Brandon. Yes, THAT Brandon.

Meet the Prices

Meet the Prices

or Brandon, Honey, That Was Racist

or Platonic Friends Don't Just Ask Other Friends to Fall Festival, Shelby

I wash my football jersey once I get home. Number seventeen has been my football number for three years now. Three years of bad and good memories. It'll be bittersweet handing this thing back to Coach Troy.

I didn't even get to tell Logan I got my phone taken away. I'm sure he suspects that I got in trouble for something by now.

My parents have barely talked to me or each other since Sunday's events. Everything Dad does is starting to make sense since the information my mother shared with me. "Can you take Aiden to the store to pick out bedcovers and paint?" he asks me.

"Why don't we all go? We need new patio furniture and we need to start looking for ways to decorate the baby's room," Mom says. "Brandon, you can't be home alone, so get dressed so we can go." I don't argue. I start cleaning at Borderly's Drug Store tomorrow, so I'll have to enjoy any time I can get out of the house.

Aiden and I sit in the back of our family car. I peek over her shoulder to see who she's talking to. Of course, it's Shelby.

"Stop being rude," she snaps.

"What?"

"Just cause you don't have a phone right now-"

"What are you guys talking about?" I ask.

Aiden sighs, shoving her phone in her pocket. "We're fighting. He's being a dickface."

"Language," my Dad says from the front.

"Uncle Stefan, there's a guy I'm friends with and his girlfriend treats him like he's a trashcan on fire. Now he's getting all poetic on me when he should just dump her penguin ass. She's the worst person ever."

"You can't tell people what to do. They'll just do the opposite," Dad says. "Just look at Brandon. We tell him right and he goes left."

"Ha, ha," I huff, rolling my eyes.

Aiden scoffs. "But it's not like that. He actually genuinely likes her. Like? Why would anyone want to ruin their life like that? I don't know about anyone else, but I love myself too much to put myself through that kind of BS."

Just like that, Aiden spills her problems out to my dad with no hesitation. I could never do that.

"Some people are blind when they're in a relationship. Blind to the good that's around them and blind to the bad that they're facing," my mom chips in.

"That's all prophetic and great, but she's abusive and I want to hit her with a car."

"Good thing you don't have a car," Dad says. "The best you can do is show him what it's like to be a good person in his life, and then Shelby will realize that being around you makes him feel better than being around the other girl. I-"

Wait... "How do you know we're talking about Shelby?" I interrupt.

I can see the tips of my Dad's ears redden. "I've heard the Shelby fiasco five times now."

"Yeah. And if Shelby says something about 'adjoining souls' again, I'm going to punch him through this phone."

I walk inside, head down. I hate to sound like a real genuine teen, but I need my phone. Maybe I can trick my parents into buying me things. I could use a new mirror.

Mom, who never does her own shopping, seems completely lost as she looks up at the giant signs pointing her where to go. She even mumbles about asking for a directory, which is ridiculously embarrassing.