When All Else is Gone

•Chapter One• Parents and Sisters...Suck

Heather laid with her head hanging over the edge of her bed. Her arms were crossed in a defiance that no one could see. She stared unblinking and upside down at her locked door.
Her long light brown hair dangled and and then lay in a mess on the ground at the foot of her bed. Her hazel eyes were pink around the edges and filled with tears which had smudged the makeup she had worked so meticulously to put on.

Gravity was a thing and so the tears ran up her forehead and into her hair. It wasn't fair. She hated them and this time she would never forgive them. This always happened... She worked so hard but every time she almost had a good life they'd ruin it. She had been so happy... She had been so excited.

It had started on Tuesday at school. It was like an angel had given her the perfect chance. Brian had it all. His hair was the perfect shade of brown. That was the only way you could describe it.  He never combed it but it always looked amazing. Somehow it matched his complexion perfectly to make him look so... striking. He had these green eyes... He had perfect teeth. He would turn and smile then the sun would reflect off it, like in some kind of cheesy movie. He played basketball. He was so coordinated, just good at everything and everyone liked him. It didn't even make sense how perfect he was.

Heather sat two seats in front of him and one row to the left in Math class. How stupid was it that she would drop her pencil just to look back and get a glance at him? How weird was it that she calculated just how often she could drop it without seeming too clumsy? (Once every 13 to 17 days by the way.) She would never forget how they 'officially' met. It had been her silent prayer to make a good first impression. There was a small bonus to being invisible. If she could just work up the courage she could choose when she was noticed.

Brian had been standing in the hallway leaning up against his locker. He was thumbing through his textbook and shaking his head.
"What's an Isockless triangle?" He asked his basketball buds just as Heather was walking by.
"A what..?" One of them said looking over his shoulder. The other boys were distracted with some kind of horse play. It looked like two of them were trying to stuff something into another boy's locker while he was trying to stop them.
"Isockless?" Brian repeated sounding even more confused.
Heather probably would've just kept walking if he had said anything else. She always hesitated, her breath seemed to catch in her throat when it came to speaking with strangers... cute strangers. But Heather had this sort of innate impulse to answer questions. Especially if it was something academic, it just sort of spilled out automatically. She stopped and turned her head towards him.
"Isosceles?" She asked, gently correcting his atrocious mispronunciation.

He looked up at her somewhat surprised but then checked back to his book. "Oh yeah, Isosceles. That's the one." He chuckled as if embarrassed. Heather could feel heat rushing to her cheeks but absolutely refused to blush. Be cool, be cool, be cool. She chanted silently to herself.
"It's just a triangle with two equal sides." She explained with a smile.
"Oh." He blinked.
"Yeah, they should just call it a two equal side triangle." She laughed slightly.
To her delight he laughed as well. "That would be nice."
She was making an impression this was her chance. Okay relate and put him at ease. She reminded herself.
"Yeah, it confuses me all the time." She smiled. Not strictly true... "People just like to come up with smart sounding names for things to seem smart." She said. Again it wasn't true the word had Greek origins. Isos meant equal and skelos meant leg... equal legs, it made sense and she knew that. He liked her words though. His smile widened showing those magic teeth. "That's so true!" he chuckled. "Just name it simply so I don't have to look it up." He shook his head feigning displeasure. Heather nodded unsure what else to say and he paused for a second.

"Say, how come I haven't seen you around?" Part of her died... but she couldn't miss this chance.
"Hmm, I guess we don't have any classes together." Except math class. Everyday! She raged silently. "Must be." He nodded agreement. One of the boys who had been fooling around was thrown into Brian but he just took a back step and caught his friend. The boys apparently finished with their game headed for the door. Brian steadied his friend and sent him on his way. His gaze followed his friends but then returned to Heather. "Hey I've got to go but thanks a lot for the help."
"My pleasure." Heather smiled. Brian gave her a wave and began to walk away but turned back around a few steps later. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Brian and I didn't catch your name." He said walking backwards. "It's Heather." She smiled again almost sure she was beginning to blush now.
"Okay Heather this is a bit out of the blue but I'm having this party on Friday. A lot of people from school will be there. You're definitely invited if you wanna come." This time she was just stunned into silence. Had Brian just invited her to a party?
"Just see me or one of my friends tomorrow if you're interested. We'll give you the info."
Definitely invited. Her mind was swimming.
"Okay...um cool." She managed just as he turned around again.
"Sweet, see you around Heather." He had said just before running to catch up with his friends.