Chapter 21: The Day After

It was 10 a.m. and it was probably the first Sunday that Brandi was up before noon. She was lying on her bed, just staring at the ceiling, her mind going through the events of the night before.

She suddenly sat up and took her diary and a pen from her nightstand. She opened it on a blank page and was about to start writing, when she realized she had no idea what she was gonna write about. She had so many things going on in her mind that she had no idea where to start. She sighed and closed the diary, placing it down on the nightstand.

She lay down again and kept on looking up at the ceiling.

.

"Do you know where she lives?" Seth stormed into the pool house.

"Good morning to you, too." Ryan said after abruptly jumping on the bed and realizing it was Seth disturbing his sleep.

"Do you or do you not know where she lives?" Seth asked again.

"Where who lives?" Ryan stretched and sat up.

"Who do you think? Brandi, of course."

"Why would I know where she lives?" Ryan frowned.

"Because you're best buds, that's why!" Seth exclaimed and Ryan felt a hint jealousy in his voice.

"We're not best buds, Seth. I've known her for what? 4 days? We've barely spoken."

"Come on! You've even gone to the mall together, for Christ Sake! You're like… bacon and eggs, like… cookies and milk, like… burger and fries, like…"

"Ok! Enough with the food analogies for the rest of the day." Ryan stated.

"So, where does she live?" Seth insisted on asking.

"I have no idea and I still don't get why I should know that. You're the one who should know it. You are the one with the stalker personality, not me."

"Great, that's just great." Seth threw his hands up in the air and sat down on a chair "What good are you?"

"Thanks." Ryan said sarcastically.

"Now… how am I gonna find out where she lives?" Seth thought out loud.

"Why do you wanna know where she lives, anyway?"

"Because I wanna go there to talk to her. I can't leave things like they were yesterday."

"Seth, I already told you, give the girl some time and space to think!"

"I can't! I couldn't even sleep last night!"

"I can see that. You're wearing the same clothes as yesterday."

"See? That's how freaked out I am! I gotta go find her and talk to her."

"You're not doing that. I won't let you."

"Oh, now you won't let me? Is that it?" Seth asked, pretending to be afraid.

"Yes, that's it. I won't let you do any more stupid things to ruin your relationship with this girl. You're gonna stay in today and we can think of something for you to say to her tomorrow."

"Oh, yeah? And who says I'm gonna need your help on that?" Seth asked and Ryan didn't even answer, he just shot Seth a look "Ok. I'm totally gonna need your help on that."

"Ok. Can we just eat first?" Ryan trailed to the kitchen with Seth glued to him.

"What do you say we go over that while we eat? Huh?"

.

Brandi sat on the kitchen counter and played with her eggs. She was not hungry. Why she had decided to make breakfast was beyond her comprehension. Maybe she just needed something to get her mind off of things, but it didn't work.

"What's up?" Johnny slowly stepped into the kitchen.

"Hey. Want some eggs? I've made these, but I'm not really hungry."

"Sure." Johnny smiled, sat beside her and took her plate and fork "So, feeling any better?"

"I don't know, actually." she said and poured herself some orange juice "I'm actually feeling nothing." she took a sip from the juice "I'm kinda numb. You know?"

"Yep. I'm familiar with that feeling."

"Yeah…" Brandi bit the insides of her cheek.

"Don't do that." Johnny ordered her about biting her inside cheek.

"Sorry." Johnny knew when she got really stressed up, she'd do that and complain about the pain the entire next day.

All of a sudden, the phone started ringing. Johnny picked the cordless phone that was on the counter.

"Hello?" Brandi held her breath. What if it was Seth? What would she do? "Oh, hey, man, how are ya?" Brandi let the air come out. It wasn't Seth. Johnny wouldn't talk to Seth like that. It was probably just one of Johnny's friend, so she stopped paying attention to the conversation and resumed to her thoughts "Same here. Yeah, wait a sec, she's right here. Nice talking to you, man. Ok. Bye." Johnny held the phone out for Brandi "Here, Bran. Bran?" Johnny called her twice.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, waking up from her thoughts.

"Here. For you." Johnny waved the phone in front of her.

"For me?" she hesitantly took the phone from her brother's hand.

"Yeah."

"Hello?" she answered while frowning.

"Hey, Spring!"

"Oh… Colin." she was expecting anyone but Colin to be calling.

"Wow… that was an exciting greeting. Thanks. I guess I'm gonna hang up after that and…" he joked about it.

"No, sorry!" Brandi cut him off "I was just… I just woke up."

"I figured. It is just a few minutes past noon there, right?"

"Yeah. Sorry. But, hey, what's up?" Brandi asked as she watched her brother leave the kitchen.

"I have some news. But first, how are you?"

"Not that great." Brandi could have just lied, but she couldn't. Not to Colin, anyway.

"What happened?" Colin asked worried.

"Urgh…" Brandi let out a big sigh.

"Oh… guy trouble."

"Yeah." Colin knew her way too well.

"That guy you told me about last time we talked."

"Yep."

"What about him?"

"He kissed me last night."

"What?" Colin asked surprised.

"He kissed me."

"I see…" there was silence for a moment "And?"

"And then his ex showed up and ruined everything and he was gonna try to explain everything to me, but I just stopped him from doing that because I knew he was just gonna lie to me about everything and you know what, Colin? I'm so sick and tired of hearing him talk and talk about everything and sick and tired of all his talking being just lies. I'm just tired. And I wouldn't stay up all night hearing him telling me lies. Oh, no, I would not!" Brandi just babbled it all out.

"Ok." Colin really didn't know what to say and Brandi noticed that.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Colin. It's just that I was saving it all inside and then I saw a chance to spit it all out. I'm so sorry it was with you. I'm really sorry and…"

"Bran? Don't worry. It's fine. I'm glad I helped you get it off your chest. You can't keep your feelings inside, Spring, you gotta talk them out."

"I have no one to talk about it here, Colin. No one." Brandi was starting to feel angry again "I hate it in here! I hate it so much! I just want my New York life back."

"I'm sorry, Bran, I hate to be the one telling you this, but I don't think you'll ever get it back. You're in California now. Unfortunately."

"I can run away. I could stay with you."

"Yeah, right. My house would be the first place your parents would start looking for you."

"Guess you're right." Brandi sighed "I'm just tired of it. I'm tired of these people, I'm tired of the sun going down so damn late, I'm tired of all the teen drama and I wanna get out of here before I get in the middle of all these drama."

"Again, I'm sorry to tell you this, but I guess you're already part of the drama."

"Oh, God." Brandi rolled her eyes and was getting tired of that conversation. She wanted to forget last night, not to talk about it "Colin, I'm really sorry, but would you mind if we talked later? I wanna see if I get some rest now. I haven't slept at all last night."

"Oh…" Colin was actually taken by surprised. Brandi was cutting off their talk out of the blue. He didn't even have the chance to tell her the reason he was calling "Sure. That's ok. You go get some rest, so you're feeling better tomorrow."

"Ok. I'll call you, alright?"

"Sure. Bye then."

"Bye." Brandi pressed the off button and stared at the phone. She had being a little rude and she knew that. But she just couldn't keep her eyes open anymore. She had to get some rest. Soon. So she trailed straight up to her bedroom.