Good Girls Don't Bite

Chapter 3 ~ Last Night Alive

Chapter 3 ~ Last Night Alive

            The rest of the weekend had traveled by pretty fast. After the mall with Stevie Sunday morning, I locked myself in my room for the rest of the day to prepare myself for finals and for my last history test that would be taking place the next day during first period. There I sat in the middle of my floor with stacks of papers circling me like castle walls. All the while, the bags of clothes picked out by Stevie at the mall sat on my vanity, glaring at me. Remember when I had said that the black lace dress Stevie had bought me for my birthday would be the last time I allowed her to buy me something? Well, I lied. She was going to make me wear the several new outfits she picked out at the mall, all of which I was not in favor for. However, she said if I didn’t she was going make my walk the three miles to school by stealing the keys to my car. I wasn’t planning on taking the chance.

            “Eli, honey?” I heard my mother call from the top of the stairs.

            “Studying for finals, Mom. What do you need?” I called back, almost too snappily. I pushed my glasses up to rub my blurring eyes tiredly before reading the notes about the Bubonic Plague.

            “Your father and I are going out for a little while. Can you just keep an eye on Jacob?” she asked. I sighed, moving onto my next sheet of notes.

            “Sure,” I said, hurriedly scribbling down some extra notes about Shakespeare for my English Finals. I heard her heels echoing away followed by the front door slammed shut a couple minutes later.

            “Eli!” Jacob yelled once I heard the car back out of the driveway.

            “What?”

            “Can we order a pizza? Mom and Dad left us twenty bucks for emergency,” he informed me but I was too wrapped up in my studying to think before I blurted out what came first to mind.

            “Yeah, sure, whatever,” I replied distracted. Then my cellphone vibrated from my side table and I grudgingly crawled across my scattered papers to get it, thinking it might be my parents checking in or asking me to do something. I didn’t even look down at the caller ID before answering.

            “Hello?”

            “Hey, Eli, it’s Stevie.” My friend sang from the other end. I mentally rolled my eyes as I crawled back to the only space in my room where I could see my blue carpet while the rest of my room was momentarily covered in work papers.

            “What do you need? I’m stuck babysitting and I’m literally drowning in papers.” I bit as I held my phone between my ear and shoulder so I could use both of my hands to search through my papers for more Shakespeare study sheets.

            “I was just calling to see if you wanted to come over and watch a couple horror movies, but before you hang up on me why don’t I ask if you want me to head to your place and help out. Not that I’ll study with you,” she laughed. “But I can take care of your little bro or something.” She offered. I was too tired to say no and get caught up in a silly argument so I quickly agreed and hung up; throwing my phone across the room so it couldn’t bother me anymore.

            “Eli!” Jacob whined loudly. I moaned dramatically, falling forward in frustration into my paperwork.

            “What is it Jacob?” I yelled back, burying my face in the pages of my Social Studies textbook.

            “I can’t reach the shelf where Mom put the money,” he complained. I groaned as I stifled to my feet and dragged myself up the stairs and into the kitchen, giving my brother an annoyed look.

            “Maybe the reason you can’t reach it is because it was placed on the shelf because Mom and Dan only trusted me with it. Speaking of, if they ask about the pizza; you ordered it when I was in the shower.” I said, grabbing the twenty and handing it to him. He just beamed up at me as he skipped back into the living room to resume his movie.

            “Well, how else am I going to pay the pizza guy?” Jacob replied with attitude dripping off his voice. I rolled my eyes as I collapsed onto the couch beside him, deciding to wait there for the pizza guy so that the fourteen-year-old dweeb didn’t do it himself and end up getting kidnapped. Then how will I ever get to studying when the police and News 8 are packed into my house.

            “What the heck are you watching?” I asked him while my eyes remained glued to the TV where a couple was being brutally stabbed to death by a guy draped in black attire.

            “Zodiac,” he said nonchalantly, his eyes widening when the murderer began walking away leisurely.

            “Little graphic, don’t you think?” I glanced over at him, but before he could respond, the doorbell rang and a growl erupted from my stomach as I shot up to get the door, Jacob trailing behind me. I opened the door to see Stevie standing there, grinning wildly with the pizza box in her hand, a slice in the other.

            “Hope you don’t mind. I kind of just helped myself,” she said with a mouthful of pizza. She looked down and saw the twenty-dollar-bill in Jacob’s hand and quickly swiped it away. “Thanks for paying me back so quickly for the pizza,” she smirked as she mussed Jacob’s chocolate-colored hair before waltzing into the kitchen.

            “The pizza only cost thirteen bucks,” Jacob raised his eyebrows expectantly as he held out a hand towards Stevie. She laughed, amused.

            “Consider the other seven Washingtons part of the interest,” she mused, stuffing the last bite into her mouth. Jacob pouted as he took his own slice, muttering under his breath as he stomped back into the living room.

            “Moody little bugger,” Stevie mumbled while I leaned against the island in the middle of the kitchen, silently eating my own slice.

            “So, what have you been studying for, Sexy Nerd?” my friend looked to me as she laughed about my glasses. I narrowed my eyes at her as I slowly bit down into my pizza.

            “Finals,” I said, raising an eyebrow at her. “Like you should be doing if you ever plan on going to college.”

            “Silly Eli!” Stevie cackled. “College is easy. You just have to know which one you want to go to.” I stared at her for a moment, thinking about all the things that could have possibly went wrong with Stevie’s mind.

            “Stop staring at me like that and get back to nerding-around. I’ll watch the little turd,” Stevie smiled as she pointed at my room with her pizza before heading into the living room to sit with Jacob and watch the movie with him. I sighed, finishing my dinner and sulking towards my room to go drown myself in work.