The Difference

Chapter 4

               Dakota - Monte Carlo, Family House.

"So what are we going to do now?" Dad asked. We had scheduled another meeting after Saturday to today, Monday concerning Andy. We had drawn no conclusion yet.
Mike, the first born suggested we bail him out.
James, the second born said we should let Andy stay in jail for a while to put sense in his head.
I agreed with James.
Chris the fourth born agreed with Mike.
"After all, he's our brother, we can't let him stay in jail plus we can't let something like this spoil our family's reputation". He said.
Shirley hadn't said a word since we started.
"Shirley why are you not saying anything.
"What?" She sounded distant.
"You haven't said anything since we started the meeting. Why?"
"I'm sorry but I have nothing to say concerning Andy. You know we've never seen eye to eye on things since we could talk. So I don't really care what happens to him." She said and got up to leave.
"Sit down, Shirley!" Mike reprimanded and Shirley turned to him.
"The fact that you are the eldest child of the family doesn't give you the authority to order us like we're dummies." She said and stormed out of the patio into the hall to her room.
"What has happened to her? She  hasn't been this cheeky before". Dad asked, concerned. Being the one to take care of us for almost ten years after mum died, he could tell if something was wrong with any of us.
"I'll go talk to her. You guys should settle on something concerning Andy."
I walked into the hall. There are two staircases dividing the hall into two. The left leads to Shirley and I our room. I barely use it. The right leads to Dad, Mike, James and Andy's room. So is the Library and Daddy's Study room.
When I went to Shirley's room, she was listening to music turned so loud from her ear pods that I could hear whatever she was listening to from the door. She didn't hear me entering. I tapped her on the shoulder.
"What the fuck?" She removed the ear pods and turned to look at me. "Why didn't you knock? You scared the shit out of me"
"I would have but you won't have heard me."
"What do you want?" She asked rudely. I ignored her tone.
"Please sit up for me" she sat up and looked up at me.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing"
"What happened on the patio ain't nothing. What's wrong?"
"The new guy wants to be friends with me. You know what that means."
"Shirley I thought we'd gotten over this. You promised this won't happen again."
"I know but....."
"But nothing. Forget everything and just give him a chance. If not you're gonna live like this for the rest of your life."
"I'll try."
"You're not going to try you're going to do it. Now go back down and apologise to Mike. That didn't show any respect." We got out and walked back to the patio.

                                      
                                         ******
       
              Corbin Avearey – Monte Carlo, 154 INT. St. H5.

Since it was the weekend and I had nothing to do, I decided to call Shirley to see if she wanted to go out.
She picked on the first ring.
“ Hey, you good?” I asked
“ Yeah, you?”
“ I’m good. Are you busy?”
“No, not really”
“Well will you like to go out?”
“To where?”
“Anywhere. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna kidnap you. You can tell your sister I’m taking you out so that she can come find you.”
“I know you won’t kidnap me. Okay where should we meet up?”
“Send me your location and let me pick you up”
“Oh no, I’m not ready to bring any friend home. I’m not ready for questions I can’t answer. Send me your location. I’ll meet you there”. She sounded scared.
“Okay. I’ll see you soon.” I hung up and immediately sent my location to her.
As I’d already taken my bath, I just looked for something to wear. In less than an hour, Shirley was at my house. I heard the doorbell ring.
“I’ll get it.” I called from my room.
Shirley was dressed in all black as usual.
“ Hey,”I said.
“Hi,”she said. “I came with my car. Will you drive since I don’t know where we’re going?”
“Sure. How will you feel about shopping?”
“Seriously?” she asked like I’d mentioned the unthinkable.
“Yeah. I want you to try a few new colours. I’m not asking you to change or anything just thinking you should try something new.” I explained.
“I trust you. I don’t the why, but I do. So, sure we can go shopping.”
“Yes.” I exclaimed and threw a triumphant fist punch in the air.
I took the key from her and drove to the renowned Fashion Centre. The most shopped at mall in Monte Carlo.
“Welcome to the Fashion Centre. We are here to serve you”. The lady at the entrance greeted us.
We gave her a smile and a nod and walked over to the clothes aisle specifically to where there were no black clothes. We picked tops - both blouses and cropped -, skirts, jeans and a whole lot more. We then went to the footwear aisle and picked canvases, a pair of heels and a couple of sandals.
On our way to pay for the things, I decided to ask her something that had been on my mind since the day at the cafeteria.
“Shirley, not to intrude but why blue for your hair?”
“Well, one thing I haven’t told you is I had friends in high school. Surprise. Yeah, and one time during a game of truth or dare, they decided to dye my hair blue in order to change one black thing about me. So I let them.”
“ Would you like to change it?”
“I mean sure. I’ve been wanting to see how I will look like as a blonde.”
“To the salon then”. We went to the salon and because I knew we’d spend a couple of hours there, getting the dye off before starting anything else, we picked snacks on the way since we hadn’t eaten.
After two hours Shirley walked out of the mall, a different person.
I drove back to my house and waved her goodbye letting her know I’d pick her up to school on Monday. She thanked me saying this was the most fun she’d had in a long time.
When I climbed up to the house I found dad asleep on the couch. I went for a blanket and covered him with it. He stirred when I touched him but didn’t wake up. I climbed up to my room, took a shower and went to bed.