I Loathe The L Word (On Hold)

Two

Sorry about any typos. I tried going through and catching some, but I bet I missed one or two. If you find one, comment on it if you can.

I rubbed my face, poking at the waffle in front of me. Gabbie noticed first, "What's up, Charlotte?"

The waffle made no attempt to move away from my prodding. Stupid waffle, it just moved, it'd be okay. No one would eat him because who eats a moving waffle? "Joey. Lola."

"What happened?" She smiled gently at me. Gabbie was always trying to lift the mood, her and Mari. She was pretty good at it, too.

"Lola touched Joey and he freaked. She left the house and I stayed up all night waiting for her. She came home at three in the morning and I had to put her to bed. Exhausted would be a really big understatement." I stabbed the waffle violently, taking my anger out on it. If she would just sober up, maybe I'd be happy. But I just can't be. Joey takes all my energy, so does Lola. I was a kid for thirteen years of my life, but growing up came fast. I just can't have time to goof off, ever.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay. You just watch." Gabbie patted my shoulder and went back to the meal.

Truth was, Lola came home a drunk mess. She came home screaming and yelling about my dad and how he should've never gone missing. She blamed everything on me. Said that he should've never joined the war if me, the mistake, had ever come along. I pleaded with her to quiet down, I didn't need her to wake up Joey, but she kept rambling and then she just crumbled again. She started wailing and apologizing, telling me that I was always her baby and that she was going to sober up. I knew that would never last. She'd sobered up twice before and failed miserably. So I just told her that she was going to make it this time and put her to bed. I stayed up half the night crying and staring at my dad's picture.

Mari flopped onto the seat beside be, her dirty blonde hair resting against her shoulders in gentle waves. Marianna was beautiful, even if she didn't think so. All my friends were beautiful, and I felt kinda plain next to them. I was 5"1, with light brown hair as straight as could be, and blue eyes. My friends were all tall, with blonde or brown hair, and flawless features. I found myself wondering why they were even my friends sometimes. They were the definition of kindness, whereas I was really hard to get along with. If a conversation bored me, I walked away halfway through a sentence. They stood there, doing the nod and agree thing.

"Dude, what happened at your house last night?" She waved her hands. "You dropped the phone and the line went dead."

I rolled my eyes, "Joey had a melt down. Lola touched him."

"Why don't you call her mom?" Suzie asked, appearing out of nowhere. "It's your mom after all."

"Because she doesn't deserve to be called mom. A mom tries to take care of her kids. I call her mom to her face, of that's what you mean." I stabbed the waffle, picking it up and watching it flop back down onto the plate with a splat. "Why do you call your sister by her name instead of sister?"

Suzie scowled, "I'm an only child, and you are so stubborn."

"You are nosey."

She rolled her eyes and sat down. I stood up, "Well, I have work and Joey should be there by now." Every weekend, I went to work at Jo-Jo's Froyo, and Joey- whom the shop was named for- came to. Mrs. Felix, his teacher, drove him everyday and got him a vanilla scoop with rainbow sprinkles everyday. It was hard keeping his routine, but it was worth it if it made my brother happy.

Arriving at Jo-Jo's, I looked up at the sky. It was clear blue with a wisp of cloud here and there. When my father was still with us, he and I would lay in the grass in the backyard and make shapes from the clouds. He would always say, "It's a bird!"