All About Him

Chapter 11: Persistence Sucks

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I was grumbling to myself as I entered my house. I passed my mom in the kitchen as she was scrubbing furiously at a speck stuck to one of the dishes. She looked up and smiled cheerfully. I waved back. It was always scary looking at her. It seemed like I was staring into a mirror that aged me twenty years. Although our physical features were almost exactly the same, our personalities weren't. She jumped up and happily wiped her hands on a towel. I hurried faster to the staircase. If I could get to the top before she could stop me... 

"Hi!" she said in an overly perky voice. I looked down at the mirror. Her copied green eyes twinkled. "How was school? Any cute boys meet your eye lately?" 

"School was good. No boys," I said fast and tried to go faster up the stairs. Sure, I loved my mom, but I didn't want to be all buddy-buddy with her. She was a mom, a mom that thought she was cooler than she actually was. She was a mom, that should just stay in the mom zone. 

"You know you can tell me anything," she said, still too perky. She stood in the kitchen doorway. How come she couldn't be a normal mom and simply be happy if her teenage daughter was just keeping out of trouble? 

"Nothing to tell," I said faster and galloped up the stairs before she could say anything else. I had a teenage attitude towards authority, I admit it. She should know that. She was a teen once! 

I threw my backpack on my messy bed and jumped beside it. I glanced out my window. The redwood tree was blocking my view of the neighbor's yard, as usual. I frowned and grabbed my history book on top of my desk. I had no excuse to procrastinate. I had to get my homework done. No one wanted to hang out with me, other than Eli, and I had returned all of my video games to the rental store. I did not want to do my homework right now. Eli had ruffled my feathers. 

Before I could even crack open the book, my phone rang. I cursed under my breath as I imagined Eli's voice on the other end. Strangely, it wasn't him. 

"Hi," a small voice squeaked. There was silence as I was trying to figure it out. The stranger revealed herself, "It's Isabella. You gave me your phone number in my sixth grade yearbook." 

I thought back to when I was in eighth grade. Now I remembered. That little sixth-grade girl with the glasses was always struggling in my eighth-grade science class. Okay, maybe she wasn't struggling, but I gave her my number just in case so I could feel better about myself if she ever did call. I hated it when younger kids were smarter than me. 

"Oh, hi, Isabella. What's up?" I asked. 

She sniffled and a sob came up her throat. I could practically hear the tears rolling down her cheeks and dripping off her chin. 

"What's wrong?" I was suddenly concerned. 

"Mark broke up with me," she sniffled and sobbed again. I heard some scrambling and then the honking as she blew her nose, hopefully on a tissue. 

"Aw, I'm sorry. This is all my fault," I mumbled to myself. If I hadn't asked Mark about Isabella, then they would have never gone out and this heartbreak woudln't have happened. It was amazing how great I was at causing heartbreaks. Eli wasn't the best influence on me... There I go again with the blame game! 

"No," she said quickly. "I would have rather gone out with him and lost him than never known what would have been. Thanks for your help even if it didn't end the way I liked." 

"Oh," I said, surprised. "So why'd you call?" 

"Just to talk," she squeaked. 

I smiled. Isabella was so cute. I talked to her about Mark and Eli. We talked about boys and their troubles. I even made her laugh a few times with some guy jokes. I got to know Isabella better than I knew most people just by a twenty minute talk about boys. By the end of our conversation, she knew every situation with Eli and how I felt about it. Or... how I said I felt about it.