Forever and Always (On Hold)

chapter 2:

"Hi. I'm Brian Reynolds." the dark brown haired, blue eyed boy at the counter says. " Me and my family just moved here from Maine." He smiles a beautiful toothy grin, revealing perfectly straight, glossy white teeth.

My stumach is fluttering with butterflies and my hands are shaking like crazy. Brian is very attractive. I've never felt this way with a guy before. What is going on? I know it's embarrassing. Junior in high school, never had a boyfriend.

Wow. From Maine, to Indiana. Thats a pretty big temperature difference!

"Skylar Anderson." I say shyly smiling back. "And this is my brother Tyler." A wave down at my brother, who was busy having a staring contest with a stuffed bear on the shelf. "Say hi, Tyler."

Tyler tilts his head to meet my gaze, and then turns to meet Brian's. " Hi Tyler." and i cant help laugh. Little kids are so clueless sometimes.

"No silly, say hi to him! Brian. " I say pointing a finger to Brian. "Not yourself!" Brian joins my laughter, and Tyler gets in his confused face.

"He sure is a funny one." Brian's deep voice says between laughter and Tyler finally clues in. 

"Hi!" He yells in his childish accent. 

"Hey, Tyler." Brian says. " Come here. I've got a secret to tell you." He says with a smirk in my direction. Uhh ohh.

Tyler's face lights up and he hops over to a waiting Brian, who gets down on his knees to be eye level with Ty.

"Phsssssshsssssssss. pssssssssss" He whispers in Tyler's ear.

His cheeks are covered with a devious little kid grin. "How could you dink dat?!?" Think what? Oh gosh.

"Because it's true." Brian replies smiling at me again.

"Ewwwwwww!" Tyler screams running around in circles. "Yucky! Yucky! Yucky!" Now i'm really curious.

"What did you tell him?" I ask quietly, so Ty can't hear.

" Haha. You just may never know that. Maybe..." He says with his beautiful grin

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"Sissy, can you buy me dis?" He still has trouble saying his TH's. Tyler points to the little brown bear the he was staring at earlier. "Pweassse?!" He also has trouble with his L's.

I smile down at his pleading face. "Sure, honey." Tyler grabs the bear and throws it on the conveyor belt.

"Dis too!"

Brian smiles. "Of coarse."

"Hey Skylar, we should hang out some time." Brian says with a flash of his brilliant smile after we're all payed for. "Here's my number." He hands me a slip of paper.

Brian Reynolds. ( the grorcery guy ;) )

412-897-1234

"Yeah, maybe." I give him one more smile before carrying the groceries to the car.

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" I just don't have time for guys." I say to myself, throwing Brian's phone number in the trash can. "Not right now."

I climb out the bedroom window and to my hideout. Tyler is playing at Mr. and Mrs. Alberney's house. Mr. and Mrs. Albery are my 50 year old neighbors who absolutely adore Tyler. He loves them just as much, and with the family troubles going on lately, he's been spending a lot of time over there lately. I send him over every time drunk dad comes home and any other time Tyler wants to see them.

Dad always loved alcohol, but now that mom left, he is overly stressed, and usually drunk. He started spending a lot of time at the bar as of yesterday evening, five minutes after mom left. Ever since, he's only been home twice. Yesterday at 6:30, completely drunk, for dinner and right now, for who knows what. Every time he comes home (obviously not often) , I go into hiding until hes gone again. Drunk driving right back to the bar.

"Hmmph." I grunt laying back on the hot shingles, letting the sun soak into  my skin. It's pretty tough knowing that your mom doesn't want you anymore and your dad doesn't care about you because all he wants is beer. As usual, when I think about what is happening in my family, I silently cry and wish things were better. But that isn't going to happen, so I should probably try and make the best of the situation. Somehow...

Eventually, i lift up my shirt, exposing my stomach. Might as well get a tan.

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Vrrrm. Vrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmm.

It sounds like dad finally decided to leave. I better go clean up a bit before I pick up Tyler. Sliding through my window, and padding down the stairs, I find the kitchen a mess. Looks like dad got hungry.

There are dishes piled up a foot out of the sink. How many did he really need? There's food smeared all over the counter, a box worth of Cheez-its in the garbage disposal, cans of coke littering the floor, and spaghetti on the walls. Who knew one man could do so much damage in an hour and a half?

"Uggh." And with that, I begin the wild journey of cleaning up the kitchen.