Ron is frying sausage and mom is buttering toast for breakfast. Conner is still passed out on the couch. He let me have his room last night. It's weird that he's moved into my room since coming to school here. Mom said that he's been staying here almost every weekend.
"Food looks delicious. I can't believe the smell of the meat isn't waking Conner up." I say as I nibble on a piece of scrambled eggs sitting on the table.
"Oh I smell it." Conner mutters from the couch. I look over, but he's still laying on his stomach with his arm hanging off the couch. He looks dead.
"Well if you don't get up, I'm going to eat all of it." and suddenly his head springs up, and he's staring at me."
"Don't you dare." and he sits up stretching his arms in the air, and yawns loudly.
"Good morning honey." Mom chimes out loud, and Ron speaks after giving Conner a high five.
"Kid, your team did awesome yesterday! I was able to watch it on my phone."
Conner pulls out the chair next to me, and grabs a piece of toast, talking with his mouth full. "Thanks Ron. You didn't have to watch it. I didn't get to play." I hit him in his shoulder. "Hey! What was that for?" he huffs, and glares at me.
"Don't talk with your mouth full." I proclaim, and he tosses the crust of his bread in my face.
"Sorry sis. I'm an adult now. I can talk with my mouth full if I want." he laughs, and I wrinkle my nose at him. It doesn't matter how old he is, if my dad saw him doing that he would shut it down quick.
"I'm telling dad!" I threaten, but all he does is snort at me, and acts like I'm not speaking to him.
"So Ron, how many fish did you get yesterday?"
"Hit the limit." He answers, and Conner is impressed. I could care less really.
"Trout?" he asks.
"Yep." Ron answers, walking to the table with a plate full of sausage, and mom follows him and they both sit down.
"So Mora is thinking about attending A&M." Mom puts all the attention on me. Ron was taking a drink of his orange juice when she said it, and he gulped loudly.
"Oh Mora, that's great to hear." he gleams at me, and Conner is grinning ear to ear.
"God, I hope you get in Mora." Conner says, and I just stare at my food.
"I'm not sure if I want to come here yet, and I'm not getting my hopes up either if I decide to apply." I admit, but they don't seem to worry about it.
"I'm sure you'll get in Mora." Mom tries to reassure me. I can tell she really wants me to apply.
"What does dad think?" Conner asks.
"I'm not sure. I haven't talked to him. If I had to guess though, he would be happy. I won't be next door, but we're only a few hours away from home. It's better than out of state."
"I'm sure he'll be fine with it." Ron speaks up as he fills up our drinking glasses, and I shrug my shoulders.
"What time are we leaving Mora?" Conner asks me, and I wrinkle my head with confusion.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"We're meeting up with dad and Lorene to eat lunch before you guys head home."
"Oh. Cool. Is Ross..." I start to ask, but Conner already knows my question.
"He's already left. He texted me early this morning." Thank God Conner handled that situation for me. I'm not ready to talk to Ross.
I let out a sigh of relief. "Good." I say, and mom raises her eyebrows at me. I can tell she wants the details, but I avoid her glance. "I guess we can go in a couple hours?" I recommend to Conner, and he just nods.
After mom cleans up the kitchen she puts her glasses on, and brings her laptop to the table with a large binder full of papers.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"I was out sick a few days last week so I'm catching up on these query letters."
"Ahh. Can I help?" I've always shown interest in mom's work. It's so much more enjoyable than Dad's job.
"Sure hun. Here start with these." She hands me about fifteen letters, and I can tell she's already read them because I can see scribbles on all of them in the same color, and handwriting. She doesn't trust me to read for her, but it's still interesting.
Conner comes into the kitchen and says he's ready to go, and I hand mom her papers, pushing the chair out from under the table, and she stands with me. "Honey, thank you for staying here last night. It was so good having you home again." She squeezes me in a tight hug, and I hug her back. I feel like I've bonded more with mom over the last couple months. It's a good feeling to forgive.
"Thanks Mom." I say, and she pulls back from me holding on to my shoulders. "I really hope you consider coming to school here." and she pulls me back in another hug.
"I will." I answer, and kiss her on the cheek and say "I love you." Her face lifts in disbelief when I say it.
"I love you too." she answers, and her eyes look like they are about to tear up, but Ron intervenes just in time.
"Deb, she needs to go." he winks at me, and draws me in for a hug. "It was good seeing ya kid."
"You too Ron. Take care."
Dad and Lorene are standing outside waiting for us when we arrive at a fancy steakhouse they picked out. Dad said we had to celebrate Conner's game.
After getting our food all they talk about is sports, and I keep to myself the majority of the time thinking about Aiden, Ross, and Scarlett cheating on Conner. I have so much to do when I get home, and I'm not ready to face any of it.
I decide to text Scarlett while we're still at the restaurant.
Hey, can we talk when I get home?
It takes her about twenty minutes to text me back.
Sure. What time?
5?
Okay. I'll meet you at your house?
Sure.
Once we get done eating, I hug Conner goodbye, and he whispers in my ear.
"Go easy on her." He doesn't have to tell me he's referring to Scarlett.
"Doubtful." I admit. There's no way I'm going easy on Scarlett. Not only did she cheat on Conner, but she didn't even tell me. She risked her friendship with me.
"Seriously Mora. Go easy on her. She's your oldest friend, and I don't want to be the reason that you two never speak again. If it was anyone else she cheated on, you wouldn't be mad at her. I get you're upset because it involves me, but we all have emotions, and feelings that we sometimes can't control. You are the first one that should understand that..." and I know he's talking about Aiden. I know I'm choosing Aiden over my friendship with Ross on top of dating him against Conner and Ross' judgements in the beginning. But this is so different. Aiden didn't cheat on me.
"Fine." I lie to drop the subject.
"Thank you." he breaths, and wraps his hands around my shoulder as we walk out of the steak house.
Scarlett is sitting on the porch swing looking into her phone when Dad and I pull into the driveway.
"There's Scarlett." Dad says as he shuts off his truck.
"Yep." I bark out.
Dad lifts his eyebrows in response to my short tone. "Is everything okay?" He asks, and looks over at me with his hands still on his steering wheel.
"We'll find out." I answer, jumping out of the truck, ignoring his inspection of me.
"Okay... well I guess I'll go inside and let you talk to her." Dad get's my hint, and walks ahead of me. Before he goes inside he says hello to Scarlett, and she gives him a small waive.
I'm walking up the steps as he shuts the door behind him, and lean on the railing of the deck to face Scarlett.
"Mora, I'm..." she begins, but I stop her, and hold my palm up, shaking my head before I speak.
"You cheated on him?" I gape at her, and she plays with her fingers, and takes a deep swallow.
"Mora, please don't hate me. Please." she begs. She's starting damage control, but I'm not biting.
"You know he was in love with you." I snap, and she breaks down in tears, but she can't alter my feelings right now. "You and I, and this friendship we have..." I motion my finger back and forth between us "is over." I force myself off the railing of the porch, and she speaks up stopping me in my steps.
"Mora, please. Please don't hate me. You are my best friend. I can't lose you too." she's crying hysterically wiping her nose with the end of her sleeve. She looks like a wreck.
"What do you mean lose me too. Scarlett, it doesn't seem like you cared if you lost Conner or me." I'm loud with her. I'm so angry, and seeing her cry infuriates me. Why didn't she think of the consequences before she did what she did.
"I know it feels like that, Mora, but trust me. I did care, and I still care. These past few weeks have been the worst days of my life. I haven't been able to eat. Not only was I upset about Conner and I, but I was afraid of what would happen with me and you. I don't think I can handle losing you too Mora. I understand you're upset with me right now, but please don't leave me. I can't lose you." and as she crys the words, I feel myself breaking, and I feel my eyes watering and I wipe away a tear.
"Scarlett, that's easy to say, but I don't know how I'm supposed to choose between you and my brother."
"You don't have to Mora. We're trying to stay friends. I love him, but after a couple months of him being gone, I was feeling less miserable, and began to find myself again. For so long I've been lost in my relationship with Conner that I forgot about me..." she's standing now blocking me from the door and I find myself listening to her. "and my biggest regret in this was you. I was finding happiness again without your brother, and I felt guilty because of my friendship with you, so I stayed with him for you..." What the hell. I stop her.
"This is not my fault. Don't you dare put the blame on me" I screech at her, and she flinches, but stands her ground.
"Mora, I'm not saying it's your fault. I mean, I'm not trying to. I was just so worried about what you would think of me if I broke up with him that I ended up staying with him, and then cheated on him. It was a huge mistake. I should have broken up with him like I wanted to..." She starts to stutter her words some before taking a deep breath. "I'm just trying to say that breaking his heart, and breaking your heart was not my intention at all... I was just tired of feeling guilty for being happy. I chose myself, and I tried to do what I thought was the right thing, and it backfired, and I'm sorry. If I stayed with him I wouldn't have been happy, and if I broke things off then you wouldn't have been happy."
She stands there for a minute with her face flushed and I can understand where she's coming from.
Why would I ever imagine them staying in love the rest of their lives. I mean we're in high school. That doesn't happen.
We just stare at each other for a moment, then I take a deep breath. "I'm sorry you didn't feel like you could express how you were feeling to me." and I slowly walk over to the swing, and she follows sitting down beside me, and we both keep our eyes where our feet swing. "but what you did was pretty shitty Scarlett. Breaking up with him would have been the right thing to do..." I sigh loudly, tucking my hair behind my ear. "I just think I need some time. I'm trying my hardest to forget he's my brother and think of it from a friend's point of view, but right now it's just hard. Just give me some time. I love you Scar, and I'm sure I'll get over it. I'm just upset with how you treated him. He deserved so much better."
I finally look over at her, and she has tears running down her cheek, and her eyes are closed tightly. "I understand." she whispers, and plays with her hands, and for a few minutes we sit there in silence together, until she finally stands up, and walks away. She doesn't look at me, or say anything. She understood that now wasn't the time.