Confessions of a Matchmaker

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Two hours later, help finally came as Freya and Joe ended up calling for help. Unfortunately, the authorities had to call my mom and Dylan's grandad to pick us up. Dylan had gone remorsefully with Freya which left me with Joe. My mom was beyond furious on the phone and honestly, I really wasn't excited for her to reach the mall to pick me up. My insides churned as I thought of just all the punishments that I was bound to get for this.

Joe had kept me entertained for the most part though, he was one of those class-clown guys that could have you cracking up on the floor within seconds. With his dirty blonde curls, green eyes and the stubble that littered his cheeks; it wasn't hard to see why half of our school pined after him. However, even his cheerfulness took a dire turn when his mother came, dragging him out by the ear while muttering chastising words at him in his home language of Portuguese.

My time was soon to come as well as my mom marched in, her hair in a disarray and her makeup smudged. I think the worst punishment of all time is silence. There wasn't any screaming or yelling, just the raw disappointment in her eyes mixed with something else-but I couldn't tell what it was. The drive back home was the most pandemonium filled silence that I've ever encountered. It made me want her to scream, rip out her hair and punish me like she never had before. But she didn't. Instead, she turned off the engine, getting out of the car before I had even taken off my seatbelt.

That night, before I shut my bedroom door, I had whispered a regretful, "I'm sorry," she had remained silent, only walking back into her room. The corridor lights flickered off and I was enveloped by a shadow of darkness, my apology being the only remnant in the air.

° ° ° ° °

It was an average Tuesday afternoon with work at the Matchmakers. It seemed that everyone was mad at me for one reason or the other. Mom was mad because of the events that took place last night, Lindsay was mad at me for reasons unknown, Candace was mad at me because I actually cared about Lindsay being mad at me and Carmen was just avoiding me-I had no idea why though.

That's one of the most annoying things about people being mad at you, when they're mad at you it seems to be when you end up missing them the most and that can be pretty infuriating. I was just sat here boredly, hoping for an intervention from Carmen yet that just didn't seem to be coming any closer. The doorbell chimed as a familiar face walked in; it was Kade, Dylan's sister except her hair was no longer pink but now a flattering shade of blue dip dyed into sea green plus she had also got her nose pierced-she was looking better than ever to be honest.

"Hey," she set her bag on the ground next to her, "The date you set up for me with that Australian guy, Gabe, was fan-fucking-tastic. He's so cute and he's such a gentleman like the type that opens doors for you; pulls your seat forward; and actually listens to me when I'm speaking about things that I feel so passionately about."

I smiled at her, "I'm glad your date went so well. I've already set up a date for Dylan."

"Ooh, with who? Is she in your school, I might know her?"

"Yeah, Carmen Valentine Garcia," when her eyes darkened noticably, confusedly I raised my eyebrows then asked nonchalantly, "Know her from somewhere?"

She nodded with a slight frown, "I really don't like to shade people so I'll just say that she's rumoured to have done quite a lot of interesting things in my school. Slept around, partied hard, you know the type of girls that jerks in my school casually dismiss as a typical whore," she added thoughtfully, "Not very pretty either. "

I nodded then replied dryly, "Thanks, she's my sister."

She fidgeted uncomfortably then apologised, "Sorry, its just what I've heard about her."