Chapter 14
The next morning I didn't go to school. I faked sick and told my mom my
throat
hurt. She bought it and I was home alone for the day.
Around 10:00 I
crawled
out of bed and pulled my hair up into a ponytail and off of my
sweaty neck.
I
went down the stairs and into the kitchen when I fixed myself
a bowl of Lucky
Charms and a glass of orange juice and sat down in front of
the TV. I flicked
it on and started channel surfing.
"And today, love relationships gone
bad!" Jerry Springer yelled to me. "Now
our first guest today is named
Angela, now Angela, I hear that you are in
love with your best guy friend."
"Well, Jerry I was. I did like him for a while but now that's over," the
huge black woman on the screen told me.
"Now what's your man's name?"
"Michael."
"So why did you want to bring him onto the show?"
Jerry asked.
"Cause I want to kick his *beep* ass," she yelled,
"He fooled around with
me and then he goes and sees another woman!"
The audience booed. I couldn't
believe that I could relate my life to the Jerry
Springer show.
This show is the decay of society I thought as I sighed.
"Well, let's bring him out....here's your friend Angela, here's Michael."
The audience taunted Michael as he sat down.
"Y'all can shut
the *beep* up," he yelled.
"You can," yelled Angela as she
got up out of her chair and stood in front
of him.
"Look *beep*
move your fat ass," he told her. Angela threw her hands up in
the air and
smacked him across the face.
The audience went wild. Michael got
up and
pushed Angela back. By now, Steve, Jerry's personal body-guard had
come on and
was restraining Angela. I flipped the channel.
I didn't want to
see anymore
because what was sad, was that I could see myself and AJ being
on that show.
I looked at the screen and saw Barney.
"I love you, you love me, we're
a happy family. With a great big hug and a
kiss from me to you, won't you say
you love me too." He sang as he swayed
back and forth with the children
that surrounded him.
"Oh my god...Barney is happier than I am,"
I said as I turned the TV off. I
got up and decided to take a bubble bath.
I ran warm water into our claw foot bathtub and added some strawberry
bubble
bath. I got in and sat there smelling the sweet scent of
strawberries.
*
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
"Hello?" I said as I picked up the phone.
"Hey E, where were ya?" Jess asked me.
"I didn't feel well,"
I said. Half lying, half telling the truth. I didn't
feel all that well but it
wasn't like I was sick.
"I know about what happened last night,"
she told me.
"Who said?" I asked as I fiddled with the collar of
my hoodie.
"AJ."
"Really?" I was surprised he'd
even mentioned it to her.
"Yeah....so you gave him all his stuff back?"
"Uh huh, I don't want to be reminded of him anymore."
"Well,
I can understand that."
"Yeah, I just can't keep doing this. It's
like we break up to make up sort
of. It seems we're always apologizing to each
other. But whatever..." I
said, my voice trailing off.
"Yeah...you
have a point. Well, I better go but I hope you're feeling
better soon."
"Oh, I already am," I said with a smile.
"Kay, well I'll call
you after I get back from the gym," she said.
"Bye."
"Bye." I said as we both hung up the phone. No sooner had I hung up then
did the phone ring again.
"Jess what do you want?" I asked
into the receiver, I was sure it was
Jessie again.
"Well, I just
wanted to tell you what a sweetheart my boyfriend is," said a
girly voice.
"Bri! Give it up," I said laughing.
"Okay, okay, but Jess
will be saying that after she finds out what I've got
in store for her!"
"Really, what's that?" I asked.
"Well, you know her b-day
is on Monday right?" I looked at the calender. I
couldn't believe it was
almost the 19th of April.
"Well, I'm gonna throw her a surprise party.
It's going to be at Nick's on
Friday night. Do you think you can help spread
the word?"
"Sure, who do you want me to tell?"
"Anyone
who's Jess' friend."
"Alright, will do."
"Okay,
well I'll see you later, I'm going to go pick up some decorations
with Howie."
"Kay, See ya!"
"Later Skater!" Brian said just before
he hung up. I couldn't believe
Jess's b-day was coming up. I had no clue what
to get her. I figured I'd
pick up something from Club Monaco. She always liked
clothes, or maybe a
Baby G watch, like her blue one that broke.
I didn't
have a clue. I flopped down on the couch and opened up my YM.
"Ten ways
to make him yours," I read. I shut the magazine. I didn't want to
even think
about guys at this moment.
"Hey, I'm home!" Angie called as she
burst through the back door.
"Hi," I said as I got up and walked
into the kitchen. Angie kicked her
shoes off, threw the mail on the counter and
then ran upstairs. I walked
over and started to sift through the mail.
A
bill, another bill, Hannah,
mom, dad, dad, bill....me. I picked up the white
envelope. It didn't have a
return address. All it had was my initials LKD done
in handwriting on the
front. I flipped it over. There wasn't anything. It was
completely unmarked.
I slid our letter opener under the flap and carefully
pulled out the letter.
"Dear AJ," I read. Dear AJ? I read on.
"I've had some things I've been wanting to tell you for a long time. I
don't
know how else to tell you these things, other than to be honest with
you."
I stopped. It was the exact letter I had written to AJ and thrown in
the garbage
at school. I scrolled down the letter until I got to the very
end where it said
"I know..." and there was a little B at the end. At first
I thought
it was Brian but then I figured he wouldn't do something like
that. Then it hit
me.
"Jesus, that stupid Carter kid..." I mumbled as I threw on
my Nike sandals
and made my way out the door, over to Nick's house, to throttle
him.
