Lies My Best-Friends Been Told

Chapter 4: Bad Ideas and Sad Goodbyes

 Chapter 4: Bad Ideas & Sad Goodbyes

Half way through my musical rant, Jason burst through the music door, that I could have sworn was locked. I stop playing mid note and turn to glare at him. He holds up a key innocently

            “The keys on the  top of the stairs darling.” He says before sitting next to me on the piano bench, wrapping one arm around my shoulders, drawing me into his side. “What’s wrong baby doll?” he asks into my hair.

            I sniffle, and turn my head further into his chest before answering. “Your brother is a jerk of epic proportions, that’s what’s wrong, then I tried to talk to you about it and you were busy, and Jenelle is at her friends, and Jessica’s back a Uni, I tried talking to Lyssa and she just said stuff I really didn’t need to hear at the time and Jayme is meeting LeAnne’s new boyfriend…” I trail off as a new round tears threaten to spill.

            Jason’s grip around me tightened. “Want to go get some ice cream Cass?” he asks out of the blue, but I’m not one to pass up on free ice cream, so I nod, taking his outstretched hand as he helps me off the bench.

            Halfway to the old-fashioned ice cream parlor in town, I changed my mind making Jason heads towards the city mall instead for frozen yogurt. He scowled at me but didn’t complain out loud and changed course.

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          Jason had never really tried frozen yogurt, so surprisingly he trusted me to order for him. After ordering a melon flavored frozen yogurt with mangoes, caramel and Almonds, we sat at a table facing towards the window, with the perfect view of the hill country.

           Jason and I are making plans for his birthday in a few weeks, he'll be eighteen. He doesn't sound excited, but im trying to warm him up to the idea of a small party at my house, after we go horse back riding. When the topic turns to the guest list for his birthday, he turns towards me a tentative look masking his face, and i brace myself willing him not to ask the question i knew was going to come up sooner or later. "What about Andre?" I wince at the mention of my older brother, who left as soon as he could, though he still keeps in touch I couldnt help but feel even slightly abandoned.

Andre and my parents never saw eye to eye. Dad wanted him to go to an Ivy league and major in law, or become a surgeon like him,where Andre wanted to go to a specialty college to pursue acting.He never wanted to be like our dad, working from when the sun went up to well after the sun went down, rarely seeing his family, and he let dad know this on many occasions. It would always end up in a huge argument, and Andre and I packing up to spend the night at the Hunts. Mom was never much help during these conversations, but she'd never been much help when it came to talking to dad, seeing as she was normally over sees, doing sighnings, on vacation with dad, or visiting family in Spain. We rarely saw our parents, if it wasn't for holidays, we most likely wouldn't see them ever.  

So Andre left as soon as he turned eighteen, as much as he'd wanted to take me with him, he couldn't, seeing as I was only thirteen at the time. I still saw him on my birthday, but just for the few hours before mom and dad showed up to take me to my anual birthday dinner at Andre and I's favorite restauraunt.

Snapping out of my stupor I manage to answer Jason's question. "Andre'll come as long as we dont invite my parents."

 Sensing the new depressing mood, hanging in the air Jason turns to me a smile on his face. “This is really good Rainey. How’d you know I loved mangos?” He asks effectively changing the subject.