My First Kiss Was Stolen On National Television

Chapter 3

Marie and I spend the rest of the night practicing her lines, and how to say them. I somehow must have forgotten just how bad of an actress she is, although that seems almost impossible watching her, now. Half the time her voice is monotone and the other half she sounds easily like she's trying too hard. Plus, she rarely moves. If it weren't for the fact that she's sitting up, I might worry she'd somehow become paralyzed from the neck down in the three hours we've been down here.

On the bright side, she might have a future in playing robots. Those kinds of movies are in these days, right?

I sigh and run a hand through my hair. She's just left, deciding that it's about time to get to bed, even though it's barely ten o'clock. She isn't fooling me, though. She'd been growing increasingly frustrated with herself as time went on. As a matter of fact, I can't help but be surprised she didn't storm out hours earlier.

She can see through my smile, I just know it. She knows I'm worried about how this movie will go, because at the rate she's going, I'll be lucky if she can crack a believable smile by the time filming starts.

I fall back onto my bed, before grabbing my laptop, which has been shamefully neglected today what with swimming and now this, and slip in one of my Full Moon O' Sagashite discs. I still have almost four volumes to get to before I finish the manga, so to be fair, I shouldn't be watching the anime, but I'm too exhausted to flip pages. I just want some mind-numbing noise blasting in my ears.

A loud knock coming at my door wakes me up. I hadn't even realized I fell asleep.

I groan and lift my head, to find my laptop still sitting open on my pillow, the screen having gone dead. Perfect. I hope that it didn't die. The stupid thing takes forever to charge and I was so looking forward to a day full of watching YouTube videos.

"Becca!" I hear Emil call from outside. "Mom wants you downstairs!"

"Tell Marie that if she wants a ride in to work, she can get her fucking license and drive herself!" I yell, before shutting my laptop with a sigh and plugging it in.

"She's already there! I drove her!"

"Then what does she want?!"

"I don't know, but she sounds pissed!"

That causes me to freeze. Our mother doesn't get mad often, but when she does, then you have one of two choices if you want to live. Run, or do everything in your power to make her happy again. My siblings and I often joke that's one of the reasons why our father is always away on work.

I pull myself out of bed and pull on a pair of pajama pants before opening up the door to come face to face with Emil. With blonde hair, and amber colored eyes, not to mention a surprisingly well toned body from constantly carrying around a bag full of heavy text-books, my older brother looks like he should be a basket ball player of some sort rather than a complete nerd. He was also one of the main reasons why my house was the popular hangout place when I was little. All my friends wanted to come and gawk at my "hot brother". A fact that, to this day, still makes me want to puke.

But can you really blame me?

His arms are crossed over his chest and his face is set into a slight scowl that somehow makes him look older than his real age at just twenty. Older than Beth, even.

I brush past him without another word and rush towards the stairs, which I trip down until I come to the landing where I have a good view of the kitchen.

Where Cobie is sitting at the island, with a great big folder spread out in front of her. She's been over a lot lately, ever since Emil got his head out of his ass long enough to propose, planning their wedding with my mother and sisters. She hasn't ever been very close with her own family, having all but stormed out on them when they refused to accept hers and Emil's relationship because we weren't rich or something like that. So seeing her here is no big surprise.