If Life Was Simple

Chapter 4

     The rest of the week was pretty easy going. Mom had many odd hiding places for that damn alarm clock of mine, including my t-shirt drawer, under my desk, next to my bedside table, and in Malcolm's room (it was his idea). The classes were simple, barely any homework. The state of New York says that junior students need to take the whole year of math, English and home economics, and they have three classes that are up to them. My schedule consists of math, English, Econ, art, band, and choir. Lex is in my art class, Carmen is in my choir class. Except for lunch, that's all I see them. It's not all that bad, though. Brandon is in ALL of my classes. All of them.
In band, we've started three pieces: the Jaws theme song, the Jurassic Park theme song, and "Hedwig's Theme," from Harry Potter. Each day was classified as "so-so," and after a week of this, it was finally Saturday. I was very excited to sleep in, but was rudely awaken by Flora.
"WAKE UP!" Flora yelled as she pulled a Bundle and jumped up and down my spine. I smacked her with my pillow. She did not cease.
"Why should I?" I asked coldly. Flora kept bouncing. I groaned.
"There's a BOY here!" she shouted, still hopping along my backside. I rolled my eyes. She finally stopped jumping and I rolled over on my back. I raised one eyebrow at her.
"He's probably Malcolm's friend, so go break his spine, not mine," I told her, wanting ever so much for her to leave. She still stood over me on my bed.
"He said he's here for YOU!" She yelled as she bounced on my stomach. I clutched my midriff in pain. She stopped but still loomed over me. I pulled off my comforter and reluctantly got out of my warm bed.
I traipsed down the stairs, not really caring that I was wearing a random tee off my shelf with zebra striped fuzzy shorts. My parents weren't home, they were off somewhere with their friends doing hell-knows-what.
I wandered into the kitchen, spotting someone who was totally unexpected: Brandon. He saw me and held up a bag of donuts. Malcolm was sitting with him, scarfing down a pastry. I was so surprised. I hadn't the slightest idea of what to say. I walked over to the table, still speechless. Brandon smiled. I smiled (I think) back. I took a seat next to Malcolm across the table from Brandon.
"Morning," Brandon greeted. He pushed me the bag of donuts towards me.
     "Morning," I said. "Thanks for the donuts." He smiled. That smile could brighten the whole world. That smile made me want to faint. No joke.
"Brandon?"
"Mm?"
"What are you doing here, exactly?"
He hesitated. He seemed to be thinking about it, not sure at all how to answer my question. He opened his mouth to say something at least twice, but ended up closing it again because he didn't know. Malcolm kept looking between the two of us, not sure what to make of this, so he got up and left. My heart skipped a beat. We were alone. Uh-oh.
"I am here because I wanted to be here, and I don't know why," he replied eventually. "Is that enough answer for you?" I nodded, he looked down and laughed.
"Really, though, it's probably because I want us to be friends again," he told me, and my heart fluttered. I smiled.
"Let me go change, and then we can go do whatever the hell you want," I said, walking upstairs. I was soooooo freaking happy. But....why? Why did he want to do this all of a sudden? Is he playing me? Using me? I shrugged to myself. I threw on an Ed Sheeran concert tee and some jeans, then headed back downstairs with my hair in a braid.
"So, what do you want to do?" I asked, secretly excited as hell. He reached into a bag and pulled out some game cases.
"I know you have a lot of gaming systems, so I brought Call of Duty to see how good you are at it," he replies, a grin on his face. I cracked my knuckles and led him to the basement where we kept the Xbox. I inserted the game, and sat down, patting the spot next to me on the couch. He plopped down, accepting the controller I handed to him.
     We began gameplay. Most of the first round consisted of me blowing him to smithereens with my hand grenades. He was not as good as he believed. Every time I found him, he would exclaim something like 'crap' or 'dammit' or 'motherfxcking shit what the hell.' I laughed a little harder every time.
     The second round was a bit different. Instead of exploding him, I decided to shoot his head off every time I found him. Brandon kept shouting profanities when he found his head had gone kablooey. My giggling could not be ceased when Brandon threw a pillow on his face as he discovered he lost. Eventually, and by eventually I mean literally five seconds later, Brandon stopped freaking out and laughed with me.
     When our laughter finally ceased, we held our stomachs and smiled at each other.
     "Olivia, I'd like to confess something," Brandon began. "I'm here because I like you." My heart skipped a beat. I smiled even bigger than I had already been. "And," he continued, smiling a big smile as well, "you like me too."
     My smile faded. "How did you find out?" I asked, super nervous for no apparent reason. He chuckled.
     "To be fair, you were being kind of obvious," he replied. I blushed, and visibly cringed. Dammit. I didn't think it was THAT obvious. Ugh.
     I tried to change the subject. "Want to go to the park?" I asked, eager to be outside. The sun was shining, I could even here birds chirping from in here. He nodded, and stood up.
     I told Malcolm where we were going, when Mom would be home, and when we would be home. He nodded, and Brandon and I waltzed out the door. The boy I liked was heading to the park with me and it was only 11:00 a.m.