BAD REPUTATION [SCOTT REED]

SEVENTEEN

"HE WHAT!"

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Alona woke up with a unshakable gutfeeling that something bad was about to happen or is already happening. She couldn't shake it off with the extremely cold shower she had and another third mug of coffee, skipping breakfast and keeping her eyes trained on her phone.

Scott hadn't been responding to her messages and it was totally unusual of him not to message her first thing in the morning because she usually wakes up to double texts from him. After she came home from Zach's, it was only then that she realized Scott has been flooding her with frantic texts and calls about where she was and if they could talk. She replied as soon as she saw the notifications but he never replied to any of it.

Joaquin sneakily stole glances at his sister; tearing his eyes from the book he was reading and noticed the troubled look on her face, the food in her plate untouched and neglected. He discreetly stepped on her foot under the table, careful not to draw their Mom's attention who was bustling around the house looking for her peach colored heels. He whispered, "You okay?"

"Yeah, nothing, I'm good." Alona brushed him off and along with it, brushing the thoughts boggling her mind, taking a deep breath and downing her mug of coffee. When Joaquin continued to watch her with worry and concern, she rolled her eyes and threw a thumb-sized macadamia nut at him she got from the jar in the middle of the table, hitting him square on the middle of his eyebrows.

"Ow! Eso duele, hijo de puta!" Joaquin screeched, putting a hand over the sore spot. "I was just trying to help, cabron."

Isabel's faint voice cuts through the house, her source of yell coming from the second floor of the house and in her room as she continued to spectate her room in a last minute search for her heels. "Alona, quit torturing you brother! Dios mio, all you do is fight and fight, what will happen to both of you when I die, huh? Si supiera que me darían dos hijos obstinados, debería haber rechazado—"

"—la oferta de nuestro padre de sexo sin protección." Alona finished off, shuddering along with her brother. She grimaced, "Si, mama, we don't need to hear you say that again."

She turned back to her younger brother glaring at her, sporting a small and red splotch in between his eyebrows where the macadamia hits him. "I was just trying to ask if you were okay. You looked like a cow shit."

Alona flipped him off, gathering her stuff and twirling her car keys nonchalantly. "No need to get all sappy with me, hermano. I'll wait in the car. Don't make me leave your dumb ass here again."

When Alona arrived at the parking lot, Zach was already waiting for her by the school doors and they trudged to the spot where they planned to put Alex's banner. Alona wasn't much of a help, she just watched Zach with a blank stare as he struggled to put it up decently.