Beverly Hills Brothers

Chapter 16

/Sarah's Pov/

I heard loud yelling and slamming doors when I woke up and assumed it was coming from next door. Before I could even get out of bed to see who it was, I heard Jose raise his voice. "What are you going to do Lyle? Drive away from your problems? You're going to come back, because you sure as hell can't live without my money." Jose screamed and I was surprised they were fighting outside. Jose worked very hard to keep the arguments behind closed doors. I stood on my balcony as Jose slammed Lyle's car door and Lyle sped off, I'm assuming to go to the overlook on Mulholland, he always went there to cool down. I put some athletic clothes on and decided to go for a run. I didn't want to go see Erik and risk getting in the crossfire of what I assumed Jose was now taking his anger out on Erik. I had tried to save Erik multiple times, but it only made things worse. I don't think things ever got physical, but he definitely verbally abused him. Lucky for me, my dad physically and verbally abused me, although it had been about a week since I had seen him. I ran to the beach which was quite a distance away from my house and I decided to sit and relax for a bit. I tried to not think about anything except for the waves and seagulls. After sitting for a while and noticing the sun was right overhead of me, I started to run back to my house. When I got back, I noticed both my parents cars were gone. There was a note on the kitchen table saying they had gone on a business trip for the next week, and I saw $500 laying underneath it for food and "emergencies". I called my friend Jessica because I knew Lyle would be cooling off all day and since it was Sunday, Erik usually wasn't allowed to leave the house because he had to practice tennis. "Hey Jess, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out. We could go shopping or to the movies or something, I'm just really bored." I said, after her mom handed her the phone. "Of course, I can meet you on Rodeo in an hour." "Cool, see you then." I said, hanging up the phone. I took a shower and put on a striped cropped top and some jeans and my adidas. I despreately wanted to hang out with Erik, but I know I would see him tomorrow and I also literally never hang out with Jessica or anybody other than Lyle and Erik, so it was nice to have some girl time. I parked next to Gucci and saw Jess on the corner. "Hey Sarah!" Jess said, running to me. "Hey Jess, we haven't hung out in forever." I said, hugging her. We shopped for a while, I bought a potential prom dress and we ate at a diner that we went to all the time in middle school. "Are you starting to get excited to be a junior?" Jess asked. "Yeah, it's so weird to almost be an upperclassman." I said, raising my eyebrows towards her as our waiter came back over. He was kind of cute and Jess was for sure into him, but he kept looking at me. I didn't really know what relationship me and the boys had, but I only had eyes for them. After we paid our checks, I noticed there was a phone number on my receipt. I threw it away as we walked out of the restaurant and Jess looked at me surprised. "You realize you just threw away an attractive senior boys number." she said. "Yeah, I wasn't really interested." "Well I was, I really want a prom date. Imagine how cool I'd look, walking into senior prom as a sophomore." she smiled. "If you really wanna go, I could probably ask one of Lyle's friends for you. I'm sure someone would be desperate enough to go with you." I said, laughing. "Oh shut it." she said, nudging me and laughing. "I had a lot of fun today, we should do this more often." I said, as I walked Jess to her car. "I know, it was just like old times. See you later Sar." she said as she sat in her car. I walked over to my jeep and drove to Cheesecake to pick up dinner. I was home alone for the next week and I did not feel like cooking and even though Sunday dinners were always the best at the Menendez house, I really just wanted to lay in my bed and listen to music. I grabbed my Cheesecake bag and unlocked the front door. I walked up the stairs and opened the door to my room when I nearly shat myself. "Erik, you scared me. How long have you been in here?" I asked, noticing he had his glasses on which meant it was either just late at night or he had been crying. It was only 7, so I assumed it was the latter. I put my bag on the floor and walked closer to him. "Whats wrong?" I asked, as I took in his blotchy face. "My dad-" was all he could get out before he started sobbing again. I sat next to him and held him, rubbing his back. "It's okay Erik, you're fine, I'm here, it's okay." I told him as I ran my fingers through his hair, feeling his sobs start to calm down. "I can turn on a movie if you'd like and I have some cheesecake, I assumed you would come over, so I bought extra." I said, squeezing his hand. I put Breakfast Club in and after in re-winded, I turned around to see Erik already on his second piece of cheesecake. "Help yourself Er." I said, laughing and laying next to him. We finished the cheesecake and after the movie, Erik headed home so his dad wouldn't kill him. Jose was very strict about not going out on school nights. I waved goodbye to him as he ran across my yard and through the little hole in the hedges separating our yards we had made when we were younger. I laid down on my bed and tried to sleep but I couldn't help but wonder what had made Erik so upset and what his dad had to do with it.