"Eve! What's popping, baby?" Graham shouts as he opens the front door to his house before I even manage to make it up all of the steps.
"Don't ever say that again." I murmur in a faux threatening tone and brush past him to walk through the door.
"Aw, someone's lovestruck."
"I am not lovestruck. It was only a conversation." He narrows his eyes at me quizzically. "It's just... It's nice being able to talk to someone freely about how I feel about religion without them saying that they'll pray for me, you know?" I ask.
He rolls his eyes, "That's invalid. You can talk to me about that sort of thing. I'm an Atheist too." He grumbles.
"I know, I know, but you're my best friend. We already know each other's opinion of religion. Besides, Blake is Agnostic, and not to mention, he's attractive. A hot, intellectual guy. Sorry, but you haven't got him beat." I explain and take off my shoes at the door before I lay down on the couch.
I hear the toilet flush and the water in the sink running in the bathroom. I turn in the direction of the bathroom distractedly, but Graham jumps on the couch beside me, blocking my view.
"So I'm not a hot intellectual? I'll have you know, Eve, that I've never scored below 23% on a test." Graham has a pseudo-hurt expression on his face, and I roll my eyes.
Before I can ask him who's here, Stella stalks out of the bathroom with a content smile. Her blonde hair is an absolute mess, sticking out in all directions, and her face is clear of makeup. I can't help the astonishment from sufficing onto my face. How can she still be so beautiful?
"Oh hey, I thought I heard your voice." Her crooked smile reaches her eyes, and I find myself smiling in response.
"Yeah, I thought I'd stop by while Sienna's at church." I mutter and shrug, "I've got nothing better to do," The last part comes out as a whisper because I'd hate to offend Graham. She shrugs it off and sits down on the other side of him.
"That's cool, we were just watching-- what's it called--" Graham cuts her off when she elbows him in the chest.
"Naked and Afraid. You can usually guess what it's called because of two reasons. One: they're all naked. Two: they're all afraid." He explains sarcastically, and I laugh.
After a few moments of silence filling the entire house, I can't help but wonder why they've stopped talking. Then I realize that they're actually watching it, for some unknown reason. I turn back towards the huge, flatscreen television on the wall, but I still can't seem to get into it.
Don't get me wrong, I usually do watch TV shows where they're out in the wild, but it's usually because they're discussing the habitat in which they're standing in. You know, the climate, the animals that inhabit it, and they camp out there for a few nights before exploring it some more. If you couldn't guess, I'm talking about the best show in the entire world: Nature.
"Oh, hey, Eve." Stella's voice cuts me out of my irrelevant thoughts, and I turn towards her, raising my eyebrow as if asking her what she wants. "Have you finished my essay? It's due tomorrow, you know." My face falls despite myself, and her face scrunches up with worry. "You forgot, didn't you?"
I shake my head rapidly, and Graham lets out a loud shush. I roll my eyes, and Stella elbows him in the ribs again. He elbows her back roughly, and she blurts out a few rushed curse words. "I'll get it done later," She's not even paying attention to me because they're play-wrestling each other, "I promise," I say, and turn my attention back to the TV.
Good god, not that I didn't agree with Sienna before about them always being all over each other, but that was before I'd seen them both in nothing but their night clothes and wrestling each other while laughing at an horrendous volume. It's almost weird seeing people so-- just-- in love with each other. Seeing two people so in sync.
Even my parents aren't like that, which I suppose is a given. My parents don't even really love each other, at least not like Stella and Graham do.
My mom, Ellie, only stays with my dad, Keith, because her Bible says something about "Divorce being a sin." and my dad only stays with my mom because... Well, I don't know. I guess because mom would probably get full custody of us, especially Gavin, and he loves us a just bit too much to let that happen. That or maybe it's because they've been together since she was fourteen and he was twenty-two. I suppose after being together for that long, it's better just to stay together because you wouldn't even know how to function without each other.
One time, I came across a study by a law firm in the UK that stated that people only stay together when they're unhappy for seven reasons:
(1) Because they're lonely
(2) They're scared of being on their own
(3) They feel guilty
(4) They've invested too much time into their relationship to give up now
(5) Their belongings will have to be divided
(6) They might regret leaving
or
(7) Because they hope that it will get better
My father probably only stays with her for the third and fourth reason.
Stella laughs loudly right beside my ear, but I don't mind. I shrug her off, and they continue fighting. Getting off the couch, I look around the living room, before turning back to Graham. He's somehow been pinned to the ground by Stella, who is breathing heavily.
"Where are your parents, anyhow?" I ask, and Graham looks up at me without moving his head.
"Grocery shopping. They don't like being around people when they shop, and they can usually avoid the crowd if they go on Sundays. Everyone's at church right now." He explains. He moves his hands around in jerky, strained motions, and Stella giggles when she continues to grip his hands down on the ground.
"Oh..." I whistle as I look around the perfectly clean room.
I can't help but think that I wish our house looked this spotless. It is an impossibility when you have eight kids running around and one baby who spits up everything, everywhere he goes. Don't get me wrong, I love each and every single one of my siblings, but I can't help but feel jealous that Graham doesn't have the constant smell of dirty diaper in the air nor is he in constant danger of stepping on a stray Lego everywhere he goes.
The lucky idiot is an only child.
"Aren't you supposed to be at church with your parents?" I ask Stella.
She takes her dull gray eyes off of Graham and looks at me long enough to shake her head 'no'. I nod and leave them alone again. God, they can be so uncomfortable to be around sometimes. I wonder, though, why Stella somehow isn't supposed to be at church with her parents.
It's not like they know that she is an Agnostic, and I can guarantee that she didn't tell them that she came over to her boyfriend's house last night to do the Cupid Shuffle. (Is that what the kids are calling it these days?)
I clap my hands together, trying to get their attention, but it's no use. They're are just soooo in love with each other. I visibly cringe at the sarcastic thought.
"I'm gonna go now. I'll work on your essay when I get home." I say, and they both wave me off without looking up from one another. Freaking weirdos.
YOU ARE READING
Isolation (Book #1 of the Taylor Series)
Teen Fiction"You don't hate religion, you hate extremism. There's a slight difference between the two." "And what's that?" "One flies you into buildings and the other encourages you to eat crackers and drink wine before you turn twenty-one." Eve Taylor is a gir...
