Confrontations

"So, when does school start around here?"

"Late. We don't start until September 14th. But we're probably not going to get out until the very end of June. This is my first year, so I don't know for sure how this stuff works," Bradin told Amanda. They were sitting out on the beach, about a week after her arrival. The sun was just beginning to set, causing a mirage of reds, oranges, pinks, and purples to stain the horizon.

"Really? Are you going to be a senior?" asked Amanda. She shifted her position to face Bradin.

"Yeah. You will be too, right?" he replied.

"Uh-huh. I'm sixteen now, but my birthday's December 29th so it makes me practically the youngest in the class," Amanda explained.

Bradin nodded, then was quiet for a few minutes. "Amanda, can I talk to you about something really important?"

"I guess. What's going on?"

"Um . . . last week when you first came here . . . why did you freak out when Jay grabbed your arm?" Bradin questioned. Before he even finished the sentence, he was sorry he had started it. Amanda stiffened and sat up.

"What are you talking about?"

"Remember the day we played Scrabble for like three hours? When you fell asleep I came back out and they told me what happened. Did you think he was going to hit you?" asked Bradin. Amanda turned her head to the side and avoided his intense green gaze. "You were afraid weren't you?"

"So what if I was. Wouldn't you be frightened if somebody startled you like that?"

"You don't have to get mad at me. I just want to know what's going on. I've only known you for a week, and I know we're not the best of friends but I'm starting to get worried about you," Bradin admitted.

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine," Amanda insisted.

Bradin decided it would be best not to push the issue. "Okay. I'm sorry I brought it up."

Amanda sighed. "It's not your fault."

"Hey, do you want to go down to the boardwalk and get something to eat? I think Aunt Ava's cooking tonight, and trust me that is definitely something you don't want to witness . . . or taste," Bradin warned.

"Sounds good. Let me just go change."

Bradin watched as she got up and jogged toward the house. It seemed weird for him to think that a little person was growing inside of her, with no visible physical changes to prove it yet. He got up himself, and gathered their towels and portable radio to bring inside. Bradin stretched and headed into the house to change out of his bathing suit, but on the way he spotted Ava and Susannah talking quietly on the stretch of sand before the backyard.

"She's so young, I don't think she's ready for all the responsibility a baby's going to bring," Ava said.

"I know what you mean, she hasn't even had a chance to grow up. I wonder if she's really set on keeping the baby," replied Susannah.

"I don't know, but she's just so confused . . . "

This was the second time Bradin had stumbled across them talking about Amanda. They seemed to be doing that a lot lately, but each time he chose to ignore it. He threw the towels and tiny radio on the deck, and went through the back door.

The bathroom door was shut, so Bradin assumed Amanda was changing in there. He quickly went to his closet and retrieved a pair of jean shorts and dark green tee-shirt. Bradin ran a comb carelessly through his hair before leaving to find Amanda.

Instead, he spotted Ava at the stove, a pot of . . . something that looked quite inedible bubbling in front of her. "Hey, Aunt Ava. Amanda and I are gonna go to the boardwalk and grab something to eat down there."

"Are you sure? I'm making chicken cacciatori tonight."

"No, we'll be okay."

"If you insist. Just make sure Amanda doesn't eat any shellfish or drink anything with caffeine. It's bad for the baby," Ava warned.

Bradin rolled his eyes. Constantly, he had been warned to be on the lookout for Amanda drinking stuff with caffeine. It normally wouldn't be such a problem for someone to avoid it, but it seemed that caffeine was one of the cravings Amanda was dealing with.

"I know, Aunt Ava," he sighed.

Just then, Amanda flounced into the kitchen wearing a strapless white sun dress embossed with small yellow daisies and a thin, pale yellow ribbon encircling her waist; It accentuated the tan she'd gotten over the past week sitting out in the sun. Her hair, which had also lightened on account of the sun, was twisted up into a bun with strands escaping. "Ready?"

"Yeah, let's go," answered Bradin.

The short walk to the boardwalk took them about ten minutes, and then they reached a little restaurant called La Cancinatti. "In the mood for Italian?" asked Bradin, indicating the restaurant's sign.

"Why not? Let's get an outdoor table," Amanda said.

Bradin went first toward the entrance and asked the petite brunette out front for a table for two. "Follow me," she replied, and Bradin and Amanda did as they were told. Once they were seated, Amanda ordered a glass of Coke, but changed it to water at Bradin's meaningful glare.

The waitress left them two menus, and after deciding on two orders of shrimp scampi Bradin and Amanda started talking about surfing, as was usually the case.

"I know what you mean . . . it's like you're in a totally different world," Amanda gushed, a rare glow lighting her face.

"What's all this talk about different worlds?" a voice asked from Amanda's right.

Bradin looked in the direction the voice came from as well, and registered with a slight shock that it was Sarah staring at the two of them. "Um . . . hey Sarah."

"Hey yourself, Bradin. Who's this?" Sarah nodded toward Amanda, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"This is my friend, Amanda, Jay's sister. Amanda, this is Sarah," Bradin introduced nervously. He could sense that these two were not going to get along very well.

Apparently, Amanda hadn't noticed the hostility with which Sarah had acknowledged her. "Hello," she chirped with a bright smile on her face, extending her hand.

Sarah purposely ignored it and directed her next statement to Bradin. "What are you doing with her?"

"What, are you his keeper or something?" Amanda spoke up, tired of being ignored.

Bradin looked her in the eyes and she could read a silent warning there. "As a matter of fact, I'm his girlfriend."

Amanda looked at Bradin questioningly. "I thought I made it clear that we can't have a relationship, Sarah."

"I remember no such thing," Sarah pouted.

"Well, that's probably because you were too wasted to remember much of anything," Bradin bit off sharply. "I'm not doing this again."

"So what, you're just going to hang around with her?" Sarah inclined her head in Amanda's direction. "How long is she going to be here?"

"She's living with us," Bradin provided.

"Forever?" Sarah asked, the sickeningly sweet smile still plastered on her face.

"Yes, she is."

"Why, doesn't she have any other family to burden? Or does nobody want such a slutty burden like that?" Sarah asked in a faux sweet tone.

Bradin stood from his chair with such force that it toppled over. "Don't ever talk about her like that again. You wouldn't understand half of what she's going through," he growled through gritted teeth. There was silence for a good two minutes. "I think you should leave."

Sarah pursed her lips together in anger and looked as if she were about to argue, but then turned on her heel and stormed off.

"Come on, Bradin, I think we should leave too," Amanda suggested quietly, placing a hand on his tense arm.

Bradin got the check and left a twenty on the table. He walked quickly through the fence that separated the restaurant from the strip of boardwalk, and down to the darkened beach. Amanda discreetly kept pace with him, but left him far enough ahead because she sensed he needed to cool down. At long last, he stopped abruptly. Amanda did the same. Bradin turned to her and said, "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for? You're not responsible for her actions. Besides, it's not like I took anything she said seriously," Amanda lied. In all truth, she'd taken Sarah's words about being a 'burden' very seriously. She hadn't thought about how she was affecting other people's lives by coming to Playa Linda. Not only had she uprooted Bradin's little brother, Derrick, but she'd probably caused the adults in the house much more stress than they should have had to deal with at the time. They had enough to worry about with the Westerly children. And when her baby came along, that would make five people under the age of 18 in the house. She wasn't even sure how they were all going to fit, much less how everyone was going to deal with the situation.

"Amanda?" Bradin's voice broke Amanda's train of thought.

"Huh?"

"What's wrong?" Bradin asked, a concerned look crossing his face.

Amanda forced a bright smile and replied, "Nothing's wrong."

Bradin looked unconvinced, but kept walking without saying anything. Eventually, the two of them reached the stretch of beach in front of their house. Amanda sat down on the rocks, while Bradin kept pacing across the sand. The sun had completely set, but the blackness of night hadn't yet descended and the sky was a shade of indigo blue. "Bradin, relax."

"She just pissed me off, that's all. She had no right to treat you like that."

"I'm over it, okay?" Amanda smiled. "I'm fine. You're fine."

At her words, Bradin visibly relaxed and flopped onto the soft sand. Without warning, Amanda stood and flung off her sandals, jogging toward the water. "Where are you going?" Bradin called.

"For a walk," Amanda answered, already at the water's edge. She felt the cool water lap at her feet in crushes of white foam on the sand.

Bradin joined her after taking off his own shoes and socks. "Can I talk to you about something?" Amanda asked quietly after they'd walked several feet in silence.

"Sure," Bradin said softly. He sensed that maybe the reason she seemed so jumpy when people got a little too close to her was about to come out in the open.

"You asked me earlier about why I was afraid when Jay grabbed me last week. You sure you want the truth?"

"Yeah, I do," Bradin told her.

"Did Jay ever mention the father of my baby? Brenn?" Amanda questioned.

"Not to me, but I've heard him mentioned in their conversations," said Bradin.

"Yeah well, Brenn is the possessive type. He would do anything to keep me from possibly getting with another guy. Anything," Amanda's voice trailed off.

"Like hitting you?" Bradin offered in the wake of her statement.

"Like hitting me," Amanda confirmed. "I've known Brenn since I was eleven years old. We were friends before we were anything else. He started hitting me a few months after we got together romantically, when I went out with my friends one night instead of him."

That seemed to clear some things up. Like why she had gotten scared when Jay grabbed her, or why when Bradin got too close to her, she's inexplicably back up or flinch. "And you filed a complaint about him, right?"

"Of course not. If I had, he would have gone over the edge and who knows what would have happened," Amanda whispered. "I can only imagine what would happen if he found out I'm pregnant. I didn't even tell him I was leaving, but I suppose my parents have by now."

"Your parents approved of this guy?" asked Bradin.

"I don't think they cared a whole lot, but they'd rather me be out of the house with him than 'bothering' them. They weren't the most loving parents," Amanda said sharply.

"So what makes you think they'll bother telling Brenn anything?"

"They're good friends with his parents, and I'm sure the gossip wheels are turning. I just hope he doesn't find out about the baby, he'll certainly try and get me declared an unfit mother or something equally lame. Never mind the fact that he won't be around for the whole pregnancy," Amanda worried.

"I don't think that will happen," Bradin tried to comfort her.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Do you really think Jay would let Brenn do that? Or come anywhere near you?"

"No, I know he won't. But Brenn's father is a lawyer, and he's good at getting his little prodigal son out of dilemmas," Amanda said, a frown now creasing her forehead.

"This Brenn sounds like a real creep to me," Bradin said in disgust. To think that someone could treat a person like Brenn had Amanda and get away with it was truly vile.

Amanda was unusually silent for a while, until they turned around and started back in the direction of the house. They were back where they'd started, and then on the deck in the backyard. "I'm gonna sit out here for a while," Amanda said when Bradin held the door open for her. She sat down on one of the comfortable chairs around the table, and leaned back.

"You'll be okay out here by yourself?"

"Of course, I just need some time to think," Amanda stated.

"I'll see you later, then."

Amanda waved feebly as Bradin went inside. Looking around, she grabbed a blanket draped over the back of the chair next to her and wrapped it around her shoulders tightly. Despite what Bradin had told her about Sarah, Amanda still couldn't shake what she'd said to her about being a burden. It had planted the seed of doubt in her mind about keeping this baby, and staying in Playa Linda to raise it.