Beck stared at the door as it swung shut. He blinked a few times before taking a much-needed swig of Mocha-Cola. Half--no, whole--of him wanted to chase after Ivory and give her the third degree until she broke down and told him what had happened. No matter what she said, she wasn't fine--he wasn't stupid.
Robbie pushed the ceramic plate away from the bamboo placemat that he was slumping over. Mamaw looked up in concern. "Robbie, sweetheart, you didn't eat a thing," she said, sticking out her carmine-tinted lower lip. Robbie shook his head, sticking a few fingers underneath the left lens of his glasses so he could rub at his eye. "I know, but I'm really tired," he said in a hurried mumble. "Robbie--" Mamaw started again, but Robbie'd pushed himself away from the table. Mamaw and his parents sat in silence as they watched him stagger up the staircase.
Ivory stopped at the corner of her block. She could see her modern-styled townhouse just a few yards away. Her mom had just got home from the dermatology clinic--she saw Mrs. Rodriguez getting out of her white Subaru and adjusting her white lab coat. Ivory adjusted her hair and wiped the sweat off of her forehead so she no questions would strike up when she got home.
The pink and purple mix in the sky had faded into black, almost a dark purple as the orange lights of the city illuminated the bottom half. She wished she didn't live so near to the city so she could have a chance to see real stars sometime, and not planes or helicopters.
She pushed her front door open and announced, "I'm home!" to the household. Her dad rushed out into the front hall just as she was peeling off her slippers. "Where've you been?" he asked. "Beck's," she responded, trying to sound chirpy for her father.
Mr. Rodriguez nodded in understanding, brushing his salt-and-pepper hair out of his face. He ran a gnarled hand over his gray beard, the gold ring with the red stone in it glinting in the yellow hallway light. "Well, you want dinner?" he asked, blinking as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his black slacks. A charcoal-colored belt looped around his waist, and his toes curled into the white carpet in his black socks. The sleeves of his plum button-up were rolled up. "Mom made, ah, Spaghettio's."
Ivory shook her head. "Thanks, but no thanks, Daddy," she said. "I'm tired." She waved to her dad and proceeded on into the front room. Her nineteen-year-old brother Adam was curled up in the corner of the brown leather sofa. It was turned so it was facing the fifty-inch plasma TV. In Adam's hand was a wireless Game Cube controller; on his face was a lax expression. He was tan, like their mom, but his face took after their dad. His black hair was shaven down. Right now, he was donning relaxed baby blue jeans, white socks, and a white T-Shirt with green sleeves. Their little brother sat on the opposite end. Devon was already in his pajamas--blue "Transformer" T-Shirt Ivory'd had given him for his last birthday and black sweat pants.
She got along fairly well with her brothers, and seeing them made her less tense. "Hey," she said, sitting on the arm of the sofa closest to Devon. She gave the 11-year-old a hug and watched what Adam was playing."Honey, is that you?" Mrs. Rodriguez came out of the kitchen, already in dark bell-bottom jeans, a turquoise T-Shirt, and a yellow-and-red floral apron. She changed out of her uniform fast. "Hi, Mom," Ivory said lazily. "I was, um, actually gana go upstairs now. Kinda beat." Her mom nodded understandingly and went back into the kitchen. It was the first of the three rooms in the white wall to the right of the sofa. The kitchen entranceway was just a large rectangular archway, and you could see a lot into it. The floor was made of white-and-yellow linoleum. The counters were just plain white, and the cabinets were made of dark wood. A cheery red dining table was the only thing obscured from sight where Ivory sat. It seated six. The whole room was like the front room--lit up in fluorescence.
The room next to that was a narrow cleaning closet, which separated the kitchen from the bathroom.
The front room wasn't too furnished. Actually, it was just the sofa, the TV, a small rack that held Adam and Devon's video games, and two large windows. White lights paneled the ceiling here and there, with a couple of diamond-shaped sconces behind the set of long, wide and narrow stairs. The stairs were carpeted in a couple of shades whiter than the floors and were held in by black iron railings.
Ivory got up from the arm of the sofa. "'Night, guys," she mumbled awkwardly, and she walked upstairs.
There were only two floors to the house. Upstairs was a long, wide hallway. The first door on the right was Ivory's room. Across from that was her parents'. Then came a large window--on both sides--that gave a panoramic view of both front and backyards. After Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez's bedroom was an entrance to her parents' master bathroom, and after the window on Ivory's side was the doorway to the bathroom she shared with her two brothers. The door at the end of the hallway was the room Devon and Adam shared.
Ivory sighed. The hallway light wasn't turned on, but she didn't find the need to turn them on anyways. The orange lights from outside spilled into the hallway, illuminating the long purple carpet that covered the cherry wood floors that was the exact same color as the walls. Ivory paused to look out to the front yard for a moment before disappearing into her room.
Her room was bigger than her brothers', but much smaller in comparison to her parents'. The walls were a dark purple, and the doors to her walk-in closet a burnt orange. Her platform bed was pushed up against the center of the left wall. The platform itself was a dark brown, almost black wood. The mattress was white, from IKEA©. The quilt was a dark purple paisley pattern, and the many pillows were made of silk and the same color of orange as the doors. Above the bed was the same diamond-shape sconce from downstairs. The charcoal carpet felt homely underneath her feet after the long day. The pale brown wood desk sat near the topmost right corner, just a little off of the large rectangular window that gave her a great view of the backyard garden.
She sank down in the pink paisley stool in front of her Zac Book. She closed her eyes, inhaled, and lit the patchouli-scented incense to her left. A strawberry Smencil rolled to her, but she rolled it back in the opposite direction.
Like the hallway, she hadn't turned the light on, and she touched the keypad a little so her Zac Book would wake up. Her Splash page was still open, and her status had been set to "going 2 beck's…fun fun! :D"
There were two other tabs open--ToonJuice and ZapLook.
She double-clicked on the Instant Messenger icon in the toolbar next to the clock, and her buddy list appeared on the screen. There was no one online. She went to the stereo system plugged into the right wall and turned it on. Lights blared into the room, appropriately at "Drive My Soul."
She sat back down at her computer, and was surprised to see two new messages.
One was from Cat.
123abcat: wat happened 2 u? beck got all worried.
She minimized it and opened up the other.
She was surprised to see that it was from Robbie.
RobbieShapiro: hey
She hesitated, then replied to Cat's first. It would give her time to think.
iamivory: nutn. dont wrry.
Then she took a deep breath and opened Robbie's message again.
She closed her eyes before typing.
iamivory: hey
She stared at her reflection in the Zac Book's scratched screen, chastising herself with each second that passed.
She heard a pop, and almost fell out of her chair. She anxiously looked for Robbie's IM. But she saw that it was Cat who'd messaged her instead.
123abcat: u still sound worried tho.
She pursed her lips. like i said dont wrry. my problem. She hit the yellow "send" button, then felt that sounded too harsh so she added, but thnx 4 caring c [:
By the time she'd sent that one, Robbie had replied.
RobbieShapiro: Listen, about what I said…
She sucked on her teeth. dnt even wrry, mmk? its cool
Funny that I kept telling everybody else not to worry, while here I was worrying my guts out.
your comments really make me happy! haha:)
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this chapter was sorta killer to write since there was so much detail put into ivory's house and her bedroom, but it was fun. c:
okey! hope you enjoyed the chapter..and stay tuned for chapter 8!:)
