I Try

Chapter 16 - Chapstick

Beth’s Point of View

The dial tone rang in my ear as I tapped my foot impatiently on the ground. I was about to chew my lip off, and there was only one person I could talk to that wasn’t involved in this situation.

“Hello?” The voice on the other end answered. 

“Anna!” I exclaimed into the phone. “Anna, Anna, Anna, help me. Help me, oh my god.”

“Beth, talk to me. What’s going on?”

At that point I burst into tears and told her everything. So much had happened in less than twelve hours, it was just madness. When I finished, I waited for Anna’s advice. 

“Didn’t I tell you?” she said. 

I halted my pacing. “Tell me what? Did you tell me that my older sister was going to show up and ask me to come home, to a wedding that’s a farce, no less, where she’s engaged to-” I cut myself off, coughing. “I don’t recall you warning me of this Anna.”

I can hear her smirk through the phone. “No, not that part. What else happened?”

I press my hand to my temple, in no mood for guessing games. “I really have no clue, I’m pretty sure I have a migraine coming on.”

“Think.”

I huff out in frustration and close my eyes, mulling over the growing list of atrocities that were piling up in my life like a wreck on 580. Suddenly my eyes slammed open and I knew the answer. “You’re talking about the Bryan thing, aren’t you? The time when you were grilling him on if he had male friends and rambling about how he should know better than them how to treat women, you were...you knew he loved me.”

“That’s what I was saying the entire time.” She said, in her way that sounded especially like Sherlock Holmes. She had no idea my whole world had been crushed in on itself like an industrial garbage compressor and left to reshape. I told her I’d call her back and sat with my back to the wall. 

It was a Saturday morning, one that dawned bright and sunny. I stretched in my bed a few extra seconds, admiring the way my curtains billowed in the breeze before throwing my torso upward and striding into the kitchen. Bryan was asleep with his mouth open, soft snores escaping his lips. I crossed my arms and smiled wryly. 

The light hit him just right and I grabbed my camera, adjusting the lens and looking through it. I had to get a picture of this, he looked like a little kid. 

The click of the camera jolted him awake and he peeked at me with one eye open. “Must you?” he asked, half irritated and half amused. I giggled and jumped onto my feet, running for my room. The thump of his feet hitting the ground indicated he was following and I slammed my door shut, trying to lock it before Bryan could reach it, but I wasn’t fast enough.