Corner Store Girl: Janoskians: Luke and Jai Brooks Fanfiction

Chapter 28: Black Attire

{ A L E X }

"Anne?"

She stands in the middle of the room in a black dress, my mom behind, looking at her sadly. She has bags hung on her arms, others slung over her shoulders, and I recognize them all as mine. "Hi, Alex." She says, her tone not as perky as usual.

"Sweet heart, you can go upstairs with Alex if you'd like. You're more than welcome to go and help her get ready." She sends a small smile in Anne's direction and I take that as my cue to lead her up, confused as ever. Once I close the door behind us, I spin around.

"What are you doing here? How did you know where my house was, and how did you get all of my clothes? Where are we going?" I burst with questions while Anne pulls a stealthy smirk across her face.

"Jai called me yesterday and told me what to say and do, all I had to do was follow his instructions." She shrugs. "I'm happy to help." Her smile is genuine and I'm glad I met a sweet girl my age for the first time.

"What did you say to my mom?" I ask curiously; she looked pretty heartbroken when she spoke with Anne and didn't fret at letting me leave the house.

"It's actually pretty messed up, but um-" She takes a deep breath before continuing. "I told her my mom was in the hospital, dying from cancer for the past few weeks and you were staying with me because I wasn't in a good state, you know, helping me cope."

My eyebrows rise and knit together in surprise at the bull shit story, and how dark it is to lie about something so real. "Anyways," she sighs, "that's where you've been these past few weeks when you were really with Luke, so you shouldn't be in trouble."

"Thank you, I really appreciate this." I watch as she takes the liberty to go through my closet which is practically empty due to the amount of clothes I brought to my aunt's house which are now lying on the floor in the bags Anne brought. "Where are we going?" I see her pacing through hangers and stopping at every dark piece of clothing, which is what most of my wardrobe consists of, grimacing and then continuing on to the next piece.

"Oh, yeah." She stops her search, and speaks with her head still facing the inside of the small closet. "My mom's funeral."

"I had no idea your mom was sick, I'm sorry." She shakes her head, slightly bowing it.

"My mom's not dead." An uptight laugh escapes under her breath.

"Wait, what? So, what are we doing? Are we going to go to the boys' house? The mall?" I ask, relieved that her mom hadn't actually died and I didn't have to comfort a girl I met the day before yesterday in one of the most tough times of her life.

"No, Alex. We're still going to a funeral, it's just not my mom's." I'm taken aback. Who the hell died? I saw Jai not too long ago and he would have told me if anything happened to anyone he knew, and besides him I didn't really have any friends. The only family I had were currently in the house except for my aunt who I've been checking her Facebook constantly for updates with her and her boyfriend in Puerto Rico, and they're doing just fine on the island surrounded by see-through water.

"Who is it?" I ask slowly, fearing the answer.

"She died last night, we were with him when he found out."

"Anne, just tell me already."

"Zach's mom....she's dead."

_______

The last conversation I had with the woman was about six months ago, when she convinced me to break up with Zach, telling me I was too good to be treated the way he did me. She was caring and honest, even when it came to the truth about her only son, and I admired each of her features in hopes I could one day posses them myself.