Fire Escapes

Chapter Five

"Okay, so that chick who I admire for getting you drunk is married to the weirdo who lives upstairs?"
I nodded, keeping my eyes on the road and hoping I wouldn't have to go through the whole story again.
I glanced over at my brother, who was squinting and nodding his head slowly.
"Okay.."
I nodded again, my eyes latched back onto the road.
"And.."
He started. I threw my head back with a groan, forgetting about the higher part of the car seat and slamming the back of my skull against it rather violently.
It really wasn't that hard to understand.
"...she has a daughter who is approximately fourteen or fifteen years old?"
I made a loud whining sound and hit my head against the window a couple of times in despair.
"Ew, Theodore, she's twenty four, for goodness' sake!"
"Then she's his daughter."
He guessed without tearing his eyes from the road as he drove.
"Duh."
There were a few peaceful moments of quiet which I was enjoying, before my joy was killed by Teddy's voice.
"Have I ever told you how much I appreciate you hanging out with me?"
He said. I frowned, knowing that a strange request of some sort was coming my way.
"I have no choice." I whispered to my womb buddy.
"Well yeah, I know," he said, and I instantly felt bad. I had just been joking.
"But I mean, you're like the brother I never had."
At this I furrowed my brows and, frowning, I quickly turned to glare at him.
"First, I am a female. Therefore, your sister. Second, you have a brother," I paused to take a breath, " and third, just get to the point and tell me what you want."
He grinned and cleared his throat.
"Well," he paused to clear his throat a second time.
"I am not taking you out for lunch because I need to bond with you better." I raised both my eyebrows.
"If I had wanted to do that, I would have just called you and asked you to come over with pizza and fizzy water and family photos to make fun of."
Him coming to get me with his car and in actual nice clothes had indeed seemed too good to be true, and if you are wondering, yes, pizza and fizzy water were how we bonded.
I wasn't really hurt, I had sort of suspected something already.
"I'm taking you with me so that you can meet someone."
"Who?"
"You'll see.

About five minutes later we were at Teddy's all time favorite restaurant, which I honestly didn't dislike either.
As soon as I scrambled out of the car, Teddy grabbed my wrist and spun around to look at me. His eyes were wide, and for a moment he almost looked nervous.
"How do I look?"
I kind of grimaced and patted his shoulder with my free hand.
"You look fine." I didn't see what all the fuss was about until he spun around again and waved at someone. It took me a couple of seconds before realizing that he was waving at a girl sitting at a table in the far off corner, by a tree.
His grip still tight around my wrist, he dragged me towards the girl. I had to jump over feet and dodge a few chairs, considering that Teddy refused to let go and I didn't want to seriously injure any of the other people having a peaceful lunch outside.
Once I had reached safety, my brother let go of my arm and I managed to regain my balance. I straightened my shirt before turning my attention to this new friend of my brother's.
The girl seemed to be around my age. She had shoulder length black hair, which looked just like that of a shampoo commercial model. She looked up at me and smiled. I wouldn't have been surprised if her teeth were to damage my eyesight with how shiny and perfect they were.
"Izzy, this is Joanna, my girlfriend."
I lifted an arm and gave her a small wave, attempting to make my frown look less frown-like and to cover the shock. It was pretty safe to guess that I was not expecting any of this. It was what, his first week in New York?
"Joanna, this is Izzy, my sister."
Joanna stood up and reached out to shake my hand with that same bright smile plastered on her face.
"Nice to meet you."
I took her hand and tried to wheeze out some answer to that, but I felt like my vocal cords had murdered each other in a fit of anger. Joanna gave me a concerned look, but then decided to sit down. Teddy did the same and eventually so did I.
I picked up the menu and started staring at the word 'bread', hoping to avoid any conversation with this new human in my brother's life.
I heard someone clear their throat, before realizing that they both were watching me.
"You okay there, Iz?"
Asked my brother. I nodded.
"Why shouldn't I be?"
He looked at Joanna and then back at me.
"You kind of look like you're trying to burn a hole into the menu with your glare."
Said Joanna with a high pitched little giggle.
I raised both eyebrows and quickly lowered the menu. I felt my face heat up as I looked away, avoiding the two's gaze.
After a few moments of silence, I decided to start a conversation. Yes, I was being rude. I had never been a big fan of Teddy's girlfriends, but this time I had the chance to prove I was a good sibling and that I was okay with this. Perhaps Joanna wasn't that bad.
"So how did you two meet?"
Joanna quickly turned to look at me, a smile slowly spreading across her face.
She moved towards Teddy and looped her arm around his, squeezing it.
"Well, I was at this pizza place, waiting for a few pizza's I planned on taking away home and I saw him standing there, waiting for his pizza's as well,"
She paused to stare into his eyes with such an enamored look I almost threw back up the food which I had not yet ordered, but desired so.
"And I was holding five bottles of fizzy water, you know," Teddy, who had decided to take over looked at me and pointed first at me, than at himself, then at me again, " for you and I. But then she came up to me asking if I needed a hand with all the bottles."
Joanna giggled and slammed her hand against the table and leaning towards me.
"I mean, he just looked so lost. He had no bags and he was trying to balance them all in one arm. So I walked up to him and asked him if he needed a hand, and that's when I noticed it was fizzy water!"
Teddy was grinning like an idiot, and so was Joanna. I was trying so hard to hold up my smile, but it felt like my face was gonna fall off anytime now.
"And it turns out she loves fizzy water and pizza, too! So we just went to the park and had pizza and fizzy water together."
I raised both eyebrows and nodded, my already fake smile now a fake grin.
"Wow, that's amazing!" I exclaimed. Then it hit me.
"Is that the uh," I paused and looked at the ground a second while scratching the back of my hand with my left hand as I used the right to nervously pick at the corner of my menu.
"Is that the night you canceled on me?"
Me had made plans a few days before, and he had called me to cancel. I could still remember an annoying giggle in the background.
Teddy's smile had faded and he opened his mouth to answer, but before he could do so, Joanna decided it was up to her to diffuse the tension, although maybe that's not what she was trying to do.
"It's okay, Izzy. I mean, he always gets to hang out with you." She paused and gave him a quick peck on the mouth.
"Give him a break." She giggled.
My mouthy slightly gaped open. All I wanted in that moment was to hit that girl with the menu, but I didn't. As any civilized person would do, I smiled and nodded although, making sure they couldn't see me, I reached my hand into my bag to find my phone. I would not sit at the same table as this girl for any longer than I had to.
"You're right, Joanna. Sorry."
I tilted my head to the side and smiled as sweetly as I could before glancing down at my phone, which I had manage to pull out of the bag, and faking a gasp.
"Oh my God, Auri is in the hospital!"
I was one hundred percent sure those theater classes I had taken as a kid were not helping me right now, but I didn't care if it was believable or not. I just had to get the hell out of there.
"I'm so, so sorry, guys!" I stood up suddenly and without glancing at the two one more time, I ran off as fast as I could.