Something About Sarah

Chapter 6

Sarah

The morning sun washed over my face, warming it with its glow. I pushed myself out of bed and went downstairs, where Michael, my little brother, was shoving his face with mushy cereal. 

My mom and dad must've been at work already. They tended to work weekends, for their jobs were demanding. Mom was an up-and-coming fashion designer and my dad was a brain surgeon. 

"Good morning," I said, sliding next to him on the high chairs in front of the buffet. 

He tried to reciprocate though a mouthful of soggy cereal, but it just came out sounding like "Goor monin". I put some bread in the toaster and cracked an egg into the frying pan. While the food cooked, I glanced at the fridge, seeing if there were any memos for me. Nope. Now I had the last weekend before school let out to myself. 

***

Jason picked me up in his old truck as he took me to our date. He refused to tell me what we were doing, just that I needed to wear a bathing suit. After a ten minute ride we pulled up to the sound and I could smell motor oil. 

"Ta-da!" he said, holding out his arms, "We are going jet-skiing!" 

"Cool," I said, letting the wind pick up my curls and redistribute them around my face. He walked up to the rental shack and told the guy working there that we had a reservation. 

"Ok. Whoever's driving needs to fill out this form here," he said, dropping a clipboard with a lengthy contract on it and a couple of papers stuffed behind it. Jason immediately reached for it. "I was actually wondering if I could drive," I said. 

Jason smirked. "Just leave the driving to me."

"Why?"

"Because I'm the man in this relationship."

"And what does that have to do with anything?"

"It's just that I should be making the decisions."

"Excuse me?" I asked him, not sure if I had heard that right. I paused for a moment. The anger welled up inside me. Something inside me snapped. "You never have anything interesting to say."

Now it was his turn to look incredulous.

"You. Are. Boring. I bet I could have a more intelligent conversation with wallpaper. I could be doing so many better things with my time than hanging out with an egotistical, dull ass. We are over."

The guy working behind the rental counter let out a low whistle.

I had to get away. I stormed past the parking lot out onto the side of the road. I couldn't stand to spend another minute with him. But now I don't have a ride home. Layla was obviously out of the question. My parents were gone, and Michael didn't even have his permit yet. I pulled out my cell phone and flipped through the contacts until I found who I was looking for.

"Hello?" He picked up on the first ring. 

"Hey, Benjamin, this is Sarah. Can you come pick me up?" I asked.

"Is everything ok?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm just kind of stranded."

"Ok. Where are you?" I gave him the address and soon his car pulled up next to me.

"Thanks for this," I said, climbing into the passenger seat. 

"No biggie. I can take you to your home if you want, or you can come back to my place and watch some movies with me and Layla."

"Movies sound great."

"Awesome," he said, putting his car into drive.

Benjamin didn't question me on why I needed a ride, for which I was eternally grateful. He just cranked up the radio, and left me alone to my thoughts, which was a good thing. 

It may have seemed silly to break up with someone over one rude, and sexist, comment. But it wasn't just that. He never asked me any questions. I would ask him tons, but he never wanted to know anything about me. He was shallow. And the only thing he talked about was surfing. And talking about surfing is really, well, boring.

"We're here," Benjamin announced. Sure enough, Layla was parked on the couch, delicately pushing individual pieces of popcorn into her mouth while she watched some rom-com. She turned around at the sound of the door opening and ran to me to give me a big hug. She then yanked my by my hand over to the couch.

"This is the best scene," she said, staring intently at the screen.

As she watched the movie, I looked at the both of them. Layla was nothing like her cousin. Her family came from New York, and they owned their own deli down here in California. Her parents were eccentric, to say the least. They would burst into song at any random moment and they loved to watch the weather portion of the news. I loved them anyway. 

On the other hand, Benjamin's parents came here from London when he was five. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a profusionist. They were both very serious. They also seemed to never be home, which was why she hung out at their house so often. She claimed she needed a break from the 'constant, smothering attention' of her parents.  

"Can we please change the movie? This is garbage," Ben said. 

"This is my favorite movie," Layla stated, throwing a pillow at his head. 

"I am personally up for a zombie slasher film," I said. Ben reached over to give me a high-five.

"Only if you give me a foot rub," Layla giggled.She thrust one foot towards me and another one towards Ben. I rolled my eyes and Ben groaned. 

"Fine," she sighed, retracting her feet.

"And I was actually going to do it," Ben joked.

Two movies and five bowls of popcorn later, my legs were starting to fall asleep and I was getting rather bored. I nudged the sleeping Ben into the world of the living and pointed out at the pool and then looked at Layla. 

"Hey," Ben said, biting back a grin, "I think I just saw a cat run by outside.

"What?" she asked with obvious glee. Layla, having an extreme weakness to anything involving the four-legged felines, walked outside to check it out. Ben and I followed her. 

"I don't see anything," Layla said, standing on her tiptoes to look over the hedges surrounding the patio. 

"Well, maybe you will now," I cried, pushing her on her back. She then fell, not so gracefully, into the pool. 

Ben was laughing so hard that he bent down. He pointed at Layla. "I can't believe you fell for that. Literally!"

"Oh, ok, so that's how you wanna play it," she muttered, grabbing Ben's wrist and yanking him in. 

Pulling off my t-shirt and short shorts that hid my bikini, I jumped in, the only voluntary one. Pulling myself into one of the tubes, I floated around the pool. As revenge, Layla came over to me, half of her wet ponytail sticking to her cheek, and flipped my tube. 

Layla then pivoted in the water to look at Ben, and gave him a look that said, 'Pulling you in here wasn't revenge enough.' Before she could physically harm him, he reached out and pulled Layla in for a knock-the-breath-out-of-you hug. I couldn't help but laugh. 

Now not having the burden of Jason weighing down on me, I thought of Ben. And since I was no longer in a relationship, I didn't feel the least bit guilty when I thought of Ben and me.