How to Fall Apart

Chapter Four

It was Halloween and the last place I wanted to be was at work. I'd stayed up entirely too late the night before on the phone with Alissa. Her parents were out of town and she was planning an "epic" Halloween party. I told her that I didn't have a costume and she told me not to worry about it, that she had it all taken care of but would not give me any more details. This made me worry more than not having a costume did. I was working the morning shift and would be off by four, but when Clark asked me to take him trick-or-treating I'd lied and told him I had to close so I wouldn't be home in time. Mom had offered to take him but he just shook his head and said he was too old for all that anyway. The look on his face broke my heart. I opened my mouth to take it back, to tell him to slow down because growing up is not nearly as fun as trick-or-treating but my phone buzzed and I swallowed my guilt. It was Alissa.

Happy Halloween bitch, I'll see you at 4! I'd told Mom that Alissa would pick me up from work and that we were going to have a scary movie night. Before I left for work Mom handed me a bag.

"What's this?" I asked, peeking inside.

"Some stuff for your scary movie night," she beamed up at me. I was five inches taller than her, having passed her up at age 11. She hated it. The bag contained snacks, soda, and a newly released scary movie still in the plastic. So needless to say when I arrived at work I was feeling like the worst daughter and sister ever. To make matters worse I had seen on the schedule that I was working with Vanessa and I had no patience for whatever boyfriend drama she would likely spend the entire day whining about.

When I walked into the back door my day started to look a little better. Vanessa was nowhere to be seen, Carly was in the back clocking in. I'd only worked with Carly once before, she was friendly and nice but didn't talk too much.

"Vanessa asked me to take her shift, she got into a fight with her boyfriend again or something." Carly rolled her eyes and I laughed as she seemed to feel the same about Vanessa as I did. It was pretty nice out and business was steady but between customers Carly and I talked. I'd never seen her at school before but she was also a senior at Stevens High School. She took AP classes and was into sports, which was why she didn't work many shifts. I felt like we wouldn't have much to talk about because we had next to nothing in common but she was so easy to talk to. She talked about basketball and I talked about art. She had lived in Rapid City her whole life and I had moved nine times among three different states in my 17 years of life. She already had the next 10 years of her life planned out and I didn't even know what I was dressing up as for the party I was attending that night. Carly knew Alissa from school and while I could tell she wasn't really a fan of hers she was tactful enough not to say so. We spent almost an hour guessing what Alissa might dress me up as.

"Maybe a flamingo?" She teased. "I mean, I thought I was tall but your legs just go on forever! Too bad you're not into basketball!" Carly was a couple inches shorter than me, tan, with shoulder length curly brown hair and a few freckles dusting her cheeks. Nowhere near as many as Clark and Mom. Thinking of them made my heart sink in guilt.

"Yeah, no," I giggled,"I am so uncoordinated." Around then our manager sent Carly on her lunch break. I was leaning on the counter staring at the clock when the door dinged. A cute guy I recognized from my English class walked in the door and I was suddenly very self conscious about the splatter of ice cream across my chest courtesy of making about a hundred blizzards. "Hi, um, what can I get you?"

"Oh, nothing, I just need to see Carly," he flashed his perfectly straight, white teeth at me. When he spoke a deep dimple played peekaboo on his left cheek and I had a sudden urge to sketch him. I went to the back to get Carly instead, feeling curiously disappointed.

"Hey Carly... there's a very cute boy here to see you," I teased.

"Oh really?" She said, surprised, "has Channing Tatum finally come for me?" She hopped off the overturned bucket she'd been perched on. "Bummer, it's just my brother," she called from the front. I felt my face heat up, having mistaken her brother for a boyfriend. "Veda..." she shouted again when I didn't follow her. I reluctantly went to the front, standing next to Carly at the counter. "Veda, this is my brother, Nathan. Nathan, this is Veda."