Desultory

chapter 3.

MEET ME & WE SHALL SHOP

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Deciding that I wouldn't be able to survive on the money my mother left me forever, I wound up at a nearby cafe to see if they had a job opening. It turned out that they did and I ended up landing the job due to the shortage of staff, as a few people had quit, to go off to college in another state. I had never worked anywhere before but the manager, Mr Li, assured me that it was fine and I just needed to work hard and catch up.

As I walked home, I thought about how much I had already changed in such a short time. My heart ached for myself, not because I was sorry for myself but because I had honestly felt that I would have received at least a phone call from my father. No matter how much he had hurt me, and how much I hated him, he was still my father, my family. No matter how many things changed, how much you changed, you could never swap your family. They were your own blood, and no matter how hard you tried you could never let go of that, and you would forever and always love them.

I found Seven sitting against my door when I returned. She was paging through a book. I caught the title as I approached, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I smirked to myself, I had never thought of Seven as the type to read these kinds of books or any books at all for that matter. You could never tell much about the person from their appearances, I guess.

She stood as I reached her and smiled at me, receiving a roll of the eyes in return. The strange thing was that she always smiled at me, and when she smirked, it meant that I was in trouble, which she did as she settled on my couch, placing The Alchemist on the coffee table. I sighed through my nose. I knew that she would bring up the party again and I was getting slightly amused by it. For the first time, I had a friend telling me to attend a party instead of avoiding it.

My friends back in Chicago were the nerdy type. Most of them were bitches as well; they would glance at me with disgust if I even asked whether anyone would attend any parties that were to occur. I had no one else to hang out with, though, so I was stuck with them until they ditched me.

Seven stands up and bounces on the balls of her feet as she grabs my wrist. I roll my eyes once again. When Seven is overexcited, she tends to become a little like a small kid in a candy store. Pulling my hand back, I walk into my room and drop on the bed. Obviously, Seven has to come and jump onto my bed as well. Grabbing a pillow, she hits me with it.

"A few of the seniors are coming to the party." She squeals. I turn my head to look at her as I fall back on the bed. I kind of admired her now. I mean, it couldn't be easy to take all the shit from people (everyone, really) about her being lesbian, but I saw her every day. I could see that it got to her but she tried to ignore it. She told me that they were just cowards, and they didn't have the courage to stand up for themselves, so they went around bullying others. I knew this of course. My mother used to describe my father as a bully (though she loved him, once I had asked her what that meant and she used nearly the same description as Seven did. My mother would have loved Seven. I quirk my eyebrow at her.

"And?"

"And this girl is going to be there." She mumbles, burying her face in one of my throw pillows. I smiled to myself; Seven had told me so much about this girl, though she rarely referred to her by name. This girl's name is Cat, she was a sophomore and she was bi. Before I could tease her about it, as I always did, Seven flicked my nose.

"That's why I need you to come with me. Come on, Brooke. I promise it'll be fun, there's gonna be guys there too you know." Knowing that I wouldn't win, I sighed and finally gave in, much to Seven's pleasure, and my displeasure. Nevertheless, I was still looking forward to it.