It was bright and early on a Thursday morning, the sun easily shone through the red and orange drapes with ease, illuminating the room, filling it with the bright luminescent glare of the sun. Weather it was from the voices downstairs, the shower running, or the bright inferno in the sky, nothing could wake her in the wee hours of the morning, all except for her alarm clock, the annoying, loud beep’s filled the room, disrupting her comfy dream, she groaned in a very loud and agitated scream, slamming her hand down on the button to silence the alarm. Wiggling out of her red, orange, pink and yellow striped comforter. She opened her mouth wide, letting a loud yawn come from her lips, she stood up and stretched, trudging into her personal bathroom.
Walking out from the hot waters heaven, she glanced at the big glowing blue digits, 7:20, she had another half hour to get ready before she stepped into Lake Bridge High. Her fantasy would be to just skip off until graduation, but thankfully, she had other plans for herself in this world. Dropping the towel on the hardwood ground, she walked over and dressed in a black short skirt and a deep blue tank top. She towel dried her hair for a good five minutes, then taking her hair dryer and letting the rest of her blonde and dark brown locks dry with the intense heat flying out of the hair instrument.
She waltzed down the stairs, carrying her bag down into the living room, eyes darting from her little brothers fighting over the last bowl of chocolate cereal, her mother fixing Daisy’s hair, over to her sister Cici talking to her boyfriend over the telephone. Leigh-Anna tried to put on a smile, looking at the togetherness of her broken family, but the only thing that would drill onto her mouth was a half-smile.
“Morning honey!” Her mother greeted when she saw her daughter walk into the room. “Nice outfit!”
Leigh-Anna put her head down and let out a chuckle, the one of many things she loved about her mother, was that she let her wear whatever she desired. “Thanks mom.”
“You’re welcome honey. You’re going to kill yourself in those heels!”
“Ha, no I won’t, I got my poise from you! When are these guys going to school?”
“Well, Liam, Daisy and Andy have a teacher development day today, so they don’t have school, Cici’s getting a ride with Dean and I’m dropping Marsha off in about ten minutes, do you need a ride sweetie?” Her mother asked her sweetly, looking at her with her sapphire blue eyes, the one of many things that Leigh-Anna harnessed from her mother.
“Nah, that’s okay. I think I’m going to walk, there’s a coffee shop along the way so I’ll stop and get something to eat there.” She explained, walking over to the closet and slipping on her strappy black shoes, she turned back and looked at her mother, who was holding her little sister in her arms. “What’s wrong guys?”
“Nothing, just my two oldest girls are growing up, I can’t believe it!” Her mother emphasized sadly.
“Mom, we may be growing up, well I don’t know about the other ones, but I’ll always be your little diva.” Leigh-Anna said smiling, little diva was a name her mother stuck onto her when she a child. With that, Leigh-Anna nodded and slung her bag over her shoulder and walked out the door, her heels clicking against the well cemented side walk, she kept her head up high as she glided her shades over her eyes. Hoping that her parents’ divorce wasn’t the talk of the school.
Word must get around quickly, her worst fears were confirmed as she received some stares from some freshmen’s and sophomore’s as she clicked through the halls. Thank god she only had one more class left before the day ended, the day seemed to blur by, finally, she stepped into the cafeteria and was greeted by her two best friends, Amanda Wallens and Darcy Rylan.
“Hey girls!” She squealed, they both ran over to her, pulling her into a group hug. Leigh-Anna had many acquaintances, but Amanda, Darcy and herself just stuck together like super glue ever since eighth grade.
“Leigh-Anna, honey, how are you? We heard about your parents I’m so sorry baby girl, we should’ve called you sooner.” Amanda conveyed, looking at her best friend carefully with her exhilarating brown eyes.
“Yeah, as soon as we found out we wanted to call you.” Darcy added.
“Thanks okay girls, I kind of needed some alone time to get through it, and well, this guy I met.”
The three girls didn’t eat all that much around school, usually when lunch time snuck around they went over to the vending machine and picked something from there, as they walked back to their table the questions kept dumping in, who is he? How old is he? Is he hot? What does he look like?
“OK! Calm down for a second!” Leigh-Anna announced, as they say down, swinging their legs underneath the table, she grinned from ear to ear, ready to spill the beans on her love interest, but she wasn’t intending on giving away his identity. “His name is Nick, he’s super hot, nice, kind, funny, quirky, and last but certainly not least, a superb kisser! But there is one thing.”
“And that is?” Darcy said impatiently, whirling her hands around in circle, waiting for her announcement.
“You’re not going to tell us he knocked you up right?” Amanda added in a silly pretence.
“Oh yes, for sure!!” Leigh-Anna laughed and took a swing from her coke. “The thing is, he’s kind of older than I am.”
“How much older?” They asked automatically, with excitement in their voices, hoping that their friends new beau wasn’t that much older than she was.
“Well, I’ll be seventeen in December and he’ll twenty-one the following month, so, do that math.”
“Leigh-Anna’s got herself an older man!”
The threesome squealed like little schoolgirls once more, they were trying to get a last name out of her, but she wouldn’t crumble, promising them. “If something good happens out of it then you’ll meet him, you know my policy on men.” Like A.J would even let me date Nick, if he had it his way I’d have to stay a hundred feet away from him, oh well, sorry A.J, you can’t always get everything you want in life!
They joked around for a while longer, until the bell rang for final period, sighing to herself as she eased into her seat, third seat in the third row, relieved that the day was finally over, well, almost over anyway. Thank goodness History was her favourite class, all throughout the lecture she listened attentively, with her hand on her cheek writing the notes that were needed, rolling her eyes at the annual delinquent that the teacher sent to the principal’s office for misbehaving.
Humming to herself as she exited the coffee shop with her iced late in her hand she turned the corner and saw a strange car in her driveway, a Cadillac, it wasn’t her fathers, but it was new and fancy, scrunching her brow trying to figure who it was, she opened the door and slung her bag onto the floor, Daisy was running across the hall when her head turned, her feet squealing to a haul like a tire against the hardwood floor, giggling expectantly at her sister.
Leigh-Anna looked at her strangely. “What’s up Dais?”
She giggled. “There’s someone here for you! Mom’s talking to him in the living room, he’s cute!”
Leigh-Anna’s eyes bulged out of her sockets, her heart beat suddenly becoming more rapid. Oh fuck! Tell me Nick’s not here, if he is I’m screwed altogether! Daisy trotted up the stairs and up into her room while Leigh-Anna ran into the living and as expected, there was Nick, he looked fine though, dressed in black addias shorts and a red wife beater, damn that boy looked good in red. Leigh-Anna eyes locked onto Nick’s and hung in there for as long as she could, unlike his expression, Nick’s eyes bled sadness and helplessness. Leigh-Anna’s heart sank.
A.J, looked royally pissed off with his arms crossed over his chest, Leigh-Anna broke their eye contact, slammed her eyes shut tight and cleared her throat, letting them know she entered the room, her mother’s, and A.J’s head whipped towards her. Nick’s expression looked intimated yet scared, almost unreadable, A.J’s eyes turned into a piercing coal color that would make the coldest nerved person shiver.
“Hello baby, how was your day?” Her mother questioned smiling.
“It was good, how was yours?” Leigh-Anna said slowly, the situations strangeness clearly shown in her voice.
“It was magnificent, I was just having a little chat with Alexander and from what he told me on the phone this afternoon, your new friend.”
“Oh really? Did you and Alexander have a nice chit chat?” She asked defensively, crossing her eyes, narrowing her blue daggers over toward her cousin.
“Yes it was, very eye opening, we gotta go though, Kev wants us in for a meeting, we’ll see you all later.” A.J said, the hardness in her voice clearly evident, and he wasn’t making any effort to hide it at all.
It all happened so fast, A.J practically dragged Nick out of the house, not even giving him the chance to utter a goodbye. Once the car’s slick engine reared out of the driveway her mother turned toward her, the determination in her narrow eyes as the pierced through her young daughter. “Young lady, we need to talk, in your bedroom, now!”
Leigh-Anna wearily followed her mother into her bedroom and sat down on her newly dressed bed, all clean and made up, was soft and comfy to sit and chill on. Her mother sat down, in front of her, staring into her soul, Christine sighed and looked at her daughters hands, which were now in hers. “Sweetie, I’m not so sure about this Nick.”
“What’s not to be sure of, I don’t even know the guy vary well, after all we’re just friends.” She sugar coated her response for her mother, leaving out the fact that Nick took her into a deep and passion filled kiss.
“You’re just friends with a man you don’t know very well?” Christine retorted, her eyes narrowing.
Leigh-Anna sighed, raking a quick hand through her highlighted locks. “Mom, you know what I mean.”
“Yes, darling I do, and that’s why I want you to stay away from him.”
“WHAT?!” Leigh-Anna shouted in question.
“Well, Leigh-Anna, Nick is four years older than you are, and the only reason why he’s spending time with you is probably because all he wants is sex, I would feel so much better if you wouldn’t associate with him dear.”
Leigh-Anna looked at her blankly, shocked more like it, it killed her to lie to her mother, but she had intentions to stay around Nick for the last couple of months she was home, damn it, I have to lie, she’s been through too much, I’m not stopping from seeing Nick, but I just won’t tell her, what’s the worst that can happen?. She nodded and muttered. “Alright mom, I won’t talk to him anymore. Now if you excuse me, I have homework to do.”
Christine nodded and stroked her daughter’s cheek before shutting the door. Does she really think I’m going to leave him be just like that! HA! That’s funny! Now that her mother’s admission was on the table, and she thought Leigh-Anna would stay clear of Nick, she had a bone to pick with A.J.
Author's Chapter Notes:
This is mainly a LA chapter, but Alex and Nickers are both big impacts and make a big appearence in this chap!
