A Collection of Short/Long Stories I've Written;

Becoming Ronnie: 10.

The car ride back to my house was silent. I drummed my fingers against the steering wheel and we quickly headed over to my place. Demi twirled her hair around her finger and Dylan hummed quietly to himself.

It was almost agonising, the silence.

It was okay to talk to Dylan – when it was the two of us. But now we weren’t alone, I didn’t want to talk to just Demi or just Dylan yet I was doing a good job of finding it hard to talk to both of them when they were together.

I turned my blinker on, indicating that I was going to the left.

Demi unbuckled her belt and got out first, just after I’d turned the ignition off.

“Is this where you live?”

“Uh… yeah.” He was staring at me with a handsome smile and I lost my trail of thought for a moment before frowning. “This is it.”

“Good.” He replied. “I need to stretch my legs. I can’t believe you do a journey to-and-from school every day.”

“Where do you live?” I asked.

“Chinatown,” he shrugged.

“Really?”

I loved Chinatown. It was fully of interesting people – many of whom Chinese. I went there once for a day-trip with Demi when we wanted to get out of the house and learnt how to eat with chop-sticks. Now that was something I wouldn’t learn in a math class (or at home, mother didn’t approve of Chinese food).

“No.”

I raised my eyebrows and gave him a flat look. Wow, even he could joke around sometimes. “Where do you really live?”

“I had lived in Chinatown – with my parents. Now, though, I live in Manhattan, too, with my brother and Uncle, my cousin, Tom, lives in an apartment below us."

“Why did you complain about the journey here?”

“We live on the outskirts.” He shrugged.

Shrugged! That seemed to be his reply to everything. I’ll shrug, he brain probably told him.

“Why do you go to school in Brooklyn?”

“I got kicked out of my old school.” He said seriously.

“Oh.”

“Yeah…”

“Why?”

“Someone said something bad about my parents and I knocked them out.”

“Oh.” I said again. Well, that was totally understandable.I felt sad again, at once, because of his parents. Here I was, hating my dad, and yet he loved both of his parents un-conditionally, yet they were taken from him.

There was a knock on the door of my side of the car and Demi was standing outside. “Are you two coming in?”

“Shit!” Dylan muttered. “I forgot about her.”

True, I thought, I’d forgotten about her too.

I heaved a sigh before undoing my seatbelt. I shrugged to Dylan before getting out of the car.

Great, I was shrugging too.

Were shrugs contagious?

“Fucking hell, Audrey!” My sister yelled. She’d stepped through the front door and was met by a large amount of water soaking her shoes, and mine, and Dylan’s. Great. “What the bloody hell happened here?”

“Who’s Audrey?” Dylan whispered.

I shivered as hit breath hit my neck and quickly turned around to look at him. “Our mo—”

“Veronica? Demetria?” My mother called, walking into the room. A large man followed with a clip board. He was wearing a yellow hat, you know, like the kind you wear when you’re going on a building site? Water was five inches deep and had soaked all the carpets.

“Demetria!” My mother said sternly. “It’s mother, or mom, to you. You’re my daughter.”

I nodded towards Dylan and he nodded, my half answer was finished by my mom.

“What’s gone on, mother?” I asked, straightening out my outfit. It was something I hadn’t done for the best part of the day. I’d gotten comfortable but now, under my mother’s gaze, I felt self-conscious. In her eyes, it looked like she’d forgotten I’d changed my look, forgotten about this morning, but now she remembered.

She shook her head before answering, “There has been a leak. I’m afraid, girls, that you’ll have to stay at friends’ houses for the night.” She then caught site of Dylan. “And who are you?”

“I’m Veronica’s fri—”

“Science partner,” I said quickly, keeping my eyes on my mother. “Um, mom, where are you staying?”

“With my sister. Demetria, I presume you’ll be going to Poppy’s house, yes?”

“Yes, Audrey.”

“It’s Mother—”

“When you start calling my Demi, I’ll call you mom.”

My mother, instead of replying, turned back to me. “Will you be staying with Demetria?”

“No!” I said quickly. “I mean, uh…” I said dumbly after my mother’s stare, “I’ll be going to Blaze’s house?”

“Blaze? What kind of name is that?”

“Her friends name,” Dem responded before walking past my mom, water swishing at her feet with each step, “I’ll be in my room.”

I watched my mom stare after my sister and I grabbed my study books from the kitchen as she did her stuff. I was going to get her to help me get some stuff ready for tomorrow after she finished.

“Here.” My sister said. I turned around quickly, from fright, and knocked my keys off of the counter. Instead of making a loud crashing sound against the flooring like I’d thought, they fell into the water – causing water to splash over me. I groaned as I looked back upto my sister who was holding out a bag. Dylan bent down to get my keys.

“What’s that?” I asked, taking it curiously.

“Your stuff. I packed for you.”

A smile cracked out onto my face. “Aw, thanks.”

“It’s okay. Just remember,” She said as she pushed us out the door, leaving my mother to talk to the fat man, “you must ring Blaze and tell her you’re staying over when you get to Dylan’s house.”

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“To Poppy’s.” she replied. “I’ll take my own car, thanks.”