•clueless•

•13•

Rae

Amelia's shouts are the first thing I hear when I enter my mom's house. "Rae's here!" She shouts, probably because my mom was upstairs or something. "Coming!" My mom shouts from her bedroom upstairs. Sighing, I sat down next to Amelia at the dining room table. Various textbooks were sitting in front of her.

"Are you seriously doing homework?" I tease, playfully nudging her with my shoulder. "Unfortunately. I'm almost done and then we can do something before dinner." She laughs, finishing a paragraph on the sheet of paper in front of us.

"Alright, done!" She nods, cleaning up her work area with my help. The two of us drop her things off in her bedroom, my former bedroom door was shut beside it.

"Perfect. I've been looking for this dress that I haven't seen in ages, I bet I left it here. I planned on wearing it tonight." I laugh, entering my room. Although it was now the guest room, it was still my furniture and it still had my clothes in it.

Amelia follows me to my closet. "Which one was it?" She asks. "Remember the dark green short dress I had? The one that has little tiny flowers?" I question, searching through the clothes on the hanger. "Oh! That's in my room, hold on." She laughs, leaving me in my closet.

"You took my dress?" I laugh, following behind her. "What? You left it here so I thought it was for grabs." She replies, a playful tone evident. "Fair enough. It's not like I was wearing it." I shrug, watching her dig through her own closet.

"There you two are!" Mom's voice comes down the hallway, stopping in the doorway. "Just giving her dress back." Amelia playfully rolls her eyes, tossing it to me.

"If this happened two years ago you'd be screaming at each other by now." Mom teases, leaning against the doorframe. "At the time she stole my clothes that I planned on wearing, this has been here for awhile so it was fair." I shrug, making my way to my old room to change into the dress.

Their voices are muffled when the door closes. Pulling off my previous clothes, I pulled the dress over my shoulders. It was form fitting, but it flowed slightly at the bottom. The straps were thin but tied into little bows right on my shoulders.

I found the two of them in the kitchen, talking. "Alright, what can I help with?" I ask, standing beside Amelia at the table. "Can you two set five plates down on the table?" Mom asks. Nodding, I grabbed the plates as Amelia grabbed the silverware from the drawer.

Five plates? Who was all coming? It was Mom, Amelia, Maverick, and I, who was the fifth person?

My question was answered when the doorbell goes off. Mom rushes over to the front door, out of view.

"Who's the fifth person?" I ask Amelia as we finished up, faint voices coming from the front door.

"No clue, but dinner's not ready so do you want to play a board game or something?" She asks.

Before I could answer, three pairs of footsteps entered started towards us. Amelia and I turned our attention to where they'd appear.

Finally, a familiar face appeared behind Maverick.

"You have to be kidding me." I muttered under my breath, Bradley's eyes landing on me. His eyes immediately go wide before glancing down my body. My own eyes drop to his frame. He was wearing a nice white tank top covered by a unbuttoned black button up paired with blue jeans and converse. I had to admit, he looked good.

"Well, thank you for coming!" My mom breaks the tension in the air. The tension was stifling.

Finally, my eyes tore away from his and landed on Maverick. "It's nice to see you again." I nod, ignoring Rooster's eyes on me. "You too." He smiles, taking off his jacket. "I haven't seen you in years!" Maverick jokes, teasing Amelia. She's met him before?

Everyone began talking around us. Sucking down my pride, I looked back at Bradley.

"It's nice to see you." I place a polite smile on my face before making my way to the fridge to get a drink.

"You too." I hear before Amelia pulls him into a conversation. "Does anyone want a drink? It'll be another 10 minutes before dinners done." My mom speaks up as I open a root beer.

•••

The tension dissipates at dinner. Mom basically forced Bradley and I to sit next to each other.

"Thank you for having us. Dinners delicious." Bradley politely smiles, fork in hand. My mom smiles brightly as Maverick agrees.

"It was our pleasure. We know how busy you've been." My mom beams, glancing at the two aviators. Reaching for my drink, my hand brushes Bradley's which was reaching for his own.

"Um, how's your dad, Penny?" Maverick changes the subject. Taking a sip of my soda, I listened to the conversation. "He's alright. He wants to visit soon but who knows if that'll happen with his age." She laughs, nudging Amelia, who in returns let's out a fake laugh across the table.

Stifling a laugh, I stabbed a piece of chicken with my fork. "Oh, hey. Dad wants to know if he can send up birthday gifts." Amelia asks. My ears perk up at her statement.

"Surprised he's not too busy with his new family." I look up, chewing on the breaded chicken. "Right!" Amelia laughs.

"Daddy issues at its finest." I laugh in return, swallowing.

My mom clears her throat at the head of the table, sharing a look with Pete. The table goes quiet, awkward tension between all of us. The only sound was uncomfortable chewing.

"Am I missing something?" Amelia asks. "No-."

"I thought we were telling her." She speaks up again. Furrowing my eyebrows, I look between my mom and sister. "Amelia." My mom sends her a cold stare, enough to shut her up.

"What're you talking about?" I question, leaning against the table on my forearms.

"Nothing. We'll talk later." My mom brushes me off. Once again, she's always brushing me off.

"No, you're always brushing me off. What are we talking about?" I furrow my eyebrows as annoyance bubbles inside me. I knew they were talking about me by their glances. Bradley clears his throat beside me.

Amelia and Maverick's greet earlier suddenly came to mind as my eyes land on my sister, who's also avoiding my eyes. "Alright. Am I the only one who had never met Pete before?" I ask, setting my fork down.

Maverick sends my mom a worried look.

"If you'll excuse us. Amelia, keep Rooster company." My mom sighs, standing up and fixating her cold eyes on me. Maverick and I followed her suit, right into my old bedroom.

"Sit down." She says, closing the door behind us. Maverick and my mom hover over me as I sit down. What was going on? What did she need to tell me about? Was she pregnant?

"Are you pregnant?" I blurt, watching her. Her face lights up in shock.

"God, no! No, I'm not." She laughs, though still worried.

"Then just tell me. I'm tired of being in the dark." I sigh, leaning back on my hands against the bed. They share one last glance before looking at me.

"Pete's your father."