The next morning Maddy and I went to school. It seemed like it would be a pretty uneventful day, to say the least, until I saw Chad Robinson.
Chad was my ex. He and I had a good relationship, but it was ruined when Cassy got him drunk at a party one night and made out with him…the whore. Long story short, I saw them, screamed a bit, and broke it off right there. He was a good guy, but I just couldn’t go out with him anymore. I had liked him a lot and it really hurt knowing that he cheated on me with a-now former-friend. There weren’t really any hard feelings between the two of us, but that’s probably because I can’t hold a grudge to save my life.
“Hey Kate,” he said, leaning against the locker next to mine.
“Oh, hey Chad,” I replied not taking my eyes off of the Algebra homework I forgot to do.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing really, same old, same old.”
In a hushed tone he asked, “How’s your mom been?”
I froze for a second before looking at him, there was concern in his eyes, and his face was as serious as ever.
“She’s…” I was going to say ‘good’, but decided against it. Chad was a good friend still, not great, but good. The best friend I had out of the entire student body-aside from Maddy and Todd-by far. “…Not so good.”
“Anything I can do? If you need a place to stay or something, we have a guest room that you could stay in.”
“Thanks Chad, but I’m staying at Maddy’s. We’re trying to get my mom some help, but it’s not easy.”
“Yeah, I had an uncle that was an alcoholic, my dad kept trying to put him into rehab, but he wouldn’t do it…” he paused for a moment before finishing. “He ended up rear ending someone and got killed…”
My breath caught in my throat, “Gee,” I said when I was confident my voice wouldn’t crack. “Thanks for that encouraging notion.”
“No Kate, I just want you to know that I know what it’s like…maybe not entirely because I didn’t have to live with my uncle, but still, I’ve lost someone I cared about to alcohol…so if you need help trying to convince your mom to go or something…I could help you out.”
I looked up at him to see if he was telling the truth, his expression was unreadable, but that’s how he got when he was talking about something upsetting or sad to him. So I honored his word.
“Thanks Chad,” I said, giving him a hug. “You don’t know how much I appreciate that offer…”
He returned the hug and said, “No problem Kate, anytime.”
I let go of him and he said he had to get to class, we said our goodbyes and I returned to my homework.
Maddy and I walked down to her car and both hopped in, we’d decided that it’d be a waste to drive two different cars, so we took Maddy’s. When we got back to her house we went inside and were greeted by an amazing aroma.
“Mmm…” Maddy said as she walked through the door. “Mom’s makin’ something good…”
“Brownies,” I said. We went into the kitchen and sure enough, there was a pan of brownies sitting in the window above the sink.
Maddy went to take one, “Hold it right there, young lady!”
“Aww man!” she whined. “Please can we just have one?”
“No, those are for your father’s banquet tonight. He’s receiving an award and I promised to contribute something. Don’t touch the batch that’s in the oven now either.”
“No fair,” she grumbled as she walked into the living room. We sat on the couches and watched TV for a while, I did my homework while we were watching TV because I knew I wouldn’t do it after my date. I had just finished my last assignment when my cell rang.
“Hello?”
“Hey,” Aaron said. “I forgot to ask what time you wanted me to pick you up..”
I looked at the clock, it was 4:45. “Uh…how about six?” I asked. “Or is that too early?”
“No, six is perfect,” he said. I could imagine the cute smile on his face. “I’ll see you then.”
“Bye,” I shut my phone and looked over at Maddy. “Can you pick out an outfit for me while I take a shower?”
“Is that even a question?!” she asked, getting up and running upstairs.
When I got out of the shower I looked at what she had picked out for me, a pair of hip hugger khakis, with a green and pink stripped AE polo.
“Cute,” I said approvingly. “Now get out so I can change.”
“You can’t kick me out of my own room!” she said, laughing.
“Oh yeah?” I pushed her out the door and closed it quickly, locking it.
I got dressed as quickly as I could, it was 5:40 when I looked at the clock. I should probably hurry up… So I had Maddy do my make up, and she did a damn good job!
After I put on the finishing touches on my hair, I put on my new flip flops and went downstairs to join Maddy.
“Did your parents leave already?” I asked, not seeing anyone there.
“Yeah, about ten minutes ago, why?” she asked.
“Just wondering,” I replied simply. Maddy and I watched TV for a little bit and at around five past six the doorbell rang.
I got up and Maddy gave me one last grin. I opened the door and standing there was….
“MOM!?!!”
