TANGLED PLANS

4

The next morning my dad prepares breakfast and even though I don't typically eat heavy meal at home before school, I take a seat at the table to eat. My dad fills me in on everything that is happening in his life relating to work and I happily listen. Once he starts getting to the good stuff, his watch beeps signaling that it is already seven.

My dad gets up from his spot and walks over to the sink to drop the plate in and then heads back over to me and offers me a kiss on the head. I smile up at him and he says, "I have to go to work now, daise. I'll see you after school." I nod in answer and my dad leaves the room with a slap on the back for my brother who was coming into the kitchen now.

I gesture to a plate on the table and he takes a seat across from me. I'm eating my waffle when I hear him say my name and look up at him. He rips his own waffle in half and says, "So, um, Max told me something yesterday night."

"Okay?", I say with a question mark because since when my brother start talking about his beat friend to me. Brayden gives me a once over before looking down at his own plate and says, "He tells me you like a guy."

Oh, so that's where he was heading. I nod and he meets my eyes, "And that guy isn't my best friend is it?"

"What?", I stuttered through the one syllable word because my cheeks instantly heat up with that sentence. Did my brother know of my little crush on Max? I really hope not.

Brayden's eyes meet mine and a flash of panic goes through me. He only holds my eye contact for a second before dropping it down and saying, "I'm glad you're not in love with him or something." He ends the sentence with a little chuckle.

I keep my mouth shout because whatever I had to say was not going to be anything that wouldn't embarass me. I was embrassed enough yesterday night and I didn't need to say something along the lines of "Max? You mean, no, that's not, I don't know." I knew myself well enough to know that I was going to say something dumb like that awful sentence.

He doesn't say anything more but when we get up to head to his car he says, "I still think you are too young."

I cross my arms across my chest and look up at him with a scowl on my face. There was no way he was saying that sentence to me. "How long have you been dating your girlfriend?", I ask my brother and his answer comes immediately.

"Since I was fifteen", he answers and I give him an incredilous look. He doesn't seem to catch on so I sigh and say, "How old am I, Brayden?"

"Fifteen?", he says and I shake my head. I walk over to him and as I pass him, I hold out my arm and slap on him on the side of his head. "I'm sixteen you idiot. I turned sixteen a few months ago."

"Oh yeah", the best brother in the world says and I shake my head at his stupidity. I knew that he had known of my birthday because he had planned it for me this year despite me not wanting to have one.

"Come on, Daisy", my brother says putting a finger to my forehead before I groan and turn into my pillow. I didn't want to get up. "Daise, your turning sixteen, that's exciting."

"Not it's not", I muffle through my pillow. It wasn't anything exciting, it was rather sad. When I turned fifteen, my mom was here and now I'm turning sixteen without her here. I didn't want to accept it. Accepting it would be being okay with her being gone and I was anything but okay. I still had breakdowns every day before getting out of bed.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and my brother squeezes it softly. "Is this about mom?", he asks and the words send me over the edge. I didn't want him to mention her, I didn't like talking about it. We occasionally talked about our favorite memories of her but that was about it. We didn't talk about how we were doing with the whole thing. There wasn't much we can say to make the other feel comfort anyway.