steak and potatoes. How he did all this while I was gone? No idea. I must have taken longer than I thought. I try the steak and have to admit he was a pretty good cook.
"The food is good but were the candles necessary?" I ask as he sit down.
"Sure." He smiles. "Why not?" I don't even have to think about it.
"My mother and friends already think we're dating, you think this helps?" I laugh.
"Uhm, no probably not but, hey," He leans in closer and whispers, "they're not here." I smile and look away but I can tell he's still grinning at me.
"What?" I ask, after a while of him staring.
"Why do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Hide your face when you smile."
"Oh," I think for a minute but catch nothing. "I don't?" Was all I got out.
He laughs. "Liar. Yes, you do."
"Fine, I do. So what?" I end the argument but only to start an other.
"Don't. You have a beautiful smile." He coughs a laugh. "When you're actually smiling, which is never," He looks up at me. "By the way." He smiles and I fake a smile showing all my teeth just to be maybe a little annoying. Just 'cause.
After that we're quiet for a bit. Not awkward quiet, just quiet. Until I notice something I hadn't before. It wasn't entirely quiet. There was music playing softly in the background. I search the room with my eyes, looking for where it was coming from. I quickly find, Reid's CD player near the counter. I listen closely and learn it was playing The Script. He probably had the CD in. I smile at the special touch. This boy was truly extraordinary. I swear there was no one like him. This all felt so unreal I could be in a TV show and not even know it. Ladies and gentlemen, this was yet an other episode of Dinner With Your Science Partner, by Corah Faye. Thank you, have a good night.
****
Oh my god, what time is it? I look over to my side and find the time, but a cute boy. I will never get used to this. I need to stop falling asleep during movies.
You need to stop picking boring movies.
True. Wait, no not true. Reid picked that movie. That one was not my fault. I would personally not have chose, Jurassic Park. Let's just say, well, I didn't stay awake. I'd rather watch The Hunger Games over and over again. I let Reid pick that movie because he told me people died in it. Well, I would have rather died than watch the whole movie. It's not that I don't like dinosaurs, I just don't like watching movies about dead things that no longer matters. Which is probably why I don't like history, like honestly all those guys are dead, so who cares?
I sat up to check the time on Reid's clock. Omg it's 6AM I am going back to bed. My brain must be used to waking up early. Only, I've dragged on an hour longer than I usually have to wake up. Also, we started the movie pretty early last night, right after we finished dinner. Although, we ate at till like 6:30. Whatever.
I guess I do end up falling back asleep 'cause when I open my eyes again, Reid wasn't there. The covers were pulled back but his pot was empty. I quietly creep out of bed, and tip toe my way to the bathroom. I notice the door is open and as I approach I can hear humming for the inside and I know Reid is in there. I quietly peek through open door to find Reid checking himself out in the mirror. I couldn't help but let out a little laugh. Obviously, I was not ninja enough to successfully spy on someone and was spotted easily.
"Spying on me now, are you?" He asks smirking.
"British now, are you?" I say teasingly, with a fake accent. He growls at me in response. And now I smirk.
"So, what do you want to do today?" He asks, after a while. "My dad didn't give me a time but he'll be here late tonight or early tomorrow morning."
"Yeah, and I should be home for dinner before my mother calls the cops." I say and he laughs.
After we're both done in the bathroom, we go downstairs and I order Reid to make me pancakes and the smart boy does as he's told. After we eat we find ourselves sitting in the living room, wondering what to do, for the millionth this weekend. We end up turning the TV (a beautiful flat-screen, of course) on some reality TV show. I personally thought they were acting like snobs on purpose, I usually call BS (bullshit) on reality TV. Makes me think of my new how, Dinner With Your Science Partner. I swear, somewhere in this messed up world that's a real thing.
Somewhere? You're living it.
True, true. Very true.
"Have you ever heard of a reality show called Dinner With Your Science Partner?" I ask out of nowhere. Reid seems to be seriously considering it but eventually get's my reference and plays along.
"Staring Corah Faye and Reid Adams?"
"Yeah, that one." I smile but he doesn't break character.
"Oh yes, they've got some fine looking actors." He winks at me and I have to laugh.
"Oh yes," I mimic his fake accent. "Truly magnificent."
"Nothing like this crap acting." He motions to the television.
"Oh no, of course not." We smile at each other but our 'magnificent' acting stops there. I swear we are 'truly' gifted. Some people may call it strange, I call it special. Which in some ways, we definitely are.
Most Sundays are usually uneventful. So don't think this one was any more extraordinary. We watched movies (crappy ones), read books (crappy romantic ones), and stared at a plant for a good 40 minutes just to tell if we could see it move (which we didn't). We had lunch, watched some more terrible reality TV and it was soon almost 4PM. I kind of panic. I was never one to be scared of their parents. My dad never told me what to do and my mom was not intimidating. But for the strangest reason, I was afraid to go home. Not looking forward to her little tantrum she would pull (I learn from the best) and the speech she would give me. I couldn't think of why I was afraid. I had nothing to lose, really. But I finally came to conclusion. I wasn't afraid of her. I was afraid she would ban me from ever seeing Reid again. (Like that would stop me.) Plus, I don't really have a choice, I have to see him sometimes, 'cause that stupid, man eating plant we were supposed to watch (which was extremely boring, might I add). It was a school project, not much she can do about that. The whole weekend thing was a different story. Reid noticed I was uneasy.
"You ok?"
"Yeah." I said. "I just have to go home soon."
"Ok. Get your stuff. I'll drive you."
"Thanks." I get my bag and whatever shit I had hear and walk to the door, where Reid was waiting for me. As we got in the car I just stared at the dashboard. When he didn't start the car I turned to face him and notice he was looking at me.
"Are you ok?" He asked again. Not believing my first answer.
"I'm fine."
"Liar." He smiles sadly. I sigh. Then spill.
"My mom is already pissed." I start. "I don't really have many friends or people to hang out with. That never bothered me before. I was fine with just hiding from the world in my room. I don't want to do that anymore." I look ahead of me as I speak but I knew he was still watching me.
"My mother always pretended to be concerned about me. That she was sad I had no friends and never went out. But now that I am, I know she doesn't like it." I face him. "I don't want her to hate you." I laugh as if that was actually possible. "If she doesn't already." I add. At first he's quiet and just watched me. But in the end all he says is;
"Weather she loves me or hates me, weather you like it or not, you can't get rid of me anymore Corah Faye." He smirks. Looks away. Starts the car, and pulls out of the drive way.
I'm kind of terrified but in a good way. Which scares me. I shouldn't like the sound of that but I do, very much. Too much. I think about that the whole ten minutes to my house, that when he parks in my driveway, I don't notice until he says my name.
"Yeah?" I respond, snapping out of it.
"Do you want me to come in with you?" Ok, I'm out of it.
"No!" I say to quickly. "I mean no." I slow down. "It's fine. I'm ok, I promise." He looks unconvinced be gives in nonetheless.
"Fine. Go. Call me later." He says as I'm climbing out the car. I look back at him.
"I don't have your number." He smiles.
"Yes you do." I look at him confused. "I wrote it in your book." He grins then drives away. Oh, that boy.
I turn to face my door, slightly terrified. Ugh. Push all those emotions away and stomp in like the brat of a teenager, I am. My family is in the kitchen so I trudge pass them, loud enough for them to know I'm there, and head for my room. A few feet away from my door, Bill calls my name. I turn around and see him standing at the bottom of the stairs.
"What?" I say, a little to nasty. He looks at me convincingly, and motions for me to come back down. H wasn't mad so I give in and slowly walk back down the stairs and follow Bill into the kitchen. My mom was standing at the counter, starting to prepare dinner. She turned around when she heard me walk in. At first she was surprised, then relieved, now mad. Great.
"Corah Addison Faye!" She shouts my fool name. "Where on earth have you been?" I just listen and let her get it all out. "You can't do that to me ever again, you understand? I haven't seen you for days!" She looks a little more sad. "Look, I know you're mad about me working for Robert but this family needs it. And you can't just run away when you're upset with us!" She finishes.
"Nice to see you too, mom." I smirk, with a little too much attitude.
"Corah, this is not funny!" She shouts again, and I stare at the floor while she speaks. Bill pipes in, his voice quiet but meaningful.
"Running away will not solve a problem, it will just be here when you get back." They decide to teach me a lesson on running away, when really I was down the block for a weekend. My mom joins back in, yelling again.
"Yes, Corah Bill is right. You can't just run away from your life-" I look up at her my eyes like fireballs. That was it.
"You do!" I practically scream. "You run away from your life! You run away from everything, you leave everything behind. You leave me behind, you leave Kate behind and you leave behind every problem you had and just hope it's gone when you get back!" They try to speak but I wasn't done. "Yeah, yeah. It's for work. You leave all the time and it does nothing financially. There is no change in money! At all. So don't talk to me about running away when that's all you ever do and you leave your kids with a man you don't even know and barley trust!" I wasn't just talking to my mom, that was for both of them.
"Corah!" I had now upset Bill. "My brother is not a stranger." My mom joins now.
"Jeffery, has done lots for this family-"
My high pitch scream cuts her off. The bitch said his name. My mother and Bill are so shocked they just stare at me. I couldn't take it. I run to my room slam the door shut, lock it and run over to my bed. My tears burned my cheeks. Not like the tears of sadness I felt for my dad but tears of rage and sorrow I felt for myself. Tears of helplessness, my anger toward this vile man was perpetual. Through sobs, I heard my mom knock lightly on the door, and say my name as quietly and gently as she could. The fact that she was trying to sooth me, got me over the top more upset. She tries to come in but my door was locked. It's a good thing too. Because, this time when she whispers my name, I shout an other high pitch scream, take my lamp off my side end table, and throw it with all my force at the door. It crashes loudly, the light blub shatters and the rest of the lamp falls to pieces. I collapse back on to my bed and hear nothing but my own rapid breaths. Stupid of them to buy me an other lamp after what happened with the first one.
We haven't had a fight like that since the last time they left us with... Jeffery. Yes, that was his name. Bill's brother, aka the tormenter. Bill and my mother left quite often. But they've only left us with Jeff a few times. That's when they go very far away for a long time. If they're only a few hours, and only for a couple days, they take the chances of leaving me with Katie. Katie knows about my break-downs. She's seen them before. She was around when the first lamp was thrown, although I don't know if she remembers, she was young and it's been a while. But she no doubt heard me screaming tonight, and heard the lamp crash. Mother is probably talking to her now, saying that I'm fine and that everything is all right. Honestly, sometimes Katie knows me better than my mother. She knows right now that I'm not ok. She may be young but she's smart enough to see past my mothers lies. That's why, in some ways, we're alike. But now that she's getting older, I really have to look after her when Jeffrey is around. Usually, he just picks on me, but now I fear he could be after her as well.
The money thing, is also true. I've seen the bills. Those trips they're taking for "work", isn't getting them much money. I don't actually know who Bill works for, or what he even does. But his boss sends him hours away for two days and for some reason, my mother just has to tag along. However, the weeks away, around the world is not Bill's bosses doing. I strongly suspect Robert, trying to mess up my family even more. I have ever met Robert and one may find it strange to loathe someone you've never met but for me, it's pretty easy. My father used to leave for weeks, months even, of course he always said it was for "work". And I knew then, it was Robert sending him away. And know now, it is most likely him, sending Bill and my mother away.
How Jeffery got into this? No idea. He's never around the family. He's only around to "watch" us when the parents leave. He never visits or calls on special occasions. He had absolutely no care for this family. The only reason he agreed to be here was because my mom offered to pay him. Bill didn't think it was necessary but she insisted. She's so blind, she can't wait a terrible person he truly is. Of course, he's not his true self when they're around. What I don't understand is how Bill doesn't even know who is brother is. It's sad really. For Bill. He deserves to know.
I refuse to spend anymore time thinking about this stuff. The sobbing stopped but the tears were still silently flowing as I drifted off to sleep.
I could not have been more upset to hear my alarm go off that morning. I don't know where anyone was but I saw no one when I left for the bus. I was so upset and exhausted I didn't realize Reid wasn't there until I was almost at school. I had no patience for any of my teachers. If the teacher was waiting for us in class, I was upset to see them. If the teacher was late for class, I was upset they made us wait so long for them. I was probably grumpy all day. I almost skipped lunch but when I saw Lucas sitting at my table with the rest of the weirdos I sit with. He was chatting casually with Derek and Chris while Jade and Amber whispered to each other and giggled. I approached cautiously.
"Hey Corah!" Amber shouted and Lucas looked up right away and we smiled at each other. I went over and sat next to Amber. Jade was smiling like crazy.
"Tell her." Amber said to Jade motioning to me. She didn't have to tell her twice.
"Chris asked me to the dance!" She whisper/yelled. I could tell she wanted to scream it to the world but Chris was still at the table.
"Oh. Haha. Cool." I try to sound interested and fail but she's too excited to notice.
"Ah, I know!" She giggles "You should really come." Amber faces me. I look down, guilty.
"Are you-?" Jade starts. "Omg you are!" She exclaims and I wince. Damn she was loud.
"Are you going with Reid?" Amber asks excited but no where near as much as Jade. When I don't answer, Jade squeals.
"Shut up." I spit. "Or the entire school will know."
Chris looks this way, and so does Derek and Lucas.
"Is she ok-" He starts.
"She's fine." I answer to quickly. They look curiously at us then turn away. Jade and Amber keep talking, and Chris and Derek start to bicker. Lucas turns to me.
"Hi." I say.
"Hi, how was your weekend?" He asks. I panic.
"Uh, great! Yours?" Oh, I'm an idiot.
"Uh, not bad." He laughs. He's quiet, then looks back up at me. "So," He starts. "I got a game tomorrow night, if you wanted to come?"
"Sure." I smile. He looks relieved.
"Great. And I was thinking maybe we could hang out after the game and get something to eat or whatever." Hmm. I want to tell him not to push, as a joke. But the look on his face tells me not to. So I just smile and agree.
After lunch, school was boring and I went back to my I-hate-the-world mood, just not as bad as this morning. When I get home, I decide to call Reid, considering I forgot/wasn't able to, last night. Also, I hadn't seen him at school today so I was curious to know where he was. Once in my room, I search for my book. Right there on the first page, in clean, readable hand writing, was Reid's number, in my copy of Under The Water.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N
Omg that was a long chapter. Sorry and you're welcome? Idk lol.
And holy mother of molasses and sweet sorghum thank you so much for over 400 reads and 50 something reads! That's just crazy ily and blah blah blah yeah.
Last chapter was short and I promised you a long one so I think this is my longest chapter so far lol.
I will try to update weekly or more often. I'll do what I can!
Not edited at all as always sorry. If I have any huge mistakes please kindly point them out for me. Thanks!
Picture of Reid on the side, checking himself out in the mirror! (He's beautiful)
And song For The First Time by The Script, on the side.
Vote, and comment your favorite and least favorite part! Why not? lol.
I love you all.
Thank my fabulous pumpkinz.
Keep keepin it cool kidz XP