You Can't Love Him

13

Drew quickly walked up to his room. As soon as he was all the way upstairs I had remembered something. I clench my fists and follow up the stairs.

"Drew," I scream. Now that I'm home and no one is around, I can yell at him. I open his door and throw it open. "Drew." I try to calm myself.

"Yeah," He asks.

"Why did you say I'm going shopping this weekend. " I had almost forgot about it.

"I'm trying to make you friends." He shrugs. That's nice but he knows I have friends already. Why does he think he needs to interfere? I don't need anyone's help making friends

"I have friends," I exclaim. I am tired of people trying to make friends for me.

"They aren't your real friends. You need friends like Carmen. She'll be there for you in the long run." He says

"You want me to have fake friends?" I question. If anyone doesn't have real friends, it's Carmen.

"They aren't fake, Emmie. The people you hang out with are. They aren't who you should hang out with." He gives me what I like to call the "dad look". You know that "you better be listening and understanding what I'm saying," look.

"I'm tired of everyone saying that! You don't know them! Stop judging them right away. Stay out of my business!" I scream. This is a really good way to let off some of my stress. Sorry Drew for taking it out on you.

Drew looks at me with a bored expression. I really want to slap him right now."I've gone to school with them for a while Emmie. I think I know them well enough. Do you even know why everyone says they are bad?"

"No and I don't care. They are probably lies." I say.

He shakes his head."They do illegal things. Noah is the leader. They have a business.Ask them. It's not a lie, Em. Don't you believe your brother?"

"I don't believe you," I scoff and walk out the room. Drew just believes all the rumors. He probably helped start them.

I go into my room and lock my door. I need to calm myself down. I decided to try and write something for my writing assignment.  I thought since its for a class assignment, I would have some motivation but I still got nothing!

"Ugh!" I shut the laptop.Maybe I shouldn't have moved here. If I didn't, I would still be writing and I wouldn't always be angry or upset about something.

I wouldn't have my boyfriend and brother meddling in my friendships. I wouldn't have to be around my dad who always ignores me. I woudn't have a future step mom I know nothing about. I wouldn't have to do any of this. I miss Colorado and I miss my mom.

I turn on my T.V. Maybe I can distract myself with a show. I skip through all the channels and end up turning it off. I decide to go into the back yard for some fresh air. I see Cassie working on a garden. I always forget she lives here. I guess I should say hi. She's the only one who hasn't truly annoyed me.

"Hi Cassie." I greet.

She stops mending the garden to look at me."Oh, Emmie. Whats up?" She sets down her garden tools.

"Oh nothing, just being bored," I fake laugh to try and make things less awkward. "I see you're busy so I'll just-"

"No!" She exclaims before clearing her throat. " I mean no. If you want to help me you could. I mean you don't have to. If you don't that's totally fine. I didn't even ask if you liked gardening."

It was my turn to interrupt. "I'll help." I guess if she's going to marry my dad, I might as well try to get to know her.

"Really," She looks at me in disbelief. "Okay, then here." She smiles handing me one of the tools.

We started chatting about random things. I almost forgot about all the things that happened today. It was actually really nice. Though after a while we didn't know what to talk about. It got quiet and a question popped into my head.

"Hey Cassie," she hums in response. "Is my dad ever home? I rarely see him and even when I do, he's always on a business call or something." She freezes in her spot.

"Sometimes. He works a lot. Why do you ask?" She continues putting the flowers in the soil. She spoke quickly which makes this seem like a touchy subject for her.

"It feels like he's never truly home." I confess.

"He gets home extremely late and leaves at the break of dawn. If he's home you probably don't see him because he's in his office and like you said. He's always on a business call. He's a hardworking man." She explains.

"Do you get lonely?"

"Sometimes. But that's okay. Your fathers job makes him happy so it's fine with me."

"We should get a dog," I say randomly. I decided to change the topic. I felt bad after asking it. It may have made her a little upset.

I wish my dad wasn't such a workaholic. He's always been that way and I know that's one of the reasons my mom Divorced him. Cassie shouldn't have to be by herself all the time. Maybe I should start hanging out with her so she has company.

"That would be wonderful. Maybe I can talk your dad into letting us adopt one." She smiles.

"Yea, that's would be awesome."

An hour later we both go inside to make dinner. I helped with that too.

Cassie isn't that bad. I learned that she used to travel all over the world. She has a collection of post cards from all the places she's visited. She offered to show me them sometime.

"Thanks for helping with the garden and dinner." Cassie says.

"No problem." I smile.

We finish dinner and continue to talk about random things. I'm so glad her and I get along. I honestly didn't think we would.