Ch 1 Soundtrack 2 my Life
All of these emotions are pourin' outta me. I bring them to the light for you, it's only right this is the soundtrack to my life- Kid Cudi
Briar
The place... that steel city damn, I got that Pittsburgh sound, and Imma always hold Pittsburgh down its Wiz Khalifa man, you can't tell by now, Pittsburgh Imma swell my town, that steel city damn. Wiz Khalifa blasts from my buzzing iPhone, a present for my seventeenth birthday three months ago. I immediately know who's calling from the song. I look at the phone and smile as I see a picture of me and my best friend Jula at a Pirates game that was taken two summers ago when I went to visit for a week. "Briar we miss you! When you gunna come home and visit, it's been like three months!" Jula, says before I can even get in a hello. I set down my hair straightener and open my makeup case. I have a movie date with Paul tonight. We've been together for two years; he's seen me at my best and my worst. I'm pretty guarded when it comes to my heart, so I don't know how he wormed his way in, but I love him every day for it. It was probably his insistent charm, and the fact it's kinda hard to avoid him since he's my brother's best friend. I pull myself from inside my head and answer with a sigh "I know I haven't been home since my birthday, and after that party yinz threw me it's taken me this long to recover!" We both laugh at the memories of us drunkenly making my birthday cake. She dropped it on the table so it turned out more like a mushy pile of cake pieces and icing, but to our alter drunk egos it rivaled the cake boss's cakes. I get back to her question, "Thanksgiving's in like a month. Think you can hold down the Burgh till then?" I knew she wouldn't be happy with my answer. "Yoi a whole nother month! You're lucky I love you. But anyway me n Brad are going down Primanti's, and Poppi is yelling at me to get off the phone. I swear he yells at me in Polish one more time, grouchy old man!" She always makes me smile, but sad at the same time. I love talking to her, but every time we hang up it's like my lifeline to the city I love gets cut all over again. Don't get me wrong I like Washington, not so much at first, but after five years, it's grown on me. I have a great boyfriend, lots of friends, and my dad got an awesome paying job outside of the reservation we live on which allows me to visit home more often, but it's not Pittsburgh. I'm brought out of my thoughts by Jula's yelling, "YA YA POPPI I AM I AM! Ok gotta go, let me know how your date goes! Love you, bye!" Jula says all in one breath. "I will, yinz have a good time n'at. Love you too, see ya." And just like that the steel city gets washed away and I'm brought back to rainy La Push, Washington. I swipe mascara and lip gloss on and gaze into the mirror at the finished product. I fix a smudge on my tan skin. I'm half Quileute from my dad and Pennsylvania Dutch from my mom, her grandfather was actually Amish, but gave it up when he met my great grandma. I think that's the sweetest story I've ever heard, giving up everything, being shunned by your whole town, even family, to be with the person you love. I hope someday I'll find someone that deep in love with me, or maybe I already have I hope so. My dad is the reason we moved back here and I met Paul in the first place. We came back not only for his job but so he could come back to his roots. Sometimes I still don't understand why I had to give up mine so he could reunite with his. But I stop thinking about things I can't change as I hear Paul's truck that I have named "Bubba" pull into the gravel drive way. I grab my phone, id case with my debit card and cash inside because even though Paul insists on paying for everything I still like to have some money around so I can at least offer to help pay, lip gloss and make my way down the stairs. I'm not a purse girl. If it can't fit in my pockets I don't need it. I'm already half way down the stairs as my mother begins yelling at the top of her lungs for me to come down.
Paul
"Paul!, Oh hun you know you don't have to ring the bell, just walk right in" said Carol Cordero leading me into the living room I've been in probably as much as my own within the past five years. I sat down on the oversized couch and let out a slight chuckle "Alright Mrs. Cordero, I'll remember that for next time", knowing I'd never just let myself in. Carol sighed and continued her rant, "Hun how many times have I told you to call me Carol? You've been dating my daughter for two years, and have been Jar's best friend since we moved here; you're part of the family." I smiled and nodded, because even though I've been around for five years I've always called her Mrs. Cordero. I may be kind of rough around the edges and have a bad reputation around school for being a dick or having anger issues, but my mom raised me to be a gentleman, even though my manners usually only make an appearance around four people. My mom, Mrs. Cordero, Briar, and my grandmother, because if I'm not polite she hits me with her cane and tells me how in her day men were respectful and that she is praying for me. I'm snapped out of my thoughts by Carol, "Jared is at hockey so I'm assuming you're here for my darling daughter?" Carol said with a laugh. Paul nodded, "Ya, we're heading into Port Angles to see a movie, it's her turn to pick." "BRIAR! PAUL'S here!" Carol yelled lessening the decibel of the last word, as she sees Briar at the bottom of the stairs. Fuck that woman is loud, there's actually a ringing in my ears. "Geez, Ma turn it down a thousand, don't think they heard you on the South Side." Briar joked. Since the family had moved to La Push from Pittsburgh five years ago I have been trying to decode their "language". The first year I barely understood a word they said between their lingo and the thick accent. "Don't get nebby with me", Carol laughed as she said her goodbyes. I opened the passenger's side door to my truck which she insisted on naming "Bubba" of all things, and helped her in since she's so damn short. Briar looked amazing, even if she was in just jeans and a pink plaid button up shirt. She always smelled so good, her silky light tan skin making her unique around La Push, not full Quileute but not full "pale face" either. Oh and her long brown hair was always soft and shiny and "Paul! Gets da stepping or we're gunna miss the movie!" Briar said with a smile, interrupting my inner rant of adoration for her. "Alright alright keep your shirt on woman… or on second thought" I said with a wink, which earned me light smack on the arm and a laugh. Her laugh was warm and light and so … Briar. If I had to pick her out of a crowd blindfolded only by the sound of people laughing, I would be able to pick her out in seconds flat. We ride in comfortable silence as we hold hands. Briar sings along with the radio and gazes out the window as the rain streaks down the pane, which she always reminds me is a PPG product, where her dad used to work before moving to help out on the council and be the new manager at a plant a few miles up the road. I turn to look at the girl that has finally roped me in. I definitely know she's the one for me. And when she goes off to college I want us to move in together and get married. Since I'm a senior and she's a junior that's not too far off. I just hope she chooses WSU like me and Jared. I know she had always wanted to go to Pitt, but maybe her family and I being in Washington will make her decide to stay here so we can be together. I worry about her; she has friends here, but none that she's as close to as Jula, her best friend. What's going to happen to her when I'm not around or Jared to watch out for her? I swear to God if anybody fucks with her I'll beat their face in. Wow and angry Paul makes his appearance. Maybe I am as bad as they say; at least I used to be before Bri.
Briar
Paul is such a sweet guy. I've had boyfriends before, but never like Paul. I've been cheated on by everyone I've dated, blown off so he could hang with friends and they could get high, among other things. I know I shouldn't complain because some women really get treated badly by their men, smacked around even. But is it too much to ask for loyalty and respect? Then I met Paul and it all changed. I finally realized that I deserved to be treated well, I used to have trust issues with him since I heard his reputation as the "man whore" of La Push, but we worked through it and he accepts my past as I do his. I often wonder why he chose me to break the "slut cycle" as I have secretly named it. I mean I'm not one of those girls that say she's ugly so people feel obligated to compliment them. I know I'm pretty, not to sound conceited, but I also know it's the kind of average pretty. It's the kind that people look and think she's pretty but then forget about it. There are other girls on the rez that are knock outs and to them I'm no comparison. They're Pocahontas and I'm just me, Briar the new girl, even though I haven't been "new" in like four years. Not to mention I'm the girl who talks funny. People at school are nice and everything, but I just don't feel a part of a group. I have tons of friends, but no real close friends like I did in the Burgh, besides Paul but I don't think he counts since he's my best friend/boyfriend and Jar but he's stuck with me by blood. I'm thinking about all of this as I rest my head on the cool window. I sing along with the radio and watch the rain. Every now and then I catch Paul watching me in the reflection of the window. He's always looking at me and smiling with a hint of something in his eyes that I can't place, like he's thinking about something far off. I wonder if he's thinks about our future, I mean he is graduating this year it has to cross his mind. He and my brother are going off to WSU next fall and I'll be stuck in good 'ole La Push. There are lots of girls there and I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to cut his losses and NO STOP IT! I shake my head clearing the thoughts away and focus on the rain beating against the window once more. Jared and I used to pick drops and have them race each other on long rainy car rides when we came to visit my grandma and grandpa up here before they died seven years ago. I smile as I think of a plan. Maybe I can get Paul to agree to let me pay for something if it's through a bet! I'm kind of conniving like that, just one of the many qualities that makes me so loveable.
Paul
Suddenly Briar turns to me "Pick one" she says with a smile. "Pick what" I have no idea what she's talking about. She does this a lot, has inner-conversations with herself and forgets I can't read her mind to know what she's thinking. Add that to the reasons why I love her. "Pick a rain drop, and I'll pick one and they'll race as they run down the window. Winner gets to buy the popcorn!" I smile and point to a decent size drop on the right while she picks one towards the left. My gaze switches evenly between the road and her, I don't even pay attention to who's drop is winning. From the sound of it mine has taken a pretty big leap towards the finish line she has drawn in the window fog. She is quirky and thinks up the most random things, and I wouldn't have it any other way. She keeps my life interesting and things are never boring when Briar's around. We pull into the parking lot and make our way into the lobby. I pay for the tickets and the popcorn since my drop ended up winning. Briar frowns and sighs, "Next time I'm picking my drop first." "Ok baby, if you think that'll help with your master plan of not letting me pay for things than go ahead" I say with a laugh as I see the look she gives me since she knows she has been discovered. "I don't know what you're talking about Paul Alexander! Besides, it doesn't matter if I pick first anyway, I always choose wrong. The wrong line at the grocery store stuck behind the grandma trying to buy fifteen cans of cat food with a coupon from last year, the wrong outfit; which by the way your father still doesn't like me ever since I wore my Steelers jersey to your house. Now he mutters something about the Seahawks losing that Super Bowl under his breath whenever I'm over, not to mention I picked you, worst choice of my life." She says jokingly. She laughs as I clutch my hand to my heart as I fake hurt. "Ouch, way to break a man down in the movie theater lobby, you couldn't have waited to stick the knife in after the previews? You know they're my favorite." I joke, while she smiles and rolls her eyes. I give her a kiss on the head and let her carry the popcorn and pick us out seats as we make our way into the theater.