I wake up early the next morning despite going to bed late, and the smell of weed. Again. Not like this is something new. I roll out of bed and make my way into the kitchen where Mom and Jason are sitting with a few of their friends, smoking. “Hey, Tay’s awake!” Jason says.
“Taylor,” I correct him.
“Hey, you’re sober right?” he asks, and instead of answering I glare at him. “Can you bring to IHOP?” I roll my eyes. “You’re not even busy you brat, just bring us.”
“Actually, I am busy. I guess I could drop you off, but I’m not coming to pick you up.”
“How will we get home?” Mom asks. She’s sober. I narrow my eyes at her.
“Why don’t you drive?” I ask, and everyone stares at her, clearly they think she’s high.
“I’ll drive,” she sighs, “You go.” She pauses, but then waves me off. I want to ask her why she’s not smoking but frankly I don’t care.
Luke and Lauren are jumping on their beds when I walk past their room. They stop when they see me in the doorway. “Are we going to the park?” Luke asks.
“We are,” I nod.
“Are Fox and Jacob going?” he asks. I nod.
“Are Amy and Kylee going?” Lauren asks, and I nod again. “Do we have to take baths?”
“You should. If you guys are ready early enough then we can go and get some French fries.” They jump off the bed and run off in opposite directions. They’re old enough to bathe themselves now.
I stop and pick up Kylee on the way to the park. Jacob and Fox are already there, and when the unusually un-perky Luke sees them, he straightens up and beams. I hope he has fun today because he’s seemed to have had a few bad days. Amy’s here too, laughing with Jacob. Kylee rolls her eyes. “Oh be happy for them,” I say.
“Happy for them? All they ever do is make out,” she says, “That’s not a relationship.”
“What is make out?” Lauren asks, and I glare at Kylee. I park and we hop out, unbuckling the twins.
“I see you guys met Fox,” I say. My hands are shaking.
“I don’t know why he’s friends with you, he’s cool,” Jacob says.
“Oh ha, ha. You’re so funny,” I say. I glare at him and then look over at Fox, who is smiling at me. Making eye contact with him makes me drop my head to hide my blush.
“I brought cookies!” Amy sings.
“Nuts?” I ask.
“Excuse me?” Fox says, we laugh.
“Lauren is allergic to nuts,” Amy says, hitting her forehead, “They’re peanut butter!”
“No cookies?” Lauren whines, crossing her arms.
“Not these ones, we can go afterwards and get cookies,” I say. She pouts a little until Luke runs off and she joins him.
Amy closes the cookies and puts them back into her bag, “I totally forgot about the nut allergy.”
“That’s alright, I was supposed to go get French fries for them but I forgot too so we can all just go afterwards for food,” I say.
“That sounds okay,” Fox says, “I have nowhere else to go.”
“So Fox, tell us about yourself,” Jacob says, pulling the cookies back out of Amy’s bag and shoving a whole on into his mouth.
“What do you want to know?” he asks.
