Someone Unexpected(3)

     



 



That evening, when my parents came home, exactly what I thought would  happen, happened. They knocked on my door and they left me alone when I  told them I didn't feel like talking. It was less than a month before  prom, I was one of the most popular girls in school and I was probably  going to miss it. I drifted off crying myself to sleep wishing that I  had never met Brian.



The next morning I woke up to 38 texts and missed calls from Brian. I  didn't feel like dealing with seeing him that day at school so I stayed  in bed, and when my mom opened my door to check on me I kept my face  hidden under the covers and told her that I really needed to stay home. I  was the type of student that never missed a day of school unless I was  violently ill, so I knew that my mom would understand and realize that I  really needed this time to myself. It also helped that it was Friday,  and I wouldn't be missing anything big at school anyway since we had  less than a month of classes to go before graduation.



My parents left for work and I had the house to myself so I went to  check my lip in the mirror and, thankfully, the ice helped to keep down  the swelling. I grabbed a bowl of cereal and plopped down on the couch  to watch t.v. and eventually drifted off to sleep. The blaring sound of  my cell phone woke me from my slumber and without thinking I answered  the phone.



"Laney, please don't hang up." Brian's voice sounded desperate.



Fear coursed through me as the hairs stood up on the back of my neck and then anger took over.



"Brian, I told you not to ever contact me again!"



"I am so sorry, I never meant to hurt you. You have to give me another  chance! I can't live without you!" He was sobbing hysterically and I  felt nothing but anger and disgust. I wanted nothing to do with him.



"Brian we are over! Don't call me again!" I turned off my phone so that  he wouldn't be able to reach me. A minute later our house phone started  ringing and I saw that it was him on the caller ID, so I unplugged it. I  knew that I couldn't keep the phone unplugged forever so I was going to  just tell my parents that Brian was taking the break up kind of hard  and I didn't want to deal with his constant calling. I figured if I put  that kind of spin on it I wouldn't have to tell them what really  happened, and I was hoping the whole thing would just blow over and go  away.



Hours passed and before I knew it, it was just about dinnertime. I loved  to cook so I decided to surprise my parents with dinner that evening. I  made chicken Parmesan, roasted potatoes and salad, and I set the table  so that they wouldn't have to do anything but sit down and eat.



I checked my lip in the mirror and, thankfully, you could barely tell  that it was swollen the day before. I put on some lipstick to cover up  the tiny cut in my lip, my makeup covered the bruising on my face, and I  dished all of our plates since I knew my parents would be home at any  minute. I was getting the lemonade out of the fridge when I heard my  parents come in.



"What's all this?" My mom sounded pleasantly surprised as they walked  into the kitchen and saw the beautiful spread I had prepared.



"I thought I'd make dinner for you guys for once since you always make  dinner for me. So you can just put your things away and then sit down  and relax, and I will pour a glass of lemonade for all of us."



My mom looked a little bit concerned as she looked at me and put her  hand in my shoulder. "Laney, are you sure you're okay? I know you  probably don't want to talk about Brian but honey, I just want to make  sure that you're okay."



"Yeah sweetheart, you didn't have to do all of this after what you went through with Brian yesterday."



My eyes flew to my dad's face. Did he know what happened?



"I know breakups can be rough sweetie, so you didn't have to do all of  this, but thank you. You can just relax for the rest of the night and we  will take care of everything else."



"Mom, dad, I'm fine, really, you don't have to worry about me. It's for  the best that we broke up anyway, it was getting serious and I'm going  to be leaving for college in a couple of months. I just needed a day to  myself, but I'm fine now and I'll be able to go back to school on  Monday. So don't worry about me, really." I did my best to brush it off.  "Let's not talk about this, let's just have a nice dinner. So, how was  work for you guys today?"         

     



 



My parents looked at each other and they both knew me well enough to  know that if I wanted to drop something then we should just drop it. We  had a nice dinner and didn't talk about Brian, which made me really  happy. After dinner we all watched a movie together and then turned in  for the night.



The weekend flew by and Monday came before I knew it. Chloe didn't leave  my side all day because she wanted to make sure that Brian stayed away  from me. I saw him in the halls but he kept his distance until the end  of the day. Chloe was giving me a ride home since Brian used to always  do that and as I was walking to her car to wait for her he came up  behind me.



"Laney, you can't keep pushing me away like this. Please give me another  chance, I miss you and I love you. I promise I will never, ever hurt  you again."



I spun around and glared at him. "I have nothing to say to you, leave me alone!"



He grabbed my arm but then quickly let it go. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean  to do that." He looked desperate and I just wanted him to go away.



I looked him squarely in the eye. "Brian, you need to move on because we  are never getting back together. You hit me and that is something that  you can't take back."



Just then Chloe walked up and asked if everything was okay.



I looked at Brian, and looked at her. "Yeah, we're done here, let's go home."



We walked away from Brian and he stood there watching us, not saying a  word. He didn't plead for me to give him another chance and he didn't  make a scene. It was almost eerie the way he just stood there looking at  us but I shook it off and told myself that maybe it had finally gotten  through to him that we were done.



The week passed uneventfully, thankfully with zero communication from  Brian, and by Friday I was so ready to have fun with Chloe that weekend.  We were going shopping all day Saturday and I couldn't wait. The final  bell rang and as I neared my locker I saw Jeremy standing there waiting  for me. Jeremy had had a crush on me since the ninth grade but he never  mustered any courage to ask me out. I remembered him as a scrawny  freshman and since I had been with Brian for the past year I had never  really given another guy a second look. Well Jeremy definitely deserved a  second look. When did he turn into this tall, gorgeous guy? I felt my  belly flutter as I walked up to him and looked into his bright blue eyes  that were smiling at me.



"Hey Laney."



"Hey Jeremy. What's going on?"



He shuffled his feet a bit, shoved his hand into his front pocket and  glanced down at the floor before he looked back up at me. I could see  the apprehension in his eyes.



"Well, um, I kinda heard that you don't have a date for prom and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?"



Really? It never even crossed my mind that another guy would ask me to  prom. I thought for sure that everyone would have a date by now. I was  really flattered and there was no way I was going to say no.



I looked at him and smiled. "I would love to go with you Jeremy."



A huge smile spread across his face, we exchanged phone numbers and he  told me he would let me know all of the details the next week. I  couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I got into Chloe's waiting car.



"Somebody looks happy! What's going on?" Chloe had an inquisitive smile on her face as she raised her eyebrows at me.



"Jeremy just asked me to prom." I was cheesing all over the place.



"Oh my gosh! I knew it! That guy has had it bad for you since freshman  year and I knew that he was just waiting for you and Brian to break up  so that he could swoop in. I know for a fact that Stacy Miller was  hoping he would ask her but I knew that you're the one he really wanted  to go with. You guys are going to have such a good time! He's really  nice Laney, I know you don't know him very well but Jeremy is a really  good guy, not a loser like Brian." Then she gasped and took one hand off  of the steering wheel and grabbed my arm. "Oh my gosh! We should  totally double date! What do you think?"



I really liked Chloe's boyfriend David and he was good friends with  Jeremy so I knew that we would all have a lot of fun together. Jeremy  was really sweet and it was nice to look forward to hanging out with a  guy without worrying that I would say the wrong thing and piss him off.         

     



 



"I'll ask Jeremy when I see him next week but I'm sure he'll agree to  it. Oh my gosh Chloe, I am so psyched, this is going to be so fun!"