Torn Souls (13 page)

While Mom and Dad were distracted, I peeked inside the oven door to see what Dad actually made. It kind of smelled like lasagna, but I knew that was too complicated for Dad, the man who always sent me to make him grilled cheese sandwiches if Mom wasn’t home. I still couldn’t believe what I was staring at in the oven. Dad had somehow managed to make stuffed green peppers and it actually looked good. It didn’t look like it was quite ready yet, so I figured I had enough time to jump in the shower and change into some sweats before dinner. While I grabbed my clothes, I noticed I had left my phone on the bed the whole time I was out with Mom and I had missed a call from Alex. As much as I wanted to call Alex back right away, I decided to shower first.

I felt so much better after my shower, but my feet were still killing me. Just as I was about to call Alex, Dad came to my room to let me know that dinner would be done in about ten minutes. Before dialing I waited to see if Dad would actually walk away or if he was going to stand in the hall trying to listen in on my conversation. I was glad when he went back into the kitchen. He probably only left because he didn’t want dinner to burn.

Alex sounded happy to hear from me. We swapped stories about our weekends. He told me how he went to his grandparents’ house for dinner and because they are old all they ever do is repeat the same story from weeks that have passed. I tried not to laugh, but I found it to be funny. I told him that I had taken a lot of cool pictures from the zoo and that Mom had stopped at Starbucks. I didn’t get to talk as long as I wanted with Alex because Dad called me to come and eat.

Mom and I were shocked, to say the least, at how well Dad did with dinner. It was actually good. He said he was going to also try making dessert, but he didn’t want to push his luck, so instead he ran out and bought a cake from a bakery called Mama G’s. After stuffing my face, I was too full to eat cake, but made Dad promise me he’d save me a slice before it was all gone.

“Don’t worry, Julia, I’ll make sure there’s some cake left for you,” he assured me.

“Okay. Do you want me to clear the table and load the dishwasher, Mom?”

Before my mother had a chance to answer me, my dad interjected by saying, “I got it, Julia. I’ll take care of it tonight. You just go rest. You have school tomorrow and I don’t want you tired and falling asleep in class.”

I didn’t understand what was going on with my dad. Did something happen to him while we were gone for the day? Did aliens come and swap out his brain? Who was this man standing in front of me? Mom couldn’t believe what she was hearing either. First dinner and now he’s offering to clean up. He must have done something wrong, I thought.

“Honey,” Mom said real slowly. “You’re scaring me. What did you do?”

“Nothing, I just had a relaxing day and thought I’d pitch in. You’re always the one that’s balancing it all, so I thought why not help my loving wife,” Dad said chuckling as though he found Mom to be funny.

“Okay, if you say so,” she said, still a little take back and quite possibly still suspicious.

I chose to walk away before I woke up from what seemed to be a dream. There was no way I was going to argue with Dad. If he wanted to help Mom so I could go to bed, I was fine with it. It took what seemed forever for me to fall asleep, but really after only twenty minutes or so, I was out cold.

Chapter Fourteen

For the next couple of weeks, Alex and I hung out almost every Friday after school. He would always ride home with me and his mom would come pick him up around eight at night. There were times when we just hung out in my room and times when we hung out at the park. Neither one of us were old enough to drive so we were limited to where we could go. I was still trying to get used to living in New York City. There were so many avenues that if I was alone I’d get lost, so I never went too far by myself. I loved the food here. Back home we didn’t have food vendors on the streets. I found this to be convenient. My favorite vendors to eat from are Gino’s Pretzels, Mario’s Famous Hot dogs, Ron’s Corn Dogs on the Go, and a place called Sal’s Philly Cheese Steaks.

Living in New York has its disadvantages also. School was no better than the first day I started. Bridget still wouldn’t leave me alone. Nowadays she waits until I have to use one of the bathrooms to bully me. Just last week while I was washing my hands in the ladies room, she came in and started saying nasty things to me. I should have kept my mouth shut, but instead I said, “Why are you doing this? What is your problem?”

“My problem is you. You need to stay away from Alex or else!” she said as she splashed water all over my white shirt. I didn’t even bother to dry my hands, I just ran out of the bathroom. I could hear Bridget and the two mindless minions laughing. I didn’t understand why she’d have a problem with me hanging around Alex unless she liked him. I thought about asking Alex, but he’d probably want to know why I was asking and I didn’t want him to know anything.

That day I had to have my mom bring me a new shirt. What I really wanted was to go home and cry into my pillow, but I couldn’t without my parents finding out. When I called Mom she asked me what happened. I didn’t want to lie, but I didn’t want my mom going off on anyone, so I told her that the faucet sprayed me. I’m pretty sure she knew I wasn’t being truthful to her, but on that particular day she was busy and needed to get back to court so she didn’t push the issue.

I had been living in New York for almost three months and Christmas was right around the corner. It has always been one of my favorite holidays, but not this year. Not unless someone could grant me a miracle where Bridget was transferred out of my school for good. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that I get to see Alex and hang out with him on Friday’s after school.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, Alex’s mom had planned to take him shopping, so he wasn’t able to come over on Friday. Knowing how much it meant to both of us to be able to hang out, Alex’s mom agreed to drop him off first thing in the morning on Saturday. Unlike my dad, Alex’s mom was cool with us hanging out. Mom had even told me that Alex’s mom thought I was good for her son and that she was glad he had a friend like me. That of course, made me feel good.

That night when Alex got home from going out with his mom, he called me. He talked non-stop about how much he hated shopping and he didn’t understand how girls could love it so much. I was about to explain to him why girls love it so much until he said, “Oh, and Julia.”

“Yes, Alex.”

“That was a rhetorical question. I really don’t want to know. Girls are complicated enough and the more I find out about you girls, the more my head starts to hurt,” he said.

“What are you trying to say? So, you think I’m like most girls? I see how it is,” I said.

“No. Uh, I didn’t mean you in particular, Julia,” he replied quickly, with a panicking sound in his voice as if I was mad.

It was funny to hear him squirm on the phone. I didn’t want him to know I was laughing, so I dropped my face down into my pillow and laughed hysterically for a few seconds. Lost in the moment, I eventually heard his voice yelling out from the phone, “Jewels! Can you hear me, Jewels?”

Quickly, I popped up. What did he just say? Did he just call me Jewels? He had never called me that before. I was always Julia. What did this mean? From all the chick-flicks I’ve seen, guys who knick name their friends end up becoming more than that. No! No! No!

“Yep, I’m here,” I answered him, trying to sound cool.

“You’re not mad at me, right? You do know I was just kidding? I take it all back,” he said sincerely.

“Mad at you for what?”

I had forgotten what were even talking about. The only thing that was running through my mind was the fact that I was now Jewels to him. I kept telling myself that I was overreacting. He knew we were just friends, so instead of making the knick name thing an issue, I just let it go.

“Mad because I said you’re like all the other girls. Because I know you’re not at all and that’s what I like about you.”

“No, I could never be mad at you, Alex. I was just messing with you.”

Once Alex knew I was joking he calmed down a little. I wanted to break the tension which seemed to still be there, so I asked him what he had planned for tomorrow. Of course the only thing he would say was, “It’s a surprise, but I can tell you to make sure you dress warm.”

After talking to Alex for a few more minutes, I hung up and decided to go to sleep knowing he’d be over early in the morning and I wanted to be up when he arrived. I tossed and turned for a while. I tried so hard to fall asleep, but I couldn’t. The anticipation of tomorrow was killing me. I thought maybe if I grabbed myself a snack I’d be able to fall asleep, but it didn’t help. I decided to turn on my TV and set the timer.

The next morning my alarm went off, but I didn’t want to get up. Instead of hitting snooze, I accidently shut the alarm off. I was all warm and cozy, until Mom came crashing in my room saying, “Julia, Alex is here.” Instantly, I jumped up and somehow fell off my bed.

Mom quickly came over to help me get up off the floor. I was freaking out as I sat back on my bed. Crap, Alex probably heard me fall. My elbow was pounding because I had fallen directly onto my funny bone and it wasn’t funny at all.

“Mom, do you think he heard? Do you think Alex knows I fell off my bed?”

“Honey, I don’t think so. He’s sitting in the living room watching TV. He’s a guy. He probably didn’t hear anything except the TV,” Mom said, trying to make me feel better.

“Oh, I hope so,” I said, trying to convince myself that Mom was right.

“Are you all right? Do you need me to get you some ice for the elbow?”

“No, I’ll be okay, but I need to get dressed so can you go keep Alex company?”

“Sure, I’m on it,” Mom said as she kissed the top of my head, and walked out of my room.

Once I was completely dressed, I met Alex in the living room where he and Mom were watching a Lifetime movie. I surely wasn’t expecting that, so I had to tease him a little. “Awe, isn’t that cute. You and my mom have something in common. Do you want to just stay instead of going out and we can all have ourselves a tea party?” I asked while laughing.

“Ha-ha, Jewel’s, you’re a comedian. This was already on when I sat down,” Alex said defending his manhood.

“All right, kids, play nice,” Mom interrupted while we were still poking fun at each other.

“You might want to put on a hat and some gloves. It’s kind of cold out and with what we’ll be doing you’ll need them,” Alex said with a not so innocent smile upon his face.

I kind of had a feeling as to where we were going, but I didn’t want to say anything to Alex and accidently spoil his surprise if I guessed right. It took me a few minutes to actually find gloves seeing as I hardly ever wore any when I lived back home.

“All right, I’m ready to go have some fun,” I said while waving my hands in the air and then making a “woo-hoo” noise.

Mom and Alex didn’t say anything to my remark. Instead they both looked at me with a polite smile and nodded. From their reactions, I knew I must have sounded and looked like a complete idiot. Before we arrived at what I was pretty sure was going to be the park, Alex and I stopped off at the same bakery Dad went to called Mama G’s. It was actually a little farther than I intended to walk.

While standing at the counter, Alex didn’t even bother to ask me what I wanted. Instead he just took it upon himself to order for me. “Yes, I’ll have two hot chocolates and two biscotti cookies, please,” he said to the little old woman behind the counter. It kind of made me uncomfortable. I felt like people only did that kind of stuff when they were either dating or married. When the lady handed us our hot chocolate and cookies, Alex turned and began to walk over to a little table that was in the corner to sit.

“What are you doing?” I asked trying to not sound all weird.