Fair warning, don't hate me.
I really want to see your comments on this one, it's important! Love you all!
|| Chapter 19 ||
Breakfast is a loud affair on weekends during the summer. Mom and dad are usually home and now that everyone is home, Girls Brunch is on again in the family. This Saturday it's Mom, Charlotte, Olivia, Quinn, Courtney, Sophie, Maddie and myself that are piled into the car on top of each other as we cruise down the street to Brenna's Café. Harry and Natalie left early this morning but promised to be back for the big fourth of July barbeque that my family throws every year so that is something to look forward to. Maddie seemed to have warmed up to Natalie by the one-armed hug she gave her as she was leaving and Natalie finally understood my personal bubble and left me with a high-five instead of a hug.
Brenna's Café is a personal favorite of my mom's. When my parents first moved out here after they had graduated from college, my dad had a job already set up at a high profile law firm before he graduated but my mom still had to finish medical school. So, she decided to move with my dad and get her PhD here in California instead of New York, where they're both from. Since she didn't have a lot of money, no matter how much my dad racked in, she got a job at Brenna's and she's been a frequent guest ever since she became a neurosurgeon.
"Brenna!" Maddie yells as she jumps out of the car and sprints towards the old lady standing by the front door, seemingly waiting for us.
"Hi Maddie my sweets, how are you?" She doesn't have to bend down since old age has caused her figure to hunch over but she still leans her head down so that she's in height with Maddie.
Maddie holds a loose arm around Brenna's waist and squeezes her tight. "I'm good."
I walk over to them leisurely with a relaxed smile on my face, "Hi Brenna."
She grabs a hold of my hand and squeezes gently, knowing I'm not one for hugs.
"Brenna Babe! You don't look a day over fifty!" Olivia shouts from the backseat as she pushes Charlotte out of the car.
Brenna's smile widens, "Olivia, always the charmer."
My mother is the last one to get out of the car. She's digging through her handbag, her purposely messy bun obstructing her face. "Hi Bren, sorry we're a little later than usual, apparently I've raised a bunch of narcists that had to fight over the mirrors this morning."
"Mimosa?" Brenna's one worded question gets a sigh of relief from my mother.
"You have no idea how much I love you right now," My mother says with a serious demeanor as we walk into the quaint café.
There's only ten tables spaciously situated around the room with a swing door leading in and out of the kitchen. White table cloths sit on the round tables with small bouquets of wild flowers as center pieces. They're community tables but we're a big group so we usually take up an entire space by ourselves.
Once we're all seated and mom is handed the first of many mimosa's we all start talking about everything.
"Wait, wait, wait, you can't say stuff like that and just move on," Olivia rambles off half an hour into our brunch. "Explain the whole story!" Everyone chimes in agreement as we all turn our attention to the youngest one at the table.
Maddie shrugs, "He said that I had pretty eyes, there's not much to the story."
Courtney's mouth drops open in outrage. "'Not much of a story?' Girl, I wish a boy would tell me I have pretty eyes, all I get is 'nice butt'."
"Maddie, marry this boy-." Olivia is interrupted by my mother.
"Uh-uh, there will be no marriages of any kind. Maddie, if you learn nothing else from me, learn this. Just because a boy tells you that you're pretty, doesn't mean that he's your forever, okay? A boy doing anything kind or sweet in general is not something to fawn over." I look over at my mom, enraptured in her advice, "Now, if a boy tells you that he thinks you look beautiful after you've thrown up on his favorite pair of sneakers, now that's a different story," she winks at Maddie with a sly smile.
"Is that what happened with you and dad?" I ask with a fond smile on my face. My parents don't always like to divulge small moments of their relationship but whenever they tell us something new it just makes that much more sense as to how they're perfect for each other.
My mother smiles in response and I find myself smiling back. "Now, what are the plans for this weekend? Anything interesting?"
"We're going to a gettogether at Cole's house, he's invited a few people from high school," Charlotte informs her.
My mother nods her head and turns to look Maddie and I, "And you two?"
"Nothing much," Maddie replies, tearing off a piece of her croissant and shoving it in her mouth.
Mom's eyes land on me, I shrug, "Meeting up with Isaac at the skatepark, he wants to hangout."
"Ooooo," Olivia says, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. I give her a blank stare in return but that doesn't scare her as she continues to lift her eyebrows high.
"Can I come?" Maddie asks, perking up in her seat.
"No," I shut her down fast.
"Why not? You promised you would take me skating sometime, I'm still learning how to get on the board," Maddie argues back.
"Because you're annoying enough at home, you don't need to be around me all the time," I tell her, exasperated. She looks down at her lap and fidgets with her fingers. Crap. Now I feel bad.
My mother doesn't say anything as she looks back and forth between us keeping her stare on me for a few seconds longer.
"Okay fine, come with."
Maddie lifts her head up with a grin, "Yay."
|| ✨ ||
My mother drops us off at the Hill Street playground near the neighborhood skatepark, late in the afternoon as she heads to the hospital for a patients' surgery.
"Good luck, Mom!" Maddie yells as we step out of the car with my skateboard and Sophie's old skateboard. My mom waves goodbye as she turns in the parking lot.
Maddie looks over at the playground where a couple of kids are chasing each other around the swings. "Wanna go play instead?"
She rolls her eyes, "I don't play at playgrounds anymore, Tess, I'm older now."
"You're like ten," I look at her, confused. Why does she have to act like she's all grown up already?
"So? You're almost seventeen and still draw on things you're not supposed to with permanent markers," she gives me a knowing look. I'm about to retort when she throws her hand in the air waving at someone in the distance. "Isaac's waiting for us, let's go!" She hoists up her skateboard and starts running towards him.
I keep my casual pace and end up getting there a few seconds later. Isaac is leaning against a half-pipe with an confused expression on his face as Maddie rambles on to him.
"Maddie, chill." I say, walking up to them.
Isaac looks over at me and smiles, staring at my outfit, "Well don't you look dashing."
I roll my eyes, "Shut up, I had a family thing this morning." I fidget, pulling my sleeves down a little, feeling self-conscious.
"You look great Tess," Isaac says, dropping the 'cool-guy' façade.
"I said shut up," I say again, starting to feel agitated with the compliments.
Maddie is standing impatiently next to the skateboard with her helmet in her arms. She looks up at me and smiles, the excitement shining in her eyes.
"Can I ask you a question?" Isaac blurts out.
"Shoot." I kick up my skateboard and grab it, turning to face him.
"Why are you single?"
"Can I get on now?" Maddie asks.
I startle for a second, fumbling with the skateboard. "Put your helmet on first, you know the safety rules," I reply to Maddie before giving Isaac my attention, "I'm not interested."
He rolls his eyes, "Yeah, I gathered that, thank you."
"Then why do you ask?" I look over at Maddie who pulls her blonde hair back and uses a hair-tie on her wrist to tie it up and out of her face.
"I'm just curious, I mean a ton of guys like you," he shrugs, placing a foot on his skateboard and rolls it back and forth.
"Now?" Maddie asks impatiently and I find myself slowly getting annoyed with her.
"Give me a minute Maddie, until I can help you." I fold my arms over my chest catching Isaac's eye. "So? Am I supposed to go out with them because they think I'm attractive?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"Obviously not, I'm just saying like even Drew is crazy about you." He looks at me as if waiting for my reaction, like this is somehow shocking news to me. Maddie lifts her head up to look at me with wide eyes and I find myself grabbing Isaac's shirt and pulling him away from snooping ears. He holds on my arm but doesn't fight back as I shove him along with me.
"Can I get on?" Maddie asks, staring down at the skateboard.
I can feel Isaac's hand on my arm tense as I turn my head to look at her, "Just give me a second and then you can get on, okay?" She huffs in annoyance but nods her head in understanding. As soon as she looks away I lock eyes with Isaac, "Who told you that?"
"Tess, no one has to tell me anything, it's pretty damn obvious that he's practically in love-" I cringe at the word but it doesn't stop him, "-with you."
"Isaac, I get that you're new here but you seriously don't know what you're talking about, Drew and I already tried-" my voice is cut off by a scream and I loud scraping sound followed by a thud and then a piercing scream that causes an immediate lump to form in my throat.
Isaac's eyes are wide as he lets go of my arm and pushes me to the side to run behind me. I feel like I move in slow motion as I turn around and see Maddie lying on the floor, clutching her arm to her chest, screaming in pain. The skateboard slowly moves across my path, knocking me out of my dreamlike state. By the time I realized that I'm moving again I'm already kneeling at Maddie's side.
"What happened? Are you okay?" I ask in rapid succession, trying to examine her arm.
Isaac has his hand under her head, trying to put her into a sitting position. "Maddie, I need to look at your arm to see if it's broken," his voice is soothing but drowned out by Maddie's sobs. "Maddie, please." This time she shakes her head mumbling incoherently about how much it hurts.
"Munchkin," the nickname catches her attention and I try to relax my gritted teeth at seeing her in pain, "we need to look at it."
She stares at me for a few seconds, glancing back and forth between myself and Isaac, scared to trust him since he's unfamiliar to her but I only nod my head and she takes a deep breath letting Isaac look at her arm.
Isaac touches a certain spot and Maddie yells out a fresh wave of tears trailing down her face. He looks up at me and shakes his head once. Broken. Fuck.
"Okay, we have to call an ambulance, I don't have a car."
"We'll take mine, ambulances cost way too much nowadays," he rambles.
"I don't give two fucks about how much it costs, she's hurt!" I argue back, dialing 911.
|| ✨ ||
Man I hate hospitals. The stench of disinfectant and sick people always made me uncomfortable. The last time I was in this hospital was when Charlotte needed surgery after she tore her ACL at a softball championship. I use to come here a lot when I was a kind but I mean who wouldn't go to their mothers work to visit her?
"Tessa!" I hear my mother's voice from down the hall. I stand up quickly as she runs over to me, still in her scrubs from surgery. "Are you okay? What happened? Where are you hurt?"
I brush her off of me, "Mom, I'm fine, it's not about me."
She pulls back, looking up at my face in confusion, "I don't understand."
"Maddie, she-she fell off the skateboard and hu-." My mother's eyes widen in panic.
"Maddie got hurt? Where is she?" I point to the doorway I was just standing in and she rushes in, seeing Maddie lying on the bed with a sling around her arm.
"Regina! What happened?" My mother asks, recognizing the nurse as she rushes over to Maddie, kissing her forehead and whispering to her.
"Hi Clara, it seems that Maddie fell off her skateboard and landed on her arm, breaking the bone-." My mothers sharp intake of breath matches my own. Maddie shrinks in the bed, looking out the window.
"Were you watching her?" My mother rounds on me.
I take a small step back, "Yes, I was."
"Then how did she fall? You know she can't skate yet and that you should have been right next to her in case the board slipped out on her."
"Mom, Isaac was asking me a question and I told Maddie-," my mother cuts me off.
"So you weren't watching her?" Her hard tone makes me freeze.
"I told her-."
"Were you watching her yes or no?"
"No," I grit my teeth trying to not get angry.
"Clara!" My father's voice is hear from outside the door and she walks around me with a blank expression, out the door.
"Maddie, baby, I'll be back in a second, okay?" Maddie nods her, not speaking. Mom closes the door behind her so that she can talk to dad without us hearing anything.
"You couldn't have stuck up for me?" I ask Maddie. She doesn't say anything. "I told you not to get on the board until I was there and you couldn't even listen to me for two seconds," I hiss, letting my anger control my words. "Now I'm the one that gets the blame, great thanks sis." I walk out of the room and am stopped almost immediately by my furious father.
"Too busy talking to a boy to pay attention to your little sister?" His question is sarcastic as he keeps a straight face. "Well?"
"No I wasn't," I snap back at him, "I told her not-."
"Don't use that tone with me," he scolds, interrupting me.
"Would you just let me fucking speak?" I shout at him, sick of getting interrupted again and again.
My mother's mouth drops open in shock and my fathers face is like a stone wall. "Sit down. We'll deal with you after we've taken care of your sister." I sit down on the hard plastic chair with a scoff. He raises his eyebrow at me and I ignore him, looking down the hallway.
They walk into Maddie's room and I can hear their murmurs along with the nurses but I can't make out what they're saying.
"T!" I hear my name being called as footsteps rush towards me. Sebastian, Charlotte and Sophie come to a stop a few feet away from me. Charlotte is the first to speak. "What happened?"
"Maddie fell off the skateboard and broke her arm," I tell them icily, still agitated from my father.
"Were you holding onto her?" Sophie asks, looking at the door leading to Maddie's room.
"No I wasn't." I don't even have the energy to explain anything anymore.
"Well why not?" Sebastian asks, getting annoyed at my short answers.
"Because I was talking to Isaac," I reply.
"Isaac? Why did you let her get on when you weren't paying attention?" Charlotte asks in confusion.
"I didn'-" Once again, because it hasn't happened enough already, someone interrupts me.
"She could have gotten seriously hurt!" Sebastian's voice raises the more agitated he gets.
This agitates me even more. "News flash, she was hurt and I tried-," I tell him, attempting to defend myself.
He rolls his eyes in annoyance, "You were supposed to be watching her."
"And I was!" I raise my own voice and repeat the phrase I've said too many times in the last hour. "I told her that she-." I cut myself off mid-sentence knowing that I'm fighting a losing battle, "You don't even give a shit about what I'm trying to say, you've already blamed me for everything, just like mom and dad couldn't give me two seconds to explain myself. You know what, fuck this. Fuck you and this whole fucking family." With that I storm down the hallway and don't stop moving until I'm standing in front of the parking lot.
"Tess? Everything okay?" Isaac asks from where he's sitting on a bench outside the building.
"Fine, I need to get out of here." My reply is clipped and I don't stop walking to see if he's following me.
He catches up and walks next to me, jiggling his keys. "Where to?"
"I don't care." We climb into the car and I slam the door a little too hard.
"Tessa, what happened?" He asks quietly. Putting the car in gear and driving out of the hospital lot. We cruise down the street for a few silent seconds.
"It doesn't matter." My phone pings! and I glance down at it seeing a text from Harry.
Heard about what happened, I turned the car around and am on my way now-what's going on? -Harold
"Okay, no-go-zone, I respect that." We're quiet for a another few minutes. "So what were you saying about you and Drew earlier, before the accident?"
I sigh, looking away from the window and back at him, "Why do you care so much anyway?"
"Because he's like whipped for you, and I feel sorry for the guy," Isaac shrugs, stopping at a red light and looking over at me. Ping!
Tessa, come back to Maddie's room. -Dad
Three seconds later my phone starts ringing with a picture of my mom and I on the called ID. I let it ring. She leaves a voicemail.
"When we first met," I take a deep breath, "We tried-I wouldn't say dating but something like that." Isaac leans back in his seat, raising an eyebrow at me. "We didn't say anything to anyone and it only lasted a few days-it's green." I tell Isaac, pointing at the light. He snaps out of it and looks ahead, continuing down the road. "He said he didn't like me like that and that we were better off as friends, and I agreed."
"But did you really agree?"
"Yes, I don't like Drew like that, I never have. Everyone always talks about how if you're best friends with the opposite gender then you have to be in love, so I thought that that was how it was supposed to be, you know? But I couldn't even pretend to be romantically in love with him for two days, he's my best friend for crying out loud!"
Ping!
Did you leave the hospital? Come back, please -Char
Ping!
Where are you? -Seb
Isaac doesn't say anything for a few minutes as he pulls into a packed convenience store parking lot. There's a few high schoolers hanging around there cars, playing some music and messing around.
My phone pings! and I look down, seeing a message from Drew.
Charlotte called, where are you? -Drew
I drop my phone in my lap. Of course she called him.
"I need a coffee," he says, opening his car door. "You want anything?"
I shake my head.
Ping!
Just let me know you're okay. -Soph
"Okay, when I get back, we'll talk some more, just hang tight," with that he closes his door and walks into the convenience store.
I'm fine. I text back to Sophie, dropping my phone in the cupholder.
I am so sick of talking. My attention is turned to the teenagers I saw when we were pulling in and notice that a few of them are from my school. A familiar face comes into my view and I find myself getting out of the car and walking over to the small crowd, leaving my phone in the car.
The girl I recognized as the receptionist from the gym that night Drew fought that prick is standing in the middle of the circle with a jumbo Slurpee in her hand as she tells a story. A few people notice me and stare with wide eyes, turning back to their friends and whispering.
The girl turns around finally and sees me standing at the edge of the crowd. "Hey, Tessa right? Cool to see you again." Her friends start frantically whispering to each other, gesturing to me every few seconds.
I nod my head lightly, "And you're Addison." She nods her head energetically, probably from all the sugar in those Slurpees. She's wearing a plain navy blue t-shirt with white shorts with a bright blue stain on it. Most likely the Slurpee.
She laughs, "That's me, I was just telling me friends about the time you kicked that guys ass at the gym. That was so awesome."
A random girl with black hair wearing a crop top and ripped black shorts puts her hand in the air. "Wait, wait, wait, that girl was Tessa Hayes?"
Addison looks from the random girl to me with a weird look on her face. "Yeah, so?"
The random girl slaps her thigh with a laugh, "Well that makes a lot more sense! Tessa is a badass!" A few of the girls voice their agreements and even some of the guys nod their heads.
"Why did you do it?" A girl with glasses asks.
I shrug, uncomfortable from all the attention, "He was asking for it." They all nod their heads as if this was the only acceptable answer that I could have given and continue talking for a few minutes.
"Damn Tessa Hayes, didn't know you were Miss Popular," Addison jokes coming to stand next to me.
I cringe, "I'm really not."
"That's not what the peasants think," she gestures to all of her friends with a laugh. Some of them curse her out or just throw up their middle finger. I don't comment on it and just keep quiet, my thoughts racing through my head. "Hey you okay?"
"Yeah fine, just a shitty day."
"Hey guys we better go! Dylan's house in five!" A guy yells from across the circle and everyone starts getting up and throwing away their trash.
The random girl sees the confusion on my face and elaborates, "Dylan Michaels? He's throwing a party tonight at his place, his parents are in the Maldives for the next few weeks." I nod my head in understanding, turning to head back to Isaac's car. He's standing at the cashiers counter, checking out.
Addison looks where my gaze was directed and back at me, "Boyfriend?"
I scrunch my nose, "God no, just a friend."
"Well then, want to run away for a bit?" She asks, her friends standing around her with smiles of their own, nodding their heads along with Addison's invitation.
I look back at Isaac and see him shoving some bills in his pockets as he walks towards the doors.
"Yes please, quickly," I say, walking up to them.
The girls cheer in response and run towards the cars and I find myself almost excited to get away for a bit.
"Tess?" Isaac asks seeing me about to climb into some random persons car. "What are you doing?"
An arm pulls me into the car at lightning speed and I land roughly on the backseat, knocking into someone. "Drive Will!" Addison yells, her hand still gripping my arm as the random girl with the black hair leans out the passenger window and shuts my door.
"Tess!" Isaac shouts walking faster towards the cars now.
"Bye!" The random girl yells out at Isaac as Will punches the gas, tearing out of the parking lot.
The rush of adrenaline slowly starts to wear off the farther we go. I can't believe I just did that. I smile to myself.
|| ✨ ||
It's not all fun and games with the Hayes Family.
If I'm being honest I think this is probably the best chapter I've written for Tessa's story, you really get a better look at Tessa and how she reacts to certain things. That she can also crack sometimes, she's not made of steel.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter, let me know what you think. Your comments are my favorite things to read!!
Sammipott xx