It was Saturday evening. I was home alone - my parents were out with their friends at some fancy place for dinner and Kristen was at that party with that Joey guy. As for me, I was sitting on the couch in the living room, wearing sweatpants and a tank top, my hair up in a messy bun, watching re-runs of the TLC show "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo". I had an almost empty bowl of popcorn in my lap and my phone next to me. I nearly had a heart attack when it started ringing.
I caught my breath before picking it up and seeing that Anthony was calling me. I pressed the answer button and put the phone up to my ear, "Hello?"
"Hey, Lennox," He greeted casually, "How's it going?"
"Good...?" I replied apprehensively, "How about you?"
"I'm doing great, thanks for asking." Before I could say something, he continued, "Hey, do you happen to know what your sister's doing? Or where she is?" Of course, he called you to ask about Kristen. Why else would he be calling you? You're nothing but Kalel's sister, right?
I sighed, "Why do you ask?"
"Well she's not answering any of my calls or text messages, so I was wondering if you knew what she's up to."
I paused for a moment. There were two options. Cover for her or blow her cover. I took in a big breath and closed my eyes, regretting what I decided to do, "You know, I think her phone actually might be off," I told him. Yeah, I decided to cover for her, despite the fact she would never even think about covering for me in fear of losing her "Daddy's Perfect Little Angel" image. "She was really tired and just went to bed - I bet you she turned off her phone."
"Oh..."
"Yeah, real sorry about that, Anthony."
"Oh well, thanks anyways. See you Monday!" And with that he hung up. I rolled my eyes and set my phone back down on the couch.
About thirty minutes later, the front door flew open. In came a tipsy Kristen with her arm wrapped around some guy's back. She laughed as she put her finger up to her lips, failing to take her own advice and practically shouting, "Shh! We have to be quiet or my parents or sister might hear you!"
He nodded his head in understanding and the two of them stumbled up the stairs, laughing the entire way. The laughing was muted when a door was slammed. God knows what they were doing behind that door. Though I had a pretty good idea of what it was...
*****
It was the first Monday of the school year (since school started on a Wednesday this year). The no-one-wants-to-be-here mood lingered around the entire school - in the classrooms, in the hallways. The only place where that mood didn't exist was in the lunchroom, where I was sitting at the end of the table with Kristen and all of her friends. Quinn sat with them too, right across from me. The seniors always seemed to ignore us (even last year when they were juniors and Quinn and I were sophomores). I wasn't quite sure yet if that was a good thing or a bad thing...
Just as I was about to say something to Quinn, the guy who came home with my sister a few nights ago approached the table with a bag behind his back.
"Joey!" Kristen squealed as she got up from her seat next to her boyfriend to walk around the table and pull Joey into a hug, "What are you doing here?"
"I thought I might bring you some lunch," He retorted, pulling the take-out bag from Taco Bell out from behind him.
"Aww! You're so sweet!" She exclaimed as she took the bag into her possession and gave him another quick hug. "Come on, you can sit next to me!"
"But I'm sitting next to you," Marzia, another one of Kristen's friends, said.
"Well get up," Kristen remarked.
