He's Bad News ✔

Chapter 2 - The Anderson Family

  CHAPTER 2 - THE ANDERSON FAMILY

  Waking up in a lawn chair on your roof in the middle of August wasn't something you saw or did every day. Certainly it wasn't something you wanted to do every day.

  I woke up groaning and feeling the sun's light hit my already flushed and sweaty face. I covered my face with my hands hoping the sun would stop burning me but now it just burned my arm.

   The events of last night came screaming back at me and I groaned again in the memory of drinking that –now- disgusting rum which was responsible for my current condition.

 Lightheaded I stood up from the lawn chair, ignoring the big bang that was happening in my stomach and left the roof. Only when I was on my cold temperature room I remembered that Ryder West was nowhere to be seen. Probably he was either with Seth or he was such a jerk he left early in the morning and didn't even bother to wake me up. Probably the second one. I would've known by the screams of my mom if Ryder West was still in our house.

   Without second thought I got into the shower since I stink alcohol and sweat –Ew right? When I got out I put plenty of sun cream in my face since it stank really badly – I silently prayed it won't leave a burn mark – and applied a little bit foundation to hide the redness.  After I dressed properly – "properly" as in, in a floral sundress and flip flops – and made sure I looked "decent" I headed downstairs to the kitchen.

  Ι wasn't surprised to find the whole Anderson family already there, having breakfast together. The Anderson's were early birds.

  What surprised me though –just a little bit- was to find my brother there, looking all fresh and wide awake even though he was neither fresh nor awake. My parents though were of course fresh and wide awake and always dressed up in designer clothes -because hey, isn't that how people usually have breakfast?

  Once I entered the kitchen mom was the only one who bothered to look up at me.

I tensed and my fixed dress trying to act normal and cool.  "Good morning!" I said as cheerfully as I could and sat next to my brother who was looking down his plate, pretending to eat but it was obvious that he just wanted to sleep right here and right now.

"Good morning honey, are you okay? It's late you should have woken up by now." I looked the clock on the wall. It was half past nine. Yes, I was indeed late for breakfast.

"Uhm... yeah..." I said taking a sip from my cold tea trying to think what to say "I just... stayed up till late... watching ... a concert... on MTV." That was so lame.

  My father looked up from his newspaper for the first time I was inside "MTV still plays music?" Said surprised.

"Uhm who cares?" Said mom, looking at me disappointed "Chloe you know you are not allowed to stay up late! We have a curfew! Also think about yourself a little bit. Sleep is good for your health but for your skin as well! You are going to get dark circles under your eyes and believe me you don't want that! You have to always look and be fresh and restful."

So much for having the perfect physical appearance!

"You're right mom. I'm sorry." I could almost hear Ryder West scoffing at me in my head. 

She sighed and waved her hand dismissively "It's fine as long as you understand the consequences. Eat – even though I'm pretty sure the food has got cold by now."

  I said nothing and started eating my omelet which indeed had gone cold but I didn't want to admit it and boost my mom's 'ego'.

  My mom, Olivia Anderson wasn't exactly the person you wanted to mess with – just like Ryder West but for a completely different reason. She was the boss of the house – much to my dad's dismay- and wanted to know and control every little thing that was happening in the house. She didn't work, so she was all day in the house, making sure nothing was anything less than "perfect".

  Of course she was perfect too. With red wavy hair, that were always styled perfectly in her shoulders (even when she was cleaning the house) and even her makeup was always on point. My dad was kind of perfect as well, thanks to my mom.

   In the society my parents had the title of the "Perfect Couple". Every one admired them for their prestige and they lovely family they had formed. Me and my brother saw us as their mini clones. People gawped everywhere we went and thanks to my mom's idea to gain more prestige we often went to different events, such as charities, auctions and even gather every Sunday to give food to poor people.

  To be honest, I didn't mind anymore. That was my life. That's how I was raised. And unlike my parents I was trying to help people just because they needed me not for the reasons my mom and dad did. I was just a good, generous and sensitive girl. A role model for the teenage girls and the "Perfect daughter" as they all said. Even though I wasn't any of these things.

 "I'm all done." I snapped out of my thoughts when Seth stood up from the table.

"You have lacrosse practice right?" My mom asked him immediately. Seth was playing lacrosse since he was like eight he was really close on being the the school's lacrosse team captain. Mom had suggested starting playing lacrosse because she thought that it wouldn't be the worst thing to have a champion in the family. Whatever gives her more prestige right?

"Yes I'm going to get ready." He said and stormed out of the kitchen.

  After a couple of minutes when I was done with my breakfast as well I headed upstairs and knocked his door.

"Come in" He called and I stepped in while he was packing his bag.

"I need to talk to you." I said closing the door behind me.

"Can't, I have to go to practice." Typical Seth answer.

  I crossed my arms over my chest. "Practice can wait. We need to talk." I repeated. I was very, very serious about this. I couldn't let Seth do what he wanted, let him ruin his life!

He sighed. "Fine. About what?"

"You, Seth Jesus!" I exclaimed. Like he didn't know what we had to talk about. He knew alright! Remembering our parents were downstairs I lowered my voice.  "What's wrong with you!?"

He looked at me like I was crazy "Nothing's wrong with me!"

  I scoffed "Umm hard to believe with the way you've been behaving the past couple of months."

"My behavior is fine."

  Ugh, why did he made this so hard!? Why did he acted like he didn't knew what I was talking about?

"No it isn't!" I whispered- yelled. "You drink, stay up late, sneak out the nights and God only knows what else you do Seth!" I paused "Oh and don't even let me start on Ryder West."

West's name was like cold water to his "I-don't-understand-what-you-are-saying-and-i-don't-really-care" altitude.  He tensed and looked at me serious. "What about him?"

  Now it was my time to look at him like he was crazy. "What about him!? What about him!!??G-god Seth are you serious right now!? He's bad news! Everything is wrong with him! He is a bad influence and as long as you keep hanging out with him the more you'll be like him.

  He looked at me for a moment like he was wondering if I was talking serious and then scoffed "You know what? You, especially, shouldn't be talking!" I had nothing to answer to that.

 Did Seth knew about last night? No. No way. He was passed out there is no way he knew. He was sleeping all night and had just woke up! Unless... what if he did wake up early and saw us this morning on the roof? Was it possible? That would kind of explained how Ryder West left as well.

  When Seth saw I wasn't going to answer anytime soon he nodded his head and said "That's what I thought." He swung his bag over his shoulder and left, slamming the door behind him without another word.