War of the Roses

Scene Four

It's only seven in the morning as my phone lights up with a FaceTime call. I groan as I reach for it from beneath the covers, already knowing who's calling by the ringtone they'd set. The beginning of, "We Don't Believe What's On TV" by 21 Pilots blasts through the room. I manage to snag the phone, sitting upright while pushing my hair out of my face.

No makeup, blurry eyes, and bedhead is what they'll get if they insist on calling me so early I think to myself as I slide my finger across the screen accepting the video call.

Dusty grins at me through the screen. "Ha! Told you. Pay up." He says to someone off screen. I can hear my youngest brother's annoyed groan as his eyes appear at the top of the screen.

"Nooooo, Andi. Why are you still sleeping? It's 10 am." Oliver hands Dusty a vinyl record as I watch bewildered.

"Oliver it's 7 am here. I'm still on the west coast."

"What?! Dusty you lying, piece of---" Oliver tackles Dusty to the ground knocking the phone over so it's looking at the rotating ceiling fan.

"Ohhkaaay!! What happened? What did I get pulled into?" I hold my phone closer trying in vain to see what's going on. "Guys cut it out."

Dad's face appears over the phone looking at it curiously. "Hi Andi. Didn't know you were going to be calling home today. Picked an odd time to do it. I was just going to meet your mom and head into work. She's at the store right now." Something crashes nearby and I can hear Dusty and Oliver pushing each other into things while yelling east coast euphemisms at each other. My dad doesn't even glance in their direction.

"Uhm, yeah, odd timing. How're things at the store?" I ask politely.

"They're good, your mom's still holding out that this will be the year you come back and take things over so we can retire but I keep telling her you're really happy out in the smog. She's pretty persistent though so it might be a good thing she wasn't here when you called." Oliver and Dusty are visible in the background again, smiling this time.

"Do you still have that mace I bought you? I can send you another one if you've run out." My dad offers.

"Dad. I'm glad I have it but I like I've told you a bajillion times, I haven't used mace since I came down here. I used more mace back home than I have here." I explain for the umpteenth time.

"Well that's bear mace. I don't imagine there're many bears in LA." He teases.

"Honey! Are you there?" My mom's voice booms through the house. All of the men in my family instantly look guilty like they've been caught chain smoking or drinking moonshine.

"Don't look like that she'll know!" I hiss waving frantically at the screen. Dusty grabs the phone handing it quickly to Oliver. I can see the panic in his eyes as he turns left then right before handing it to the next closest person.

My mothers face fills the screen causing my stomach to sink.

"Andrea. I didn't know you were calling. How many weeks has it been since you were bored enough to call us? How's the smog?" My mother asks, smiling sweetly. I'm not fooled by it for a second and if I were in the same room as my brothers I'd be kicking each of them like they were a football at kick off.

"Hi mom. I just, really wanted to say a quick hello before work." I say gritting my teeth. This is the one setting where honesty won't get me anywhere good.

"Well hello. Have you called to tell us good news? Are you finally making it big?"

"Yeah you know things are really great right now. I met this amazing guy the other night at a big party. He's a producer in town for a big show. We really hit it, off. But, obviously I can't say anything about it, confidentiality rules and everything." I hesitate. Man, she's going to see through this. I'm so bad at lying. What is it that Greg always says when I call him on it, he's not lying, just embellishing the truth to make it more interesting.