They Ate Together

When I got back to the house the first thing I noticed was an eerie silence.

"Anybody home?" I called. I set the groceries down on the counter. It was then that I saw a note:

Mack,

I had to go to town to do some stuff. I'll be back in about 2 hours.

~Grandpa

I decided to go to my room and try reading while I waited. I was three chapters in to my new book when I heard the downstairs door open and close. I glanced at my watch. Grandpa shouldn't be back for another hour and a half, I thought. I decided to go downstairs and see what was up.

The moment I entered the kitchen I felt something hit me, hard. The world was blurry for a second. When my eyes refocused, I saw none other than Brady standing in front of me.

"Ouch." I said dryly, glaring at him.

"Sorry," he mumbled and turned away. I hear him mutter, "No need to be so mean."

"What did you say?" I asked, raising my voice slightly. He turned back towards me.

"You're the one who practically threw a fit in a grocery store! I mean, why are you so quick to judge me? It's like you think I'm a horrible person just because I-" He stopped mid-rant and looked at my face.

"Oh my gosh!" he said, clearly concerned.

"Is it that bad?" I asked, wincing.

"Yeah." He said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. "I'll get you some ice." He offered, and he went to the freezer.

I sighed and sat down. I had a feeling I was about to get a head-ache.

"Here" He said offering me the ice. As I pressed it to my face, I felt the cold shoot up my eye. I shivered. "I hope you don't get a black eye." He said, staring at the ground.

"That makes two of us" I said, sighing. He chuckled. I turned to him. "Sorry for yelling, it's just… I know some people who have attitudes like yours and…are really big jerks. And I guess I assumed…" I trailed off.

"And I'm sorry for walking into to you." He offered. I snorted.

"I'm such a klutz. Seriously, I have tripped on thin air before. I could probably walk right into the great wall of china." He laughed at that and we just sat there laughing for a little while.

"Oh, jeez." I said, suddenly thinking of something. "How are we going to explain this to grandpa?"

"Explain what to grandpa?" I looked up and saw my grandpa standing right there.

"Um…" I began, "How…I…"

"Walked into a wall." Brady hurriedly finished for me. "Mack here is such a klutz."

"Hey!" I said, shoving him. He just laughed and shoved me back.

"OK you two, are you ready to start cooking?"

"Yeah," I said. "I'll be outside in just a second."

Grandpa grabbed the groceries off of the counter and took them outside. I put the ice pack back in the freezer.

"So, Mack," Brady asked "Are we cool?"

"Yeah," I said with a smile, "We're cool."

...

We sat around the fire, cooking hot-dogs on sticks. I laughed as Brady's caught on fire.

"Seriously?" he said. "I didn't even know that was possible." I laughed.

"Guess you've never roasted hotdogs before, huh?" I said, smiling. He threw the charred hotdog remains into the fire.

"Nope." He said, his sentence punctuated by a stomach growl.

"Fine" I sighed, rolling my eyes, "I'll cook one for you." His face lit up like a little kid on Christmas. I laughed.

"So Mack," Grandpa began, "Are you going surfing tomorrow?"

"Great idea, Grandpa." I said, handing the hotdog to Brady.

"You surf?" He asked between bites.

"Yeah." I replied. "Why? Do you?"

"Nah," he said sarcastically. "Surfing is just MY LIFE!"

"Woah," I chuckled, "I bet there are people on the moon that heard you."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "Surfing is the best. It helps you... meet new people if you know what I mean". He winked at me and I was quickly overcome by the same sense of disgust I did earlier. It seemed all the boys I knew cared only about girls and video games.

I glared at him. "Oh, that's what it's all about, really? The beach, sunsets and surfing? Who cares about the beauty of it all, the peace of nature? It's ALL about the girls." I finished sarcastically, steam practically coming out of my ears.

Before I could say anything else, grandpa said "Hey Mack, I left my water inside. Could you grab it for me?"

"Fine." I huffed and stomped off. As I walked away from the fire, I hear my grandpa whisper to Brady.

"Don't worry; she just needs time to cool off. She's a little…sensitive."

That just made me madder. I slammed the door behind me and stalked upstairs to my room, forgetting about the water bottle. The whole world blurry, I opened a door and walked into what I thought was my room. I was surprised to look up and realize I was in the old guest room, AKA Brady's room.

The guest bed looked the same as it always had, but room looked like it had had an extreme makeover. There were piles of books everywhere; mostly fictions but there were a couple of sports magazines scattered here and there. Posters covered almost every available space on the wall. I noticed that they were mostly about surfing, but some were large pictures of him with a girl I assumed to be his sister. I sighed and felt my anger drain. The girl was not only cute; she made it look like Brady was the best big brother in the world.

I turned to leave the room; I decided I couldn't face Brady after I yelled at him like that. I went into my room and curled up on the bed.

'Why am I being so mean?' I thought. 'One minute, I'm nice, the next, I'm horrible. I just can't help it; sometimes he reminds me of-' I shuddered, not wanting to even think his name. I shouldn't be so judgmental, I had no clue Brady was even the tiniest bit like him. I sighed and just lay there until I fell asleep.

Author's Note: Hope you don't hate me right now. I know Mac is being a bit bipolar, don't worry, she'll get over it. I'll try to post new chapters as soon as I can, but with school starting, things are going to get crazy.