someone like you (joel pimentel)

chapter three

• vanessa •

joel: i can't wait to meet you tonight

I haven't felt butterflies like this in my stomach since the beginning days of Antonio and I's relationship. I quickly replied and set my phone on my dresser. It was currently ten in the morning, and Brandon and I just finished eating breakfast. My phone beeped again, and I went to read it immediately hoping it was Joel.

antonio: can we talk?

antonio: it's important.

I stared at the messages from my ex-boyfriend and Brandon's father. Our relationship was a cliché friends turned lovers. We've known each other for most of our lives. Our mothers were best friends from college and were sorority sisters. Of course, after they graduated, my mother went back to Miami and met my father. They didn't lose contact, because every since Antonio's father got a job at the same law firm as my father, our families have had Sunday brunches, camping trips, family trips, everything you could think of our families did together.

I had never thought of him in an 'I like you' type of way until the summer before our freshman year of high school. A new family moved into the house beside mine, and I became friends with their daughter. Tatiana and I became close friends, and she was my first ever friend that was a girl. We talked about boys, and everything, which led her to ask if Antonio and I were dating. Thirteen year old me thought that was crazy, and that we were only friends. But the more I thought about her question, the more I thought about liking Antonio.

And nothing came out it until our first homecoming in high school when we decided to go together. We've been friends since diapers, why shouldn't we go to homecoming together? And the rest was history. We started dating, and two years later we had a baby together. And a year ago, we broke up, but it was for the best. It was completely mutual, no matter how much I still love him. He'll always be my best friend and the father of my child.

vanessa: how important?

vanessa: can it wait until you pick b up?

antonio: yeah, i'll be there as soon as i get out of class.

vanessa: see you then

"Hi, grandpa!" I heard Brandon say from the hallway. I set my phone down and rushed to the door. I loved my father dearly, and I knew he loved me no matter what.

"Brandon, what did I tell you about opening the door for anybody?" I quickly reprimanded my son.

"Sorry, but grandpa knocked his secret knock," Brandon told me, frowning.

I sighed, "okay, B." I watched as Brandon ran back to the living room where Incredibles 2 was playing. "Hey, dad. How's everything?" I hugged him.

"Everything's great now," he responded. "I took an early lunch, and decided that I can spend it with my favorite daughter."

"Dad, I'm your only daughter," I replied. "But Brandon and I just finished breakfast, and we have some waffles left over."

"Who am I to say no to breakfast at any time of the day?" My father joked. We both walked into the kitchen, and I grabbed a plate from the cupboard and began to serve him. "How's everything, mija?"

"Good, I finally signed up for online courses," I told my father, setting a plate in front of him. "Since Brandon is going back to school in a couple of months, I decided to go back too."

"That's great! How's work? How's Tones?"

"Work's good. Brandon's with Tati, or Antonio's mother while I'm at work. And I assume Antonio is fine. We only talk to each other about Brandon, why?"

"Oh, no reason. These waffles are really delicious, Vanessa."

"Dad, if there's something you want to tell me, just tell me. I'm not a little girl anymore. You don't need to beat around the bush."

My father sighed. "Mija, your mother's coming back." I felt as if I lost all the oxygen around me. I looked around and focused on the small flower painted on the wall in the kitchen. "She wants to see you— and Brandon."

That knocked me back into reality, and I looked at my dad and scoffed. "Now she wants to see her grandchild? Not the day he was born, or his first birthday, or his first steps, or any day of his life?"

It hurt that my own mother didn't come to the hospital the day Brandon was born. It also hurt that she couldn't even wish me happy birthday on my sixteenth birthday that same day Brandon was born. But it hurt more when I came back home from the hospital seeing half of my mother's stuff gone, and my father's heart broken that she left suddenly. I haven't seen her since the day my water broke, and she had Antonio's sister take me to the hospital because she didn't want the seats in her car stained or ruined. While Ariana drove me, my mother went home and packed her stuff and left while my father was by my side in the hospital room.

"She finally admits it was a mistake," my father defended her. "That her leaving was a mistake. She wants to makes amends."

"Dad, it takes her almost four years to realize it was a mistake? Dad, she left us! She left me knowing how much I needed her. She knew how much I was going to need her, but she left anyway because she couldn't become a grandmother? Isabel loved the idea of becoming a grandma so much, why couldn't she? I— I don't want her anywhere near my son. She may be my mother, but she hasn't given me a reason why she should be a grandma to my son."

"Vanessa—"

"Dad, please."

"No, Vanessa. I understand," my father started. "She doesn't deserve to be in Brandon's life. She doesn't deserve to know your little boy and the happiness he brings with him. But please think about it. I know you'll make the best decision, you always do."

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thoughts?

this is just a 'filler' chapter
it gives you background of vanessa's character
i promise the date is coming, because it's
the first chapter joel will be in.

my 20th birthday is on tuesday !!!
and i'm being really annoying about it, but i dont care because i'm not going to be a teenager anymore!!!