In-between

Chapter 12

This morning I persuaded my mum I will take Bruce shopping for school and after a lot of throwing valid points across she agreed.
It surprises me how protective she is about her children but when you raise 2 kids without the father figure in the picture, you become someone you never thought you would be, someone brave and strong willed, someone who’s capable of a lot of things, someone who can be a role model, someone inspiring and I never fail to tell her she is my rock every day.
My dad has gone back to London where he was from originally to live with his brother, my uncle. His name is James stone and I despise him because he left us without any warning, he left for work one morning and never returned and if I ever see him again I had promised myself I will kill him because he has caused a lot of pain to my mum.
She hated that he was never involved, that he just stood up and left like his family means nothing to him, and it angers her how he has the nerve to call whenever he feels like it.
I’m not saying I appreciated it when he was here with us because he was always a stupid drunk who was short tempered, and always makes it his goal to inflict pain on my mum and me one way or another.
I’m glad he’s gone but whenever I see mum stare at his picture longingly, I wish he has never left but try to change his ways and try to be a good father and a better husband.
I rub my face with the towel to dry it and stare at my reflection on the mirror.
People tell me how attractive I am and that they’re surprised no one has snatched me yet but I don’t see it. I’m just an average girl whose heart has been broken numerous times because the guy she loves doesn’t care enough to even spare her an hour of his day.
Sometimes I think Dylan never had feelings for me and the things he said that morning after he came home shit faced the night before were just consolations to make me forgive him.
But what kind of sick psycho goes that far to prove a point?
Thoughts about Dylan gives me headache early this morning and nothing I come up with can actually explain his actions and that confuses me even more.
I shake my head to rid of those thoughts and try to focus on my steady hands applying a thin line on my eyes lids. After I did my makeup I return to my bedroom to put on my shoes and grab my car keys.
Mum has already left and she ordered me to get a number of things for my little brother from different kind of stores all around Minnesota.
He can get real picky and I have to get everything from the list or else he might lose it. I chuckle at how my brother likes things in a certain way even at a young age and made my way to his room to make sure he’s already dressed.
After we grabbed a quick breakfast at the nearest diner, me and Bruce made our way through the mall to look for the sweater vest he insists on getting along with the khaki trousers.
“Why do you like to wear these clothes huh?” I ask him out of pure curiosity and he giggles. “Harry told me that’s what a gentleman wears.”
“Why is he always wearing skinny jeans then?” I frown and look at Bruce like he knows the answer.
“Because he can pull it off.” he shrugs and I burst into laughter.
“Did he tell you that?”
He nodded and I can’t help from making a remark. “What a cocky bastard.”
…
Naomi and her today’s entertainment Paul agreed to meet us for lunch around the capital and we were all seated in a booth when the waiter came to take our orders.
“I’ll have the cheese burger and he’ll have the kid’s meal.” I order for me and Bruce as I take a sip from my cold lemonade.
Both Naomi and her date ordered and she turned to look at me after the waiter left.
“Okay, don’t be mad but I might have invited someone.” Her expression was guilty. I rolled my eyes, staring annoyingly at her as she flashed me an apologetic smile.
“Why?” I huff as I pulled my phone out of my front pockets and hand it to Bruce who was staring off into space.
“Because…” she whines and I know she has no reason at all.
I stare at her expectantly trying to figure out the reason behind her smile, her cocky smile. Knowing her she did it on purpose and now she have to come up with a believable point or else I might bash her head with my frozen glass.
“Because he asked me to meet him for lunch.” She pouts and rests her head on Paul’s bicep.
“That can’t be a reason.”I shake my head stubbornly and her pout deepens.
“Fine, He felt really guilty about last night so he wanted to apologize. If I had told you before you wouldn’t agree.” she explains and my eyes widen.
“Really?” I gasp, he’s going to apologize after everything I did he was going to be the bigger person and apologize?
“Sure.” she grins and Paul chuckles, my amused smile immediately turned into a frown,  “If you’re kidding so help me God Naomi…”
“There he is.” she interrupts me when she saw him approaching. Since mine and Bruce’s booth was facing the other way I can’t see him coming but by the look on Naomi’s face I can tell he’s not alone.
“He brought your neighbor.”She informs me and I can feel my skin crawl and my heart beat increase.
Me and Abby go way back and just the mention of her name fuels my anger and it makes me want to tear her from the inside out.
When they finally made it to our booth, my eyes immediately land on her skimpy short leather dress and I can’t help but scoff at her poor sense of fashion. Who wears a short skirt on a rainy day and a see through blouse that was pulled down to show her barely there cleavage?
“Hey guys, Omg Barney.” she smiles down at my brother who was focused on his game to care about anyone around.
“It’s Bruce.” I seethe my knuckles white from how tight I was holding onto my glass.
She looks up at me and smirks, “Hello too Amber.” she flashes me her fake white teeth and takes a seat besides Paul.
I force myself to look away from her and my gaze involuntarily lands on Harry who was already crouched by Bruce’s side and was talking to him.
“I can’t believe you actually bought these.” He chuckles when he sees the vest and the pants.
“I wanted to be a real gentleman.”Bruce smiles down at Harry who was examining the other stuff in the bag.
Shit, if he keeps looking he might see my lace panties I bought from Macy’s and it would kill me if he learns they belong to me. As quickly as I could, I managed to make my way from behind Bruce, his body leaning forward in order for me to pass; I frantically tried to snatch the bag from him.
His lips were parted as he gasped surprised from my sudden appearance, “Amber-“he whispered , his voice strained and tight as he attempted to register the events that took place less than a second ago.
He rose from his hunched position to his full height and glared at me surely surprised from my sudden actions.
“Harry are you okay?” Abby asked, desperately trying to take his attention away from me.
He gave an almost imperceptible nod of his head, his eyes squeezing closed as he shakes his head and turned to face his date.
“Yeah, everything is fine.” he managed to answer as he forced his eyes to stay away from mine.
“Come sit by me.” she begged more urgently, releasing the menu that was grasped tightly in her hands reluctant to his answer.
“No space there babe.” he told her his voice hoarse and deep. My hands released the bag, my fingers petting through the strands and raking lightly across my scalp nervously. I’m still shaken up about Harry seeing my underwear even though I was comfortable peeing while he was in the same room.
But I realized this is different, things have changed between me and him since then and the tension is only getting thicker.
He takes a seat besides Bruce and picks up the menu to see if there is something interesting he could eat.
I redirect my attention to Naomi and gave her the longest glare I’ve ever managed to as she just shrugs and jumps into conversation with Abby.
I rake around the booth to see that everyone was preoccupied one way or another. Paul was talking on the phone to his roommate and Abby and my so called best friend are talking about their favorite characters in F.R.I.E.N.D.S and Harry and Bruce were discussing their super powers.
I sigh as I realized I was stuck listening to Harry and Bruce’s silly conversation or eavesdrop on Paul’s whispered phone call.
I decided the latter and placed my elbow on the table so I could support my chin which was resting on my palm.

“You can’t call my mum you sick fuck, if you call her I’ll tell your girlfriend that you’re sleeping with her best friend.” It was Paul’s angry whispers that had me bite my bottom lip trying hard to contain the laughter that was threatening to slip out.
I try to focus my attention on Naomi and Abby’s argument on who is more fun and I had to shake my head to get rid of the savage thoughts that keep finding their way into my head.
“Are you fucking kidding me, Chandler is funny, his character is supposed to be funny, that’s why he keeps on making the sarcastic remarks.” Abby huffs as Naomi rushed to swallow her drink to argue back.
“He might be labeled the funny one because the words that come out of his mouth are funny but Phoebe’s actions scream fun and carefree and she also makes sarcastic remarks.” Naomi poorly argues and I see her grit her teeth. We’ve been through this argument before and Abby should know better than to argue with Naomi about friends.
I shifted my attention to the 2 little kids at my side and I hate to admit it but their conversation is much more fun and entertaining.
“-Then I would climb Mount Everest and scream at the top of my lungs that I love her.” Harry confesses to the 5 year old and I had to chuckle at Bruce’s excited giggle.
“And then what?”
“Then it’s up to her if she still wants to be with Me.” he told him and I see Bruce shake his head in disagreement.
“Can’t it be someone else?” he pouts and for some reason the girl Harry was referring to seems to be Abby.
“No buddy, I’m afraid not.” He pouts as well and it was the most adorable scene I had to encounter.
When our food arrives Harry addresses the waiter and orders for him and Abby claiming it’s her favorite.
I tear the chicken legs into small shards for Bruce and opened his drink to pour it into a plastic cup.
“So Harry, aren’t you going to tell us how you two met?” Naomi asks him and he shakes his head.
“You two were talking for the longest time, you could’ve asked her.” he said and relief coursed through me.
“I can usually guess when it’s serious or not; it’s mostly not but I feel like this time you’re for real.” Naomi clarifies.
He sighs before giving in “Well I was at Amber’s house and as I was leaving I run into her we got to talk and we discovered we actually have a lot in common and lately I’ve been thinking about settling down and when I finally figured Abby was the girl I was looking for; one thing led to another and here we are.” Naomi nodded slowly at his explanation, relieved he didn’t actually get into detail about that night. Guilt flashed through her eyes when she realized I had been right here all along.
“Could you excuse us for a minute?” My fingers never stopped tracing across my scalp feeling the headache creeping in.
She signaled me to come along and I sigh but did as I was told. Once we make it to the washroom, she gasped and grasped her hands tightly around mine.
“Did you hear what he said, she must be it, and he’s falling for her Amber.” she conceded and I bit my lip in concentration.
“So, why does it bother you so much?” I mumbled my fingers tightening around my head the pounding in my head giving me the most terrible headache.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Have you seen her? For one who the hell wears a skirt in weather like this?” She leaned forward to the edge of the counter to check her makeup.
“You?” I stare at her small dress that was just above her knees and the knee high boots matching it with a small jean jacket.
“I look good besides this is not a skirt, it’s more than that.” she huffs when she realized I wasn’t defending her on bad mouthing Abby.
“Yeah, you look good; I like your hair like this.” I compliment and she gave me a full on spin.
“Thank you, I like what you did there with your jacket, it’s trendy.” She smiled when she grabbed the lace on the end of my jacket.
“Yeah, I saw it on one of those videos; I thought I should give it a try.” I nodded and she pulled out her phone to capture our reflection in the mirror.
“Okay we’re getting distracted! Why did you call me? My food is getting cold.” I remind her and she scoffs.
“Are you okay with this? Harry and Abby?” she stares at me with widened eyes like she couldn’t believe me.
I shrugged, “I don’t care about them being together but if he’s going to keep showing up with her whenever we hang out then that’s going to be a problem.”
We went back to our seats after I reassured her he’s the one who initiated the relationship in the first place. Bruce has stopped eating as he went back to his spaceship game on my phone. My eyes were glued to my burger as I feel a slight tap on my abdomen.
“Someone is calling you.” It was Bruce and I take my phone from him to look down and an involuntary gasp escaped my mouth. There on the caller ID the guy I’ve been waiting to call me finally flashes across the screen.