Betraying my Brother

Playoffs

That morning I woke up with a puffy face and red eyes. I felt so stupid for falling for Jason. I should've known this was going to happen. I put jeans on with my brothers soccer sweatshirt from a couple of years ago, and quickly slipped my feet into my Uggs. Both the games to decide whether the Raiders and the Buckaneers play each other in the championship were today. If we won there was going to be a congratulatory party at Ricky's. We were all told to wear school colors, and for once I didn't care about the outfit I would choose.

I looked in the mirror and felt as if I was slapping Jason in the face because of the number and colors I was wearing, but I didn't care. He hurt me.

I walked down the stairs and was surprised to see my dad sitting at the table. "Hey, baby girl," my dad said as he turned around before going back to making pancakes. Pancakes were only made on special occasions. Andy came downstairs and kissed the top of my head before sitting at the table. He was wearing his soccer warmups, and I almost cringed when I saw the sweatshirt. The designs don't change much with the years, so we were more or less matching. We hated matching.

"Go sit down, sweetie. The pancakes are almost done."

I sat across from Andy and he smiled up at me. "We're matching," I stated. My voice sounded raspy. I cleared my throat and grabbed a water.

Andy just shrugged his shoulders, "It's cool. It's a special occassion."

I looked at him strangely before turning to my dad, "Why the pancakes? And no offense dad, but why are you home?"

"Well, you're brother has a pretty big game tonight, and I can't make it," of course, "So I decided to make pancakes as a good luck charm."

"Oh nice," I tried to smile, but looking at Andy's face, I knew I failed.

Once dad finished the pancakes, he laid them out on the table. Andy grabbed five pancakes and right after spreading butter all over them, he started shoving them in his face. I looked down at the one pancake in front of me with syrup and pushed it away. "What's wrong, AJ?"

I looked over at my dad to see him looking at my plate worriedly. He was right to. I never turned down his pancakes, espeically since he rarely makes them. "I'm just not that hungry. Thanks, though. They look really good. Andy I'll meet you outside." I grabbed my plate and threw it in the trash before grabbing my backpack and the keys. I automatically sat in the passenger seat and turned the music up loud and turned the heat on, willing it to heat up fast. The mornings were getting colder, and I was already dreading the practices we were going to have to do in the cold.

After about five minutes Andy came out of the house. As he sat down in the driver's seat he looked at me strangely, "I figured you would be sitting here."

I just shrugged my shoulders, I didn't feel like driving. Andy grabbed my hand with his right hand, and patted it with his left, "It'll be alright. I'm always here for you." I smiled weakly at him as he pulled out of the driveway and headed to school.

.................

I stood in front of my locker after lunch. I only had two more classes in the day and I couldn't wait. As I was about to close my locker I heard her laugh. I cringed and tried to turn subtly to look at her. She was walking around as if she didn't just cause a relationship to end.

"Hey, AJ," Jess smiled sweetly. I wanted to smack that smile right off of her face...

"Keep it moving, homewrecker," Madison came marching down the hallway and stopped next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

"I can't be a homewrecker if there was never anything to break anyways," Madison launched towards her, but I grabbed her backpack and held her in place.