Chapter Ten

Loudspeakers

As soon as she opened the door to her apartment, the first sight she got was of Aaron sprawled all over the sofa, watching television. She tried to walk fast into her room, hiding her face so he couldn’t tell she had been crying. It was working, not because her bushy hair was doing a good job at covering her up, but because he wouldn’t take his eyes from the TV screen anyway. Unfortunately, she was quickly caught by her mother.

“So, I heard you got a job offer.”

Sophie turned to her and, forgetting about her red cheeks and puffy eyes, asked Silvia with confusion, “How can you possibly know that?”

“Your brother told me.”

Sophie turned to Aaron with the exact same look on her face. “How can he possibly know that?”

Aaron answered in a bored tone, without taking his eyes out of the game he was watching, “That girl, the one who thinks she’s better than us simple peasants, J. K. or whatever, told her friend Kate, who told her boyfriend Nate, who commented with Rose, Parker’s sister, who told Parker and Parker told me. And I told mom.”

Sophie was more confused now than ever. “How… This was just a few hours ago. Why in the world would these people talk about me? I don’t even know them.”

Aaron smirked. “Please. They weren’t talking about you, they were talking about me. You know, the younger sis of that cool, awesome, rocker dude.”

“Of course. It makes sense now,” she added with sarcasm.

“Why didn’t you take it?” her mother asked.

“It’s only at the weekends, the payment couldn’t be that good.” She sighed. The last thing she wanted to do was talk about this right now. All she wanted was to go to her room and sleep with her turtles and skip dinner - and breakfast and lunch.

“But you can’t find anything else, can you?”

“No. I’m trying, but-“

“And you really want to work?”

“Of course I do, but-“

“And you do love that coffee-shop, don’t you? Wouldn’t you like working there?”

“I would love to, but-“

“Then take the job.” Her mother smiled with sweetness, turned around and walked towards the kitchen.

“But mom…” Sophie followed her. “I want something that pays well, I want to-“

“You want to solve problems that really aren’t your business, to begin with.”

“It is my business. I want to help.”

“I know you do, but you don’t have to. Your father and I can solve those things on our own. It’s our job. Yours is to relax, be a teenager and prepare your future.”

“I want to help,” Sophie repeated, “and I will, as soon as I find a decent job.”

“Sophie…” Silvia got near her and rested her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about money, ok? If you really want to work, then take the job. It’s a place you like and it’s only on the weekends. It’s perfect for you.”

“But the money-“

“Your money, the money you have made ever since you started working, is all neatly stored in a nice, safe, bank account.”

Sophie looked at her mother in surprise. They hadn’t been using the money she got them?

“We always put it there, every month you gave me your salary. It’s an account I set up for you. It’s part of your college money.” Silvia smiled. “And that’s where this money will go too, if you want.”

“But I thought… Why-“

“Sophie, we have to prepare your future. You’re our only hope of having a college graduate in the family. We can’t really count on your brother for that, can we?”

Still stunned with the conversation with her mother, Sophie went to her room and threw herself on the bed. At least they hadn’t noticed her swollen eyes (little did she know, Silvia was dragging Aaron out of the sofa by his feet at that exact moment – “Go talk to your sister!”) She was agonizing over the thought of all the homework she still had to do, when Aaron walked into her room. She shot him a pissed look for not knocking that he promptly ignored. He frowned when he saw her face.

“Alright, so who do I have to beat up? Mark? That bastard’s been basically begging for it. That cellphone dude you keep talking to?”

Sophie raised her eyebrows. She had no idea Aaron knew about Adrian.

“Or is it a whole new guy? It doesn’t matter, I can kick all three of their asses.”

“Stop it, Aaron.” She buried her face on a turtle. “I’m the one who deserves a good kicking.”

“I could do that, too.”

“Funny.”

“To me it would be.”

“Then just do it quickly, please. At least someone will be happy.”

“Jesus, sis, what’s with all the emo-ness?”

“I’m not emo, I’m tired.” She sighed.

“What happened?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Sure I don’t, that’s actually why I’m here.”

She looked at him. He was leaning towards her door in a very casual way, like he always was, but he actually looked interested. “You know, dear old Jenny also mentioned something about you and Charlotte fighting.”

“I thought this was the kind of stuff you always labeled as ‘stupid girl drama’.”

“It is! But you are a girl and you are occasionally stupid and you are prone to overly dramatic crap, so I have to accept and deal with it.”

“You’re so sweet,” she answered with sarcasm, “how much is mom paying you for you to fake interest?”

“She’s not paying me a holed dime, ungrateful dumbass.”

“Then why are you doing this?”

“You’re my sister. We stick up for each other. That’s what siblings do.” He shrugged.

Sophie sadly smiled with gratitude and Aaron continued, “Look, I don’t know what’s going on but, either way, I’m gonna tell you something that I think will fit in any situation.”

She waited with morbid curiosity. Aaron’s advices weren’t what most people would consider wise, “Try drinking vodka, it will cure that flu”, “You should smoke while you’re young, you’ll learn sooner”, “You should’ve broken the bottle on his head”, “Skipping classes is a sign of a healthy mind”, “Antibiotics are for pussies”, “I would’ve ran away from home, if mom ever talked to me like that” and her personal favorite, “Never turn your back on a group of live turkeys, they’ll gang up on you” - so she was wondering what the next jewel would be.

“You shouldn’t care that much about whatever is troubling you now. In the long run and looking at the great picture, you’ll realize it’s really not that important. You’re only wasting energy that could be better spent. You should be concentrating on making your dreams happen.”

Sophie looked at her brother in awe – she was expecting something the likes of “Just beat them all in the head with a stick”. She was amazed at his (well) hidden wisdom.

“I mean, that’s what I do. You should work on your writing and send everything else for a walk.”

Sophie nodded, it was like she had finally seen the light. Aaron was actually right.

He smiled with pride, as if his job was done, nodded and turned to leave the room. He seemed to remember something though, and turned right back at her. “Oh, by the way, if mom asks, there has been a massive breakout from the city pound.” Noticing Sophie’s questioning look, he added, “It’s a long story.”

When he was almost out of the room, Sophie asked him, “Hey, what’s up between you and J.J. by the way?”

Aaron quickly turned around and asked, “What? Why?”

Sophie shrugged. “No reason. I was just wondering why you two don’t seem to get along.”

“She’s just a stuck up know-it-all. I wouldn’t even know she existed if it wasn’t for the fact that Parker’s sister is friends with Nate and he’s dating her friend Kate.” And he left the room mumbling something about arrogant women being arrogant.

A few days later, Sophie woke up with her phone ringing on her nightstand. Confused and more asleep than awake, she narrowed her eyes and looked at her wristwatch, also resting on her nightstand. It was four and a half in the morning. What the hell? She could barely form a coherent thought, much less a conversation.

She cursed the day she turned her cell back on. She really didn’t have a choice though, she needed it as an alarm clock. Damn technology and all its usefulness. Also, her father told her that he ‘did not buy it to be gathering dust in the drawer’. She raised her arm to her forehead and moaned, thinking that in a few hours she would be getting up to her first day of work at Papyrus. She grabbed her phone and saw that it was an unknown number calling. She seriously considered letting it ring, because at that hour it could only be a prank call.

It had been three days since the infamous revelation at her new work place. Adrian never tried to contact her again, or if he did, it was during the few hours she had her cell turned off, before she realized she needed it to wake up on time and her father realized she was wasting his money.

Charlotte made a timid attempt to speak to her at the bus the next day and Sophie didn’t ignore her, but she was so cold and dry in her responses that Charlotte must’ve felt bad and gave up. It wasn’t as if Sophie was trying to punish her friend, she was honestly still resented and hurt by what had happened and she couldn’t – as much as she tried – just get over it. She was trying though, she figured she only needed time. She hoped Charlotte had figured the same, because Sophie didn’t want to lose her. She missed her best friend and she wanted more than anything to just put everything behind her.

Without Charlotte, these last three days had been mildly depressing, especially at school. She used to walk alone through the corridors, not really interested in anyone else’s presence, until Aaron noticed and bullied her into spending lunch hour with him and his friends. Chester also seemed satisfied to accompany her to her classes, which made her slightly happier and lifted her spirits. It was proof that she mustn’t be looking too good that Aaron let his friend walk her around with his arm around her shoulders. It helped too that with Aaron, Chester and their friends around, Mark was less prone to give her angry glares.

Charlotte, on the other hand, spent all her time with her friends from the drama club and even looked like she was hanging out more with J.J.’s group. It didn’t bother Sophie, she was actually relieved. The last thing she wanted was for Charlotte to feel worse.

She missed her dear friend, though. And she missed Adrian. She missed him so much it hurt and made her feel like a complete douchebag. She hated to feel like that, she didn’t want to miss him, but the truth was, without him in her life it all seemed so… empty. Mundane, unimportant. She felt lonelier than ever when she looked at her watch and realized with a sharp bang in her chest that he was on his lunch break, or having Algebra or training basketball. It made her feel lonely when she realized that just a few days earlier she would be talking to him at that time.

Sophie dealt with it by trying to follow her brother’s advice. She wrote. She wrote like hell those past three days and it was the only time when she didn’t feel lost. Every day, when she grabbed her pen and furiously lashed everything on the paper, it was like a heavy brick was lifted off her shoulders. But when she looked at the time and realized that he was probably in practice and that he used to call her every day before or after it, the heavy weight returned. What the hell had he done to her?

The phone wouldn’t stop ringing.

“Hello?” she moaned.

“Murphy…”

“Adrian?” She suddenly felt wide awake, the sound of his voice lifting up all the heavy weight on her body and mind. “It’s almost five in the morning…“ Not that it mattered, but he didn’t need to know it.

“Murphy,” he repeated, she felt relief in his voice. “I hope I didn’t wake you up.”

“Uh… It’s almost five in the morning,” she repeated, “what number is this?”

“You see, I knew you wouldn’t take the call if it was my number.” And he laughed at his own master plan. “I’m happy you took this one.”

He wasn’t making much sense, had he forgotten that he was the one who stopped talking to her? She recognized his tone though.

“Are you drunk?”

“Just a little, we went out tonight. You weren’t at I Scream.”

“I have work tomorrow.”

“Oh yeah, Charlotte told me. Congratulations!”

She rolled her eyes, trying very hard not to feel annoyed. “Thanks. So you’ve kept in touch, the two of you, huh?”

“She showed up at Scream tonight.”

“Oh, so you’re going out together… Wonderful.”

“It’s not like that, Murphy,” he said it in a caring, almost pained tone that made it hard for her to remember she should be annoyed.

“Whatever, don’t care,” She was proud at her cold façade.

“You’re still angry, aren’t you? I admit, you kinda turn me on when you’re angry.”

Sophie buried her face in her pillow, blushing. “Idiot…”

“Where do you live? Just tell me and I’ll be there in five minutes!”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Ah, as if…”

“Test me.”

“No, thank you.”

“Don’t be so cold to me,” he begged, “I miss our old conversations.”

Sophie sighed deeply. She missed them too, but again, he didn’t deserve to know it.

“You know, you were right. I was a coward, just like my dick father.”

It hurt her that he really believed it and she felt terrible for saying it to him. “No, Adrian, I was stupid and mean. There’s no possible comparison-“

“It’s true! I walked out on you. I tried to cut out all ties with you because I wanted to just forget. No, not forget, more like… get over it. You know?”

She didn’t, but she kept silenced anyway. She had the feeling that if he hadn’t been drinking, he wouldn’t be telling her that. Heck, he probably wouldn’t even be calling her in the first place.

“When you told me you had gone back to Mark… I just lost it. It was a jackass move.”

That it was.

“You just totally messed me up, you know? I don’t have a clue how it happened, it just did. One minute I’m pretty damn fine with my life, the next one I’m all messed up.”

She messed him up? Well, it hadn’t exactly been a walk through a field of tulips for her, either.

“At first it was just for fun and interest but then, out of nowhere, you just messed me the hell up.”

So it was her fault? “It’s good that you found such an upgraded replacement then.” She shuddered when she heard her own resentment.

Adrian laughed, like he was mocking her, like he knew a private joke that she was clueless on. “You’re talking about Charlotte?”

“Maybe.”

“You’re such a moron, you never get anything.”

Like she didn’t know that. “Great, just keep on kicking the blind one.”

“You’re damn right about the blindness.”

“I know.”

“No, you don’t.” He laughed bitterly. “I only started talking more to Charlotte after you told me about you going back to Mark. And the reason I did that, was because I wanted to know about you.”

Sophie was silent for a few moments. Was half of her brain still asleep?

“What?”

“I talked to her to know how you were doing, you idiot. And along the way I guess we became friends. Friends.”

“You have a pretty different approach on friendship. She’s crushing on you.”

“Well, I can’t help that, can I? I didn’t make her fall for me.” Then, he grinned. “Can’t help that I’m so irresistible.”

She rolled her eyes. “That would be a pretty good story if it made any sense at all. If you wanted to know about me, why not talk to me?”

“I told you, I was trying to get over it, I didn’t want to talk to you anymore!”

Ouch. That stung.

“But I just couldn’t help but think about you with Mark and not knowing anything only made it worse, so I asked her to tell me.”

“That’s so messed up…”

“I know, right?”

“It doesn’t make an ounce of sense!”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” He sounded sad and miserable. It made her feel equally as terrible, knowing that he felt that way because of her. Whatever that meant, whatever she had done. “You know, I’ve been playing really lousy.”

She took it that he was talking about basketball and wondered if he was about to blame her for that too.

“We lost the game today. I guess it was my fault, I’ve been playing like shit these last few practices. My team says I’m going soft. I just can’t keep my mind straight. Last week, all I could think about was you and that jackass. This week, all I could focus on was you not giving a fuck anymore.”

“What are you talking about Adrian? I swear to God, I can’t understand you.”

He didn’t seem to hear her though, as he kept on with his rant, “I’m getting majorly screwed up with this whole situation. A girl asked me to go out with her tonight.”

Sophie rested her face on her arms.

“I said yes.”

Sophie hugged a turtle, getting ready for the familiar feeling of swallowing a big sword.

“But I didn’t show up.” He seemed as surprised about it as she was, “I don’t know why, I just couldn’t. I didn’t want to.”

“Why did you say ‘yes’, then?” she almost whispered.

“Because I wanted to want to go. I should’ve gone! That’s me, right? That’s the kind of guy I am. I should’ve gone! But I didn’t and I feel incredibly stupid for it!”

“Poor thing… I feel so bad for you.”

“There you go again.” He obviously recognized the sarcasm in her voice.

“Excuse me, but how exactly do you expect me to react? You’re telling me you regret not going on a date with some random girl, how am I supposed to act? What did you expect me to say?”

“You’re supposed to hear more than what you do! That’s all you took out of everything I told you?”

“No, I also understand that I’m the source of all your misery.”

“Ah, shit.” He laughed. “You’re so freaking amazing!”

“Yes, you’ve said that already. I understood that plain and clear, as well.”

“You know what?” He kept laughing with no humor. “I should just give up.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t keep this up, I’m fucking tired, Sophie.”

“Well, so am I.”

“Great, then perhaps it’s better off that way.”

“What way?”

“Let’s just forget about each other, move on.”

“I thought you already did.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m calling you at five a.m.!”

“Look, if you want to just forget all about me, if all I do is make you feel like shit, if I’m such a humongous pain in your life, just leave me! Oh wait, you already did, you selfish jock!” It was like she was looking at herself in disbelief as she said it, like she was an external watcher.

“It’s unbelievable, it’s like I’m talking to a monkey! A deaf monkey. You don’t understand a word of what I say!”

“A monkey?”

“See? You and your selective hearing! You only get the bullshit of what I say!”

“Well, maybe that’s because you only talk bullshit! Or maybe you should go and talk to more intelligent people, like Charlotte or that random girl. You should talk to her. I bet she’s dying to go out with you, she won’t mind rescheduling.”

“Fine, maybe I will!”

“Then go!”

“Because if I remember correctly, I don’t have the right to be mad at you, so I suppose it goes both ways.”

“Great! Sleep with how many girls you want!”

“Rightly noted, I will.”

“Good riddance! Have a great time! Maybe I’ll do the same. I’m sure Mark will be more than up to it!”

Yes, she was being petty. And yes, it worked - he got even more pissed off.

“Then go! See if I care! Go screw him all you want, I don’t care!”

“Fine, I’m glad you don’t! Go back to ignoring my existence, since you’re so good at it!”

“I will! Forget I ever called you! Forget everything I said.”

“I’ll certainly try.”

They both hung up at the same moment. Sophie felt like throwing up. Back at square one. The weight on her chest now felt heavier than ever. She could not remember a time when she felt worse.

What the hell was he doing to her?

Evil Author's Notes - Oh noes! They're fighting again... muahahahah!

Oh, is Sophie totally blind or what? She's just so busy convincing herself it could not possibly be... Who knows? Maybe it can't *shruggs* Anyway, I just wanted her to stood her ground, once and for all, even if it makes her dense. Better dense than doormat, I think. Ah, love the sound of drunken phonecalls in the middle of the night. Not that I've ever done that ... *whistles*

Anyway, almost done, eheh. Thank you, once again, for all your amazing support. Have I told you I am creepily obsessed with each and every one of you? Have I? Are you sure? Because I am! (probably shouldn't spend so much time with the squirrel...). Talk to me, my darlings!