New York Brunette
Chapter 4
"Drea?" Someone whispered as soon as I left my room, two days after kissing Matt, and then stopping Dietrich from killing him.
"Who's there?" I asked, whirling around and grabbing the knob of my door.
"It's me." Matt said, standing up sheepishly from behind a plant near the door of my room.
"What're you doing here?" I asked, looking all around to make sure that no one I knew saw us together.
"I need to talk to you about something." He said, running his hands through his highlighted brown hair nervously.
"So speak." I said, crossing my arms and looking at him angrily. After I'd left that day he'd practically ignored me, if he saw me in halls, he walked the other way, and now he needed to talk? That's complete crap.
"What happened the other day? It didn't mean nothing to me." He said, looking down at the ground, seemingly sad.
"What?" I asked, completely confused.
"What I mean to say, is that it meant something to me. A lot, actually. You can even ask Dean, I told him I liked you." He said, laughing nervously at the last part.
"What is this, some scam? Preying on new kids here to make them look like fools? I want nothing to do with this. You're being ridiculous, you know." I said, tears stinging the backs of my eyes.
"Please, Andrea, believe me." He said, grabbing at my hand and pleading with me with his pitiful eyes.
"No, you already had a chance to say it meant something, but you didn't. Now you're just being cruel." I said walking away.
About five steps later, I turned around, "Everytime my brothers, or your sister or Luna said something bad about you, I stuck up for you. I couldn't believe that you were really as bad as they said you were. But you know what? You are!" I said, the last part causing the tears to fall, and putting me into running action.
I ran right out of the building and straight into the arms of someone familiar. "Dee? What're you doing here?" I asked, looking up at my big brother.
"I came to talk to you about Matt." He said, looking down at me sternly.
"Well, don't worry about it. He means nothing to me. You were right about him all along, he's just a big jerk in disguise." I said, wiping at the tears on my cheeks.
"But, what if I was wrong?" He whispered to me lightly.
"What do you mean?" I asked, looking up into the familiar brown eyes of my hero, and not believing my ears.
XXXX
"Jason, man what's up?" Tyler asked me, giving me a handshake and then squinting off at the three girls staring at us.
"Uh-oh, looks like little Garrett has a crush on you." Tyler laughed out, as the girl continued to look this way.
"I'm gonna go talk to her." I smiled out, giving Tyler the same handshake he'd just given me, as he laughed and shook his head at me.
"Hey, Manda." I said, waving once I was within hearing distance of her.
Her little friends turned to each other and laughed at something secretive, while Amanda's cheeks glowed a deep red.
"Jason, can I uh, talk to you over there?" Amanda asked, sitting up and nodding her head over to a place a few feet away from her friends.
"Sure." I answered, following her over there, and not allowing the smile to drip off of my face.
"What are you doing?" She asked, her grin going away as soon as we were away from her friends.
"What do you mean?" I asked, lowering my eyes at her, and suddenly getting a sinking feeling in my stomach.
"I mean, why are you talking to me in front of my friends?" She asked, her jaw tightening as she got madder.
"I thought we were friends too." I said, looking at her suspiciously.
"Yeah, at home. Here, those are my friends." She said nodding over to the two girls sitting on lawn chairs and laughing to each other, presumably about Amanda and me.
"Why do you want to be friends with them?" I asked, disgusted by their behavior and wondering how Amanda could seem to be two different people at the same time.
"They, are the best of the best here." She answered, beginning to walk away from me.
"Yeah, well, if they're the best, then you clearly can't see." I yelled out, kicking at the grass as I walked back to Tyler.
"That seemed like it went well." He smirked out, just as his little sister walked up, "what do you want, squirt?"
"How do I get a new room?" She asked, clearly upset.
"What do you mean? Why don't you like your room?" He asked, trying to act like nonchalant about this, but not being able to put off the big brother attitude.
"I just can't be around Lorelei and Alexandra anymore. I've been staying in Taylor and Maddie's room, but they are beyond weird. I need a new room." She said, looking away from me when she talked about Lorelei and Alexandra.
"What's wrong with Lorelei and Alex? I thought they were your best friends?" Tyler asked, leaning back against the wall, and staring at his little sister hard.
"They know everything about me, and I'm sick of being me. I don't want to be the freaky genius kid anymore. I just wanna be normal." She said, beginning to sob after finishing her statement.
"Hey, Hey, you're not freaky." Tyler said, bending down to hug his little sister.
"Yes, I am! You say so all the time!" She said, sobbing into her older brothers' shoulder.
"Yeah, well, I'm allowed to. I'm your big brother, but no one else, not even you, is allowed to say that kind of stuff about you." He said, lifting her up.
"Yeah, well, I don't wanna be smart anymore." She countered.
"Hey, Taylor and I will be lucky if we graduate on time, someone has to bring pride to mom and dad." He said, making her laugh loudly, "Now, we'll go talk to your counselor and see what we can do." Tyler finished, waving a short goodbye to me as he carried his little sister to the admin building.
XXXX
"I saw that." A light, teasing voice said as I came out of my baby sister's new single room assignment.
"Luna, what are you doing here?" I asked, turning around to face the pretty girl.
"Just wanted to tell you that I know your secret." She said, a smile playing on her gorgeous features.
"I don't have a secret." I answered, crossing my arms and leaning against Leah's door.
"Yeah you do. All this time everyone's thought you were this heartless, cold guy, but really, you have this giant soft spot. And it's her." She said, nodding towards Leah's door.
"Yeah, well, so does every big brother in the entire world. Nothing new about that." I replied, trying to play off my good deed.
"No one thought it was true for you though." She answered, full on smiling now.
"Why is this such a big deal for you?" I asked, getting closer to her.
"Because, now you intrigue me even more." She said simply, before walking off and leaving me wondering what exactly that had meant.
XXXX
"So Mad, when does this nasty, barfing all the time thing stop?" I asked, holding back her hair as she once again puked into the toilet.
"Usually after the first trimester." She answered once she spit and then began washing out the barf taste with mouthwash.
"Usually? Girl, this better end soon. No offense, I love you and all, but goodness I hate barf." I answered, shaking my head at her.
"Yeah, and it's such a peach for me." She replied sarcastically as she spit her mouthwash out.
"I bet." I answered, smiling at her before getting to the nitty gritty, "When are you gonna tell everyone?"
"As soon as I know for sure." She answered, just as she had every other time. So far, only Matt, Amanda, Leah, Dietrich Madelyn and of course me, knew.
"You don't think the constant morning sickness is a pretty good hint?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at her.
"You know, you can criticize all you want Tay, but your not the one who's going to ruin everyone's delicate little lives, okay?" She said, grumbling at me and crawling back into bed.
"I know, but, I just think it'd be better if they find out from you and not the stomach." I said, running my hands through her sweaty hair briefly before grabbing my bag.
"I know. I'm just scared." She mumbled, her eyes becoming heavy.
"Don't worry. I'll always be here." I answered, smiling sadly at how things had changed for my best friend over such a little time.
"Promise?" She asked, holding out her little finger.
"Promise. Always." I said, wrapping mine around hers and squeezing it lightly.
"Good." She muttered just before she fell into a deep slumber.
"How is she?" Dietrich asked as soon as I walked out of our dorm room.
"Not good, she's still puking every morning. Thank goodness she got her classes changed." I said, grateful that Madelyn's counselor had taken pity on her and allowed her to switch all her classes to nighttime ones, when she felt better.
"I know. I hope everything will be okay." He said, glancing back at the door where a girl lay pregnant, with his child.
"It will, lord." I muttered, before stomping away and off to my first class.
XXXX
"Has she spoken to you guys at all?" Dean whispered to Alexandra and I when Leah entered the room, escorted, like always recently by Tyler.
"Nope, Tyler got all her stuff, said she needed to be alone, and since then she's been making new friends." I answered, as she went and sat by her new friends. All of them tiny and pretty just like her.
"That's kind of crappy." He muttered, looking over at her and glaring briefly, but not long enough for her or any of her friends to see.
"I wonder if they even know the real Leah?" Alexandra asked, looking evilly over at the group of girls.
"Alex, don't do it." I said, looking over at Dean as his eyes got big and Alexandra walked over to the girls.
"Hey, did you know that your new friend is actually a genius?" She said loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
"Are you serious?" The girls asked, looking accusingly at Leah, causing her to burst into tears and run out of the room, leaving all of her things behind.
"Why would you do that?" Dean asked, his face crunched with thoughts as Alexandra came waltzing back over, smiling like she'd just won an award or something.
"She deserved it. She's ditched me and Lorelei for new friends just because they're prettier than us." Alexandra said, smirking happily.
"No, she didn't. She just didn't want to be thought of as the genius anymore, but you just couldn't give her that, could you?" Dean asked, grabbing and piling all his books.
"That's not true." Alex said, her face falling slightly.
"Yeah, it is." Dean answered, as he signaled for me to grab my books if I wanted to come with him, so I did.
"How would you know, anyway?" She asked as the two of us left her table to join a group of kids that Dean and I had some other classes with.
"I room with her brother, remember?" Dean replied, as he sat down and began to talk with us.
I looked back briefly at Alex, only to see her staring at us longingly, with hurt and betrayal in her eyes. I mouthed sorry to her, but instead, she simply flicked me off, grabbed her books, and walked out, right in the middle of the teachers lecture, surprising everyone.
After class, Dean and I grabbed all of Leah's stuff and carried it to the room that Tyler said she was boarding in now. We reached it and knocked only once when Tyler answered the door, fuming.
"Why would you do that to her?" He yelled, grabbing Leah's books from my hands and allowing Dean inside the room.
"I didn't do it. I tried to stop Alex, but she wouldn't listen." I said, tears stabbing at my eyes at the accusations he was throwing around.
Tyler stretched his head back to look at Leah on the bed, and when she nodded, he allowed me in. I went right over to her bed and hugged her.
"Why didn't you tell me you didn't want us to treat you like a genius anymore? I would've done that for you." I said into her ear as we were hugging.
"I didn't know how you'd react, you're always about being true to myself and everything, I thought that you'd think I was trying to hide myself." She replied, tears glistening in my eyes.
"I probably would have, but I would have gotten over that, if that's what you wanted me to do." I answered, smiling at my oldest best friend.
"Really?" She asked, smiling sadly up at me.
"Of, course. I love you." I answered, hugging her once again.
"Me too." Se answered, and we sat like that all day, laying on her bed, watching TV and eating popcorn that she had. Tyler and Dean left after a while, leaving us on our own, and for the first time since coming here, it felt like I was home.