Love and hate

Chapter 9

“Marlene?” I look at her face, its tear stained with mascara raining down her cheeks. Her eyes are red and puffy from crying and her lip gloss is smudged. She is shaking and I can hear muffled hiccups.

“What happened to you?” I try to ask in a supportive manner only I know how cruel this person can be. So I sound a little accusing.

“It’s Jacob.” She hiccups and lets out a small sob. I groan. No. I don’t want to hear about what they have been doing together.

“Look Mar. I’m sure that whatever happens between you and him is… Great. But I have no interest in it whatsoever.” The only reason I’m not screaming at her was because of pity. She looked terrible. Not her usual terrible but actual depressing terrible.

“T-that’s it. N-no-thing. I try to get close to him but all he looks or has a conversation about is at you.” Another tear falls down her face.

“You’re lying.” I say

“I wish I was.” She whispers more to herself than me. She isn’t the one to keep her ‘opinions’ to herself so it only seems right for her to tell the truth. It could also be a trick to lead me into humiliation. One that I will not fall for.

“Look I don’t have time for this. I just want to go home okay. You have friends to talk to about this. Why are you talking to me about it?” I ask. She lowers her head and shrugs.

“They are all fake. They only talk to me because I know everyone.” Her voice is low like a whisper. I decide to do something that I will either regret or question later but now seems the time to be nice again so I ask,

“Hey, c’mon let’s get you cleaned up.” I guide her to the bathroom and grab a towel. As I soak it in water I see her staring at me in confusion. I wiper her tears and make up off and throw the towel away. Suddenly she shouts and covers her face.

“TURN AROUND!” she shrieks.

“Nope.” I say plainly.

“…Please… I don’t want you to see my face.” She says with a quavering voice. Without saying anything, I grab her hands and force them away from her face. At first she struggles against me but slowly, she becomes submissive. Her face is actually not that plain. Besides some acne marks here and there her face is quite clear.

“Why do you cover your face with makeup…?” I whisper to her. Marlene doesn’t answer so I take it as something personal. I back up and l stare at her face a while longer. Soon she grabs some makeup out of her bag and begins to reapply all of… literally everything. I sit and watch as she finishes up and puts her makeup away.

“You can go now. And forget we even talked. Kay?” Her voice squeaks with ‘spoiled brat’ syndrome. It’s like the makeup is her barrier. Her armour that protects all her vulnerable places and hides all insecurities.

“Kay,” I try to impersonate her voice and add a wink before I leave. What makes a cake without a cherry on top to finish it off?

-

By the time I got home, the sun had begun to set. I saw the lights in my house on so I guess mum had come home early. Dad is on a business trip so he isn’t home.

I hear distant barking and stand ground for what I know will happen next. Agonising seconds pass and finally, a huge figure appeares and sprints straight for me. A black wolf the size of a full grown pony barks and bounds towards me. Now, a normal person would scream ‘Holy mother of life’ and run away but as we have all realizedI am not an as you call, a ‘normal’ person so I bend down on one knee and brace for impact. Three seconds later, I’m whisked off my feet only to land two meters behind me. I start laughing and I scratch behind this beasts ears. He is huge! And heavy!

“For the love of god Ares!” He got so big the past few days! He is only a pup but one can mistake him as an adult wolf. I get up and dust my skirt from the leaves and grass. Our house is kind of surrounded by a forest so it takes me a while to get to school. If I run I arrive in 7 minutes tops. This is a good environment for Ares because he isn’t use to allot of people. Mainly me, mum and dad. Also my older brother but we don’t talk about him. Sometimes I forget what he looks like. Adam left our family three years ago. Him and mum would always fight about… Literally anything. They never got along. She was very strict with him and he hated her for it. He would believe that she was abusing him and taking away his privileges. I remember that we were close I loved him very much. Back them I was four and he was six. He would ‘Protect me from the evil monsters’. Every night I would have nightmares of a scary monster and I would cry. Then Adam would run into my room and snuggle in bed with me and he would tell me stories of a beautiful princess and a prince.

‘Flash back’

“The princess was really lonely so her Daddy the king sent a letter to all the handsome princes in the land to try and capture the princess’s heart.”

Adam is the best at stories. He loves to make funny jokes and I always laugh at them. Sometimes I don’t under... understand them. The words are too hard.

“But, the princess didn’t like any of the princes. They were all snotty and vain.”

“Oh no! Dats wrong!” I said.

“Why? What’s so wrong about that?” Adam looked down at me and waited for me to think of an answer.

“Because! The princess has to marry one of them! ...Right?” I looked at Adam.

“Not always Eli. If you truly love someone. Then it doesn’t matter if they are princes or not. It only matters if they are willing to treat you like their princess. They could be poor but would that change who they are?” Adam asked.

“No!” I whisper yelled.

“Nope!” Adam kissed my forehead and I let out a giggle.

“Adam?” I said.

“Yes Eli?” he turned around right before getting up.

“Thank you.” I smiled. Adam’s eyes shone brightly even in the dark. He leaned over and hugged me tightly.

“You are very welcome Eli.” He whispered.

‘End of flashback’

By then I felt tears leak down my face. I miss my brother. He left me. I know I’m getting older and I should be able to take care of myself but I still need him. I still want someone to look up to. Someone who will show me how to survive high school and college.

“I miss you Adam.” I whisper into the dark.