It's Not About You

Making Memories

"22 why?" Rosalee replied to my question.

"What!?" I said looking her in the eyes with concern.

"What do you mean what?" She asked raising an eyebrow at me.

"I mean he's 6 years older than you and you're a minor!"

"Never stopped me before," at that moment I realized that Rosalee hadn't told me everything about her life and I had a growing curiosity of what all she didn't tell me.

"What? Tell me everything I'm really interested to know!"

"Did I not tell you about Jacob?"

"Um...no."

"Oh I must've told someone else." We were in her car by now and she was driving to Marks house, "Well I met Jacob at a lame concert. Anyways we just hung out for a while and had a thing but it ended after a month."

"Why'd it end?"

"Oh...lots of stuff."

"Like?"

"Well, he wasn't the best guy. But you don't need details. It's not important."

I shrugged guessing it really wasn't important.

Rosalee pulled up to Marks driveway and got out, I followed, Mark opened the door for her, letting us in. They started kissing. I just looked away and went straight for the couch.

"Did you miss me?" She laughed to him.

"Oh yes all 20 minutes," he smiled at her sweetly.

Was Rosalee staying with him? Why was she staying with him? Did her parents know? I followed them to the kitchen and suddenly had more questions. It didn't look like Mark lived alone. So who did he live with? Was this his house? Also it smelled like cat piss. Did they have cats? Or was it a meth lab? You're just concerned about Rosalee. I thought to myself and threw my thoughts away. The kitchen was dirty along with the whole house. I couldn't believe that Rosalee was staying there. She was always such a perfectionist and well, high class. What happened to her?

"Whatcha thinkin about Angie?" Rosalee asked me.

I looked around to make sure Mark couldn't hear, "Are you seriously staying here!?"

"Um yes." She said it with an attitude she had never used with me before...only with people she was annoyed by. Was Rosalee annoyed by me?

I was afraid she was so I just said, "Oh nice I wish my parents would let me stay with boys. It'd be fun." Which maybe wasn't the smartest thing to say either.

Rosalee started walking over to me taking a deep breath and sighing, "See Angie here's the thing, I'm not supposed to be here. My parents think I'm still in Hawaii...but don't worry. I know you sweetie and I know you're worried about me being here but it's only for one more night and then il go back home. I promise."
                             • • •
We left after about an hour to go to the mall. I still had thoughts and questions though. Why was Rosalee avoiding her parents? I watched her and Mark as they held hands and walked in front of me. He looked...distant. And she looked blinded. What was up with her? Ever since Hawaii she hadn't been the same. We had texted and she was always busy. What was she doing? Usually her outfits and makeup were perfect...but not anymore. She didn't look trashy but...she did. Rosalee's hair was frizzy too...it was never frizzy.

I noticed them looking back so I pretended to be on my phone. Rosalee says to me, "Angie you can walk with us."

"Oh I know I'm just tryna send a text."

"Oo to who? Cause we both know I'm the only one you text...unless...a boy?" Why was she being a bitch?

"Oh no it's...Jo. Yah me and Jo got in contact again." Jo was an old friend of ours who we hadn't seen in about a year. She used to be apart of our "group", well Rosalee's group.

"Oh my god Joleen! How's she doing? I haven't talked to her in forever. Well tell her I said hi, and to text me sometime." She said to me.

"Who's Jo?" Mark asked Rosalee.

"Oh just someone we used to know..." She replied to him.
• • •
The day consisted of them holding hands, flirting and eating ice cream. And me following as usual. I over heard them talking about Mark's roommate. Apparently his name was Jesse and he had a younger brother named Brandon stay in with them. What I gathered about Jesse was that he was a slob. He was a slob but he had a job and that's why Mark let him stay.

"Do you have a job?" I asked Mark.

"Oh god Angie. You're starting to sound like my mother. What's next you're gonna ask about his GPA?" Rosalee said and her and Mark started to laugh. Wow. Rude.

I just rolled my eyes and looked back at my phone.
• • •
We took pictures in the photo booth. All I could think about was how rude Rosalee was being and how weird her living arrangements were right now. WHY WAS SHE STAYING WITH THREE OLDER GUYS!? Did she know how dangerous that was? Rosalee had always been careful about people so why the hell did she not see trouble? But then again she hadn't told me about "Jacob".

"Hey Rose," Rose? Who? What? Anyways Mark was saying, "Wanna go meet up with Jesse?" He leaned closer to her and whispered, "I think your friend is feeling like a third wheel and it's bringing down the vibe." He sounded like some dumb surfer dude.

"Yah! Of course! Where we meeting him?" Rosalee responded. Why'd he call her Rose?

"Back at the house." Mark said and then we were off to the car.
• • •
We rode back to the house and well...I met Jesse. Jesse was a 5'10", shaggy haired, pale skinned, weed smelling, greasy ass 29 year old. But I'll give this to him, he was really nice. He made me feel comfortable with Rosalee being there because I could tell that Jesse generally cared about her safety.

"Hey Mark, you and the girls down for picking up lil Brandon up from school with me? I promised him I would so mom doesn't." I assumed Brandon was a kid if his mom was going to pick him up.

"Uh yah sure. I'm sure Angie would like to hang out with him!" Mark said like that was a great idea. No it's not I don't like kids.

"Yah you'll really like him Angie." Rosalee smiled at me.

I smiled back and got back in the car on the way to god knows where. I was surprised when we pulled up to the high school.

A tall kid with short brown hair and green eyes came walking up to the car and got in the back seat with me and Jesse.

"Hi you are?" He asked me sitting next to me and getting buckled in.

"Um Angie. You are?"

"That's Brandon Angie. Who else would we be picking up?" Rosalee laughed at me like I was dumb.

I truly thought he was going to be a kid. But Brandon looked really familiar. I'd probably seen him around school or maybe at a party Rosalee took me to.

"Well nice to meet you Angie. As you know now I'm Brandon." He laughed and smiled at me as he extended his arm for me to shake his hand.

I shook his hand and smiled back, "Nice to meet you too Brandon."

"Aweee look at all of us!" Angie smiled back at us and Mark, "Making memories."

They all laughed and I forced a smile. Yah memories.