“So how was your first day?” Jaden asks.
I shrug, “It could have been worse.”
He nods and drops the subject. I’m grateful for that. I don’t want to tell him about Teagan. I don’t want him to think that it’s his fault. I also don’t want to tell him about Ren, either. Jaden is my big brother and so he’s really protective of me, but in this case, there's nothing that he can really do.
“How was your first day?” I ask.
He looks at me and smiles, “No puke.”
I smile back at him, “I decided to go easy on you. It was the first day after all.”
We talk a little on the long ride home. The drive is about twenty-five minutes. We live around the inner city while Our Lady of Grace Academy is on the outskirts of the city. Unfortunately, the long drive means that I have to get up very early. I can’t say that the long drive is not without its own advantages. Jaden and I don’t get to talk much during the day since he’s always working and I’m either at school or studying. These long drives allow us to spend our version of quality time with each other. I love my big brother. He does a lot for the family even though he could have been like a lot of other guys his age and just left us to fend for ourselves. I have a lot of respect for him. He’s hardworking, selfless, and patient.
“What are you making for dinner tonight?” He asks.
I shrug, “Something quick so that you can take it with you.”
He nods, “I think mom said she was working the graveyard tonight.”
I open my phone and go to her messages, clicking on the picture of her weekly schedule that she sent. “Yep, she is. I’ll make sure to put some aside for when she gets home.”
“And for our lunch tomorrow,” Jaden rubs his stomach, “I don’t know what you did differently this time, but it was better than usual.”
I hum, “Good, I’ll make sure to never do it again so that you can spend the rest of your life thinking about it.”
Jaden gives me a look, “I will literally punch you. I’m not even kidding.”
I smile, “And I will destroy your anime collection.”
Jaden finally cracks a smile, “You have chosen death.”
I laugh, “Okay, you know I would never do that. Maybe I’d get rid of your little waifu body pillow, though. That’s weird.”
“At least she’s not a minor.”
I snort, “At least you have some kind of boundary, I guess.”
Jaden smirks as he exits the highway, “Just hurry up with the food. Cooking and studying are the only things you’re good at.”
We continue to banter back and forth until we finally arrive home. I reach into the backseat and grab my backpack, purposely hitting him with it as I pull it into my lap. I open the car door and shake my head.
“You know if you don’t put the WD-40 on it now, you’re never going to right?”
“Let me worry about that,” Jaden says even as he winces at the sound of the squealing hinge.
I raise my eyebrows and then walk to the front door. I pull my set of keys out of the small pocket of my backpack while Jaden goes into his trunk. I leave the front door closed but unlocked. Our house is tiny, a downgrade from the house that we grew up in. Dad had been the breadwinner of the family. He and Mom had married straight out of high school. Dad went to college and Mom got pregnant with Jaden. Dad had gotten a good job right out of college meaning that Mom got to be a stay-at-home mom and devote her time to raising us. Unfortunately, when Dad died, it also meant that she had no degree, no qualifications, and no work history. She had been working as a waitress at a restaurant for the past few years and while it kept us afloat, it wasn’t enough. She had taken out a mortgage on our childhood house and then lost it to the bank. We had moved to this house shortly after. It may have been tiny and a little run down, but at least we were all together.
I go to my room and push the cracked door open. I kick off my scuffed penny loafers and loosen my mandated tie. I throw my backpack onto the chair that sits in front of my desk that Jaden had found for cheap at a garage sale somewhere. I pull a faded t-shirt and a pair of shorts out of my drawer and quickly change. I hang up my uniform to air out. I had four different uniforms, collected over the last few years. Each uniform was $250 for the full set, which meant that I couldn’t afford to wear a new one each day. I had undergone a growth spurt the summer before sophomore year, suddenly growing the boobs and hips I had waited for since sixth grade. That meant that I could no longer fit my uniform from Freshman year. Even so, it still hung in the back of my closet, much too expensive and valuable to ever be thrown away.
I could get away with off-brand shoes, white or navy knee-high socks, and sometimes a plain white button-up as long as my blazer was buttoned closed. Unfortunately, my ties, skirts, blazers, and white button-ups had the Academy’s crest embroidered and couldn’t be faked. I peel off my unbranded navy knee-high schools and enjoy the way that the cool floor feels against my bare feet.
I dig through my backpack and pull out my lunch bag. It has begun to smell. I put it to the side and then raise my backpack to my nose to see if the smell has spread. Satisfied that it didn’t, I place my backpack down again and carry my lunch bag into the kitchen with me.
I set my lunch bag on the counter and pull out my phone. I put on one of my favorite playlists before washing my hands and starting dinner.
As the ground beef is browning, I open my lunch bag and survey the damage. The smell is definitely stronger than it was this morning. I bite my lip as I think of Ren. The real him had been so different from the way I had imagined him to be since freshman year. He wasn’t kind, quiet, and introspective as I had daydreamed he would be. He was borderline sadistic, unpredictable, and operated under his own enigmatic code of conduct. Even then, I was surprised to find that I was still drawn to him. His face was still handsome, his eyes still captivating even as he gripped my wrist too tightly and destroyed my lunch. His scent had been so tantalizing when he put his arm around my shoulders. There was even something so bleak and therefore enticing about his form as he stood near the field after school, something strange about the way he watched as I got into the car.
“What the fuck happened?”
I jump at the sound of Jaden’s voice. My hands quickly move to my lunch bag, but Jaden is faster. He pulls the lunch bag closer to him to inspect it.
“Who did this?”
I shake my head, “I don’t know. It was just like that whenever I opened it during lunch period.”
Jaden raises his eyebrows, “You don’t know? Did you leave your backpack somewhere? When could it have happened?”
I shrug and grab the bag from him. I turn my back to him and empty it into the trash. I then take it to the sink and run it under some hot water. I’ll still have to wash it.
“Do you have anything you need to wash?” I ask.
Jaden steps closer to me, “Don’t change the subject. Are they picking on you again?”
I huff out a breath and walk to the stove to stir the browning meat, “Who’s ‘they’?”
Jaden sighs, “You know what I mean.”
I nod, “Oh right, the nameless elite. The trust fund babies. The ones who have everything they could ever ask for and still decide that it’s not enough.”
Jaden falls silent.
I take a deep breath and then turn to look at him, “No, Jaden. No one is picking on me, at least not specifically. I’m sure it must have been an accident or something.”
Jaden stares at me for a moment. His jaw clenches and then unclenches. He nods, but it’s a forced movement. “I’ll go and pick up another container while I’m stocking at the grocery store tonight.”
I turn back to the meat, unable to meet Jaden’s eyes without feeling guilty, “Thank you.”
“I’ll get my dirty clothes hamper,” Jaden sighs and I know that the topic has been dropped for now.
I nod, still facing the stove.
10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6zq20FuB0E
