Repair the Broken

Chapter 7

I hate Mondays.  Whoever says Mondays are a fresh start don’t know what they are talking about.  Mondays are like putting my life on replay.  It’s always the same.  Get up, eat, go to school, come home, eat, do my homework, watch mom stumble in from being drunk, go to bed.  It’s just like doing laundry wash rinse and repeat.  There’s never anything new to my routine.

I turn off the alarm on my phone.  It’s been blaring at me for the last five minutes.  I don’t want to get up but I also don’t want my mom coming in my room yelling at me to get out of bed. This is the only time that she acts like a real mother.  Any other time she is oblivious to what I do.  She doesn’t care when I get home, she doesn’t ask who I am out with, and I can’t tell you the last time she looked at my grades.  I graduate in a few months and then I am out of here.  I am leaving for college and I’m not looking back.

I got accepted to UCLA on a full scholarship for my academic excellence.  I have made straight A’s throughout school.  Academics come easy to me and there's no reason for me to slack off.  I made sure to do whatever it would take to get that scholarship.  It's my only way to escape this hell that I live in.  Once Lexi and Noelle heard about my plans, they applied and got accepted as well.  We plan on being roommates as well.  So now that I have nothing tethering me here and once I leave I don’t plan on coming back. 

I plan on majoring in communications.  I want to be a news anchor but I’m too shy to get up in front of the camera.  I tried to do the morning show for our school but choked.  That was a disaster.  So now I will settle to write a news column.  I write for the school now and I’m really good at it.  I became editor-in-chief this year.  I can’t say it came as a shock.  I’m always correcting others' papers and proofread all of my friends homework.   Being the editor requires me to arrive at school at least thirty minutes before the bell.  That’s the only time I have to make corrections because all of my class time is spent working on the newspaper layout and assigning new stories. 

That’s why my alarm is going off at five o’clock in the morning.  It usually doesn’t bother me to get up this early but I didn’t sleep at all last night.  I spent most of the night tossing and turning.  I am going to be dragging this morning. 

I get up and head straight for the shower.  Maybe the hot water will revive me.  I spend most of the time thinking about what Brody said to me last night and wonder how today is going to play out.  Even though we have spent every waking moment avoiding each other, we have five of our seven classes together as well as lunch.  We have mutual friends so that forces us together at lunch; however, we sit on the opposite ends of the table to avoid each other.  I know it’s weird but it works.  I am not willing to give up my friends for him. 

I get ready for my day throwing on a pair of fitted jeans and a light pink blouse that hangs off of one shoulder.  It has a built in camisole and its form fitting.  It makes me look thinner that I am and makes my bust look bigger.  I put on my black peep toe Mary Jane’s and take a look in the mirror. 

I look tired.  My eyes are blue with long eyelashes.  Most days I am accused of wearing fake lashes.  Not the case.  I wear little makeup but the black liner and mascara brings out the length of my lashes.  My hair is blond and it’s really long; reaches my belt.  I think it’s time to get it cut but Lexi swears she will stop talking to me if I do. I throw my hair up in a messy bun and walk away from the mirror.  I could spend more time getting ready but I’m not in the mood and really don’t care today.

I make my way to the kitchen where my mom is sipping her morning coffee.  She goes to work at the same time I leave for school.  She works at the elementary school that’s a few miles from the high school.  She gets off work before I get out of school so I drive myself.  I wouldn’t let her come and get me anyways.  The last time she got me from school she had been drinking.  I threatened to walk home if she didn’t scoot over and let me drive.  I was so mad at her that day and she completely embarrassed me. 

“Good morning.  Honey, did you have company after I went to bed last night?  I thought I heard voices coming from down here.”

“No mom.  There was no one here.  You must have been dreaming.”  I have to lie to her.  If she knows the truth she will hound me to tell her everything.  I’m just not ready for that.  I will tell her in due time.

“Okay.  Are you going straight to school?  You know how I worry about you.”

“Are you coming straight home?  You know how I worry about you.”

“Yes I am coming straight home and you know this.   Where else would I go?” 

I’m not answering that because it will just cause an argument.  I grab my breakfast and walked to the door. “Bye mom.  See you this afternoon.”

Looking at the time, I realize that I am going to be late getting to school and I have several articles that I need to look at.  I grab my book bag and rush out the door.  As I close the door I drop my keys.  I bend over to pick them up.  I’m not even paying attention as I walk to my car.   If I was I would have seen Brody leaning against my car.

I don’t have time to stop.  I walk to the other side of the car and open the door.  I put my book bag in the back seat hoping if I ignore him he will leave.

But of course he doesn’t.  He just stands there, arms folded over his chest and watches me. 

“I don’t have time for this.  I’m already late and I am in a foul mood.  If I don’t have time to get my café latte then I most definitely don’t have time for you.  Please move.”

He doesn’t say a word.  He smiles at me, opens my door.  I crawl in and put the key in the ignition.  Once the car is started, he closes the door.  I put the car in reverse and back out of my driveway.   He stands there with his hands in his pockets, a smirk on his face, and watches me drive off. 

I feel flustered by the time that I arrive at school.  I have approximately forty-five minutes to get these papers edited and sent back to their owner.  I manage to finish just in time as students are starting to trickle into the school.   I shut down my computer and leave the journalism building and head for my locker. 

I get to my locker and all of my friends are there.  Lexi and Noelle are talking to Zayden and Jaxon.  They are identical twins and are Brody’s friends more than they are mine.  The only reason they are over here is because Lexi flirts with both of them.   Jaxon is the good twin and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.  He is laid back and gets along with everyone.  He is an all-around stand up guy. 

His brother is the opposite.  He is an ass; complete and royal jackass.  Zayden doesn’t know how to respect women however they flock to him like he’s a God.  He’s on the football team with Brody and they are the closest of the three of them.  When Zayden’s treating someone like crap, Brody usually sits back and watches.  In my book, that makes Brody just as bad as Zayden. 

I ignore them and open my locker.  I am exchanging my books for the one I need this morning.  Once I'm done, I close my locker and Brody is standing right in front of me.

“Café Latte, soy milk, iced the way like you like it.”   He takes the extra large cup and places it in my hand.  I am at a loss for words.  He stands there and just smiles at me. I stand there slack jawed, staring at him waiting for the punch line.

He leans in and whispers in my ear loud enough for everyone around me to hear, “I told you last night I’m not giving up.  This is me starting over.  I’m not going anywhere.  See you around Lani.” Then he walks off in the direction of our first period class. 

I watch him walk off and then hear a collective sigh from Lexi and Noelle.   I remove my eyes from his departing figure and look at the girls.

Lexi cries out, “You have some explaining to do.”

I know I do but it’s going to wait.  I can’t explain something that I am still trying to figure out.  I take my coffee and walk to class.