rachel

part 5

14 years old

It's Matt's birthday party and I could not be more excited! The gang is all here. We are across the road from his house playing kickball in a big, open field. My team is currently winning, however it's going to be a close game. My cheeks are flushed from running. Not shear embarrassment like usual. I need to pay attention.

Dylan kicks the ball and it's so high up. I look into the sun and know, I just know, I'm going to catch it. I may be a ballerina however I'm still able to catch a pop fly!

I catch it. Boom! That's three outs. My team celebrates the win and everyone agrees to take a breather, catch our breath and play a different game. The suggestion is SPUD. I love that game but need a drink. I cross the street and head over to Matt's house.

Jace is sitting on the tire swing in front of Matt's house. While walking to the front door I try to avoid eye contact with him.

"Hey Rachel. Come here for a sec. I want to show you something."

Ugh. No. No. No. Every fiber of my being wants to ignore him and run inside quickly.
And yet. I'm the nice girl. I'm the one who doesn't ignore people. I give them a chance.

"What Jace?" I ask him this from a distance trying to avoid having to walk over to where he is sitting.

"You're really hot in those shorts. And umm. Come here I have something for you. "

My neck starts to turn pink. I glance back at the field to see if anyone is remotely close to the house. I make my approach over to him very slow, not knowing what to expect. I'm smart enough to know not to trust Jace. 

I'm as close as I want to be to Jace. He stands up and just as I think he is coming in to give me a hug, he puts burdocks in my hair. A handful.

"What did you do?!" I scream! He starts laughing his butt off.

I run away from him, into the house before he sees my tears. His laughter is loud behind me. I find his Mom and tell her what happened. She helps me comb the burdocks out. My hair is almost down to my butt, so it takes forever.

For some reason Jace gets away with it. I get Matt's frustration and can't imagine having to live with him. There is never any consequences. I don't understand how Matt's parents turn a blind eye to everything that he does. He makes everyone's lives around him miserable.

Matt comes in the house, he's sweaty from running around and playing. He grabs a drink and notices that I'm sitting alone on the couch. 

"What's up? Why aren't you outside?" He sits down next to me. I battle the tears that are forming at the corner of my eyes and try so hard to hide the fact that I'm upset. 

"Jace put a handful of burdocks in my hair. Your Mom helped me get it out."

"He's such a dick." Matt says this and looks away. I can tell he's pissed. 

"Will you unwrap my gift?"

"Ya. Which one is it?" I hand him my gift and tears the paper off. It's the game Mastermind. He loves it, just as I knew he would. He asks me to play and we end up spending the rest of the party, just the two of us, inside playing Mastermind.

Jace walks inside and stands in the doorway of the living room. 

"Rachel, your really hot when your mad. Isn't it a good thing that she didn't have to cut off any of her long, sexy hair, Matt?"

Matt jumps off the couch and storms up to him. He gets right in his face.

"Leave her alone, Jace."

Jace has a slow, almost evil grin. He just grins right in Matt's face. Taunting him. It's almost like he silently wants Matt to punch him. If Matt punches Jace first it gives him permission to beat on his younger brother. It's tense and I'm nervous for Matt.

"Matt, just forget it. It's your turn."

Are all brothers like this? Complete jerks? Jerks that are so awful that they're evil? I honestly think that Jace is evil.

Matt stands down and rejoins the game. Jace snickers and walks away. He's won again. He's made everyone around him miserable in some way.

I stare at Matt's face as he looks down, concentrating on the game. I can tell he's so angry. He's holding it in his jaw, he's clenching his teeth. He's up in his head and I don't know what's going on up there but I just know it's not good. Even if I get him back out now, I know that he's going to overthink everything later tonight.

"Matty, it's ok." I whisper.

He immediately looks up and finds my eyes. His blue eyes are bluer than normal. Impossibly blue. Not even a gray blue. But a pure, brilliant blue.

"It's not ok, Rach. I fucking hate him."

His swear catches me off guard a bit. But my eye contact doesn't waver.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

My favorite color immediately changes to blue.