"I don't really want to do anything this year." I tell Nat as I fold clothes with August lying on her stomach on her blanket on the floor.
"Well what do you usually do?"
"Sit in my room while mom has a bunch of friends and family over." I didn't look up.
"Well we have enough time to throw something together and go to my parents house. It'll be fun." I laugh at him.
"Here," he hands me some cash. "go find us all something to wear and I promise we'll have fun tomorrow."
"Can't you see, I'm, uh kind of busy folding clothes and taking care of this bugger," I look over "who has drooled all over everything, great."
"I'll fold the rest, and clean the rest of the house, because!" he leans down and holds me. "I love you."
"Oh yeah right." I pucker my lips and give him a peck and push him away. I pick August up wipe her drool on her bib. "Because you insist, I guess I'll go." I set August in her seat and find my shoes, then search for bottles and diapers and wipes and everything else I am required to bring, but instead ask my mom if she would watch her while I go to the store.
We have one large party store near the mall called Party District, they sold everything from cheap costumes to high end FX makeup and it was nearly packed because of Halloween. I was glad I didn't bring August with me. There weren't many costumes left but I looked through what I could and found matching cheap pirate costumes for me and Nat and then I started searching for something that was cute and could go with our costumes for August. I looked through fairy costumes, animal costumes, mermaid costumes, and finally found something decent. It was a simple baby costume, a pink shirt with a skull on it and a little plastic pirate hat. It wasn't the best thing ever but I could deal, I never really celebrated Halloween anyway.
I took my basket and stood in line behind a row of people, a blonde girl working as the cashier chewed her gum loudly and looked bored. I was looking around at the many balloon options they had hanging on the wall along with airbrushed shirts and right there standing under them talking to a guy I'd never seen before was Mark. He was dressed different, better I had to say. In dark jeans and a plain shirt. I'd always thought that if I'd seen Mark I would run up and hug him and then slap him for disappearing and not answering his phone. But in this case I felt weird, sick even and I just wanted to leave. There were two people in front of me and I kept facing the opposite direction of where Mark was. I just wanted to leave why couldn't these people hurry up? And after waiting what felt like an hour but was only about ten minutes the cashier rang up my items, I paid, grabbed my receipt and bag then left.
And I realized something as I exited the parking lot and stopped at the red light. Mark was here, alive and well. Which meant he was purposely ignoring me and didn't even care about August. I blamed myself for not telling him when I first found out, I blamed Cherrie for being a whore and stealing him away, I was furious at Mark for not acting like an adult about his responsibilities. I took the long way home to avoid traffic but got stuck with my thoughts, I turned up the radio and tried to drown them out with a stupid remix of rap and techno.
YOU ARE READING
Skinny Love
Teen Fiction'A teenage girl comes face to face with her past and must deal with its consequences.' Ella got pregnant at seventeen, by her best friend but he doesn't know about it. Instead of telling him she changed schools and took on a new life where no one kn...
