Beloved: Memoir of a Phantom

Chapter 1- Saturday

CHAPTER 1

                                            Saturday

I was preening in front of the mirror, trying to figure out what to do with my far too long red hair. After all, this was going to be my first date ever.

I was still incredibly nervous, even though it was only a date with a group of friends. I'm pretty certain I left the house looking like a circus clown by the amount of makeup I was obsessively applying, but luckily nobody seemed to notice, or if they did they didn't say anything.

I headed over to Genia’s house a few streets over, a little after sunset to meet up with the rest of the group. When I got there, Gene's sister Brynda answered the door.

If there was ever two siblings that were at opposite ends of the gene pool; it was these two. Where Genia was short with brown hair and brown eyes, and surprisingly not shy, Bryn was tall; with long, wavy pale blonde hair that she always worn up in a ponytail, a narrow, gaunt face and brown eyes so vivid they looked red. I hate to admit it, but Bryn has always sort of given me the creeps. She seldom said anything, seldom went out, and very seldom answers the door or phone. So, you could imagine my surprise when she answered the door.

“Hi…Um, I was supposed to meet Genia. They didn’t already go, did they?” “No…everybody’s inside waiting.” She said slowly with a hint of annoyance. She led me in without a sound to the large living room that was filled with a large group of people; standing around talking to one another.

“Is, over here!” I turned to see Gabriel sitting in the corner near Genia and Gabriel’s friend with the flat-top haircut and the horn-rimmed glasses from the coffee shop. I made my way over cutting through the crowd of people, surprised that I only recognised a few.

“Who are all these people?” I directed at Genia; she didn’t seem to hear me.

Gabriel answered for her instead. “Oh, that’s just Bryn’s pack. I forgot they meet here Saturdays, or I would have picked another meeting place.” He said so calmly as if there was nothing unusual about the words he had just spoke.

“Pack?” I said now really confused by what he meant.

“Perhaps I worded that wrong. They’re her gang. You know, her group?” He fumbled for the words.

“Yeah, her friends that visit here every Wednesday and Saturday night.” Genia chimed in finally dragging her attention away from her new friend. “Don’t ask me what they do; but all that I know is Bryn usually comes home at dawn. One time she came home without her shoes. Weird.” She shivered.

“Oh.” I said “They aren’t coming too are they?”

“No, don’t worry. The Group for the movies cancelled, so it’s just going to be You, Me, Genia, and Chris here.” Gabriel replied nodding at his friend.

Oh my goodness it was now a double date. And there was no question that Chris was with Gene…

We went to the latest showing that night at the Bijou. We girls wanted to see Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the guys wanted to see a monster movie. So we decided to do the monster movie this week and see the chick flick some other night.

The film was really cheesy, but I wasn’t paying much attention to the screen and spent most of my time staring stupidly at Gabriel (can you guess why?).

“What?” He kept asking with an amused smile on his face.

At which point I would blush and mutter an apology.

Genia, when she wasn’t wrapped in conversation with Chris would throw little bits of popcorn at me and followed up with a look that said don’t screw this one up.