Page 23 of Enemy Crush
Okay, so Mom had warned about helping out with chores, but I thought that meant vacuuming my room and folding laundry—not freaking gardening! The lawn mower was a scary machine and I had no idea how it worked. I’d never even seen Dad use it—Mr. Jones was the only one who did. Again, I didn’t answer, hoping it would slip her mind by then.
Mom wasn’t in the mood for cooking or eating and left me to my own devices. I stared in the pantry, then the freezer, rejoicing to see a box of wholegrain waffles. Waffles at the Brizendine cafeteria were one of my favorite breakfasts, especially laden with berries and yogurt, so it’d be fun and decadent to eat them for dinner. However, there were neither berries or yogurt in the near empty refrigerator and a bottle of maple syrup was my sole topping choice.
Cooking, like cleaning, was not something I’d ever had to be involved with and I nearly incinerated the waffles, making them too crispy. It was disappointing that I couldn’t follow a few simple instructions. It was also disappointing that Celeste and Naomi hadn’t texted or called me. They were back from their senior trip and I’d sent several messages to both of them.
The weekend was coming up and I needed to spend time with them, catch up on all the news and...friend stuff. It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t spoken to anyone all week, apart from a few conversations with Elise, and a couple of kids in classes, but all superficial. Nothing of substance. My most meaningful interaction had been with Miller’s dog. Even Mom was spending most of her time in her bedroom after work. Tonight she hadn’t even come down when the smoke alarm beeped from my overcooked waffles.
In my favor, at least I didn’t burn the house down.
Taking my plate of waffles and a can of soda, I headed outside. I convinced myself it was okay that Celeste and Naomi weren’t texting me because I’d wait till tomorrow when I had some real news about the soccer team. Being a larger school, Snow Ridge High was in a different division to Brizendine Prep, so we wouldn’t be rivals. But they’d still want to know how I was doing with the Sonics.
I opened the door from the living room and walked around the porch to a private corner where there was a small patio table and two chairs. It’s where Mom and Dad used to sit on summer nights with a bottle of wine and a charcuterie board and watch the sun setting behind the hills on the horizon.
I placed down the food, frowning at the dirty table and chairs covered in dust and cobwebs. I almost picked up my plate again, but realized that no one was coming to clean it. Jillian no longer worked for us and if I wanted to sit here, I’d have to clean it myself, because goodness knows what Mom was doing. I looked in the laundry room for a cleaning cloth and spray, and came back with a broom and duster as well. Wiping the tabletop, I noticed how scratched and worn it was and the pillows on the chairs, once turquoise and yellow, were faded. I pushed the broom along the porch boards, remembering how Mom had reprimanded me at the salon.
‘What are you doing?’ she’d cried out, tugging it out of my hands. ‘Don’t pull the broom toward you, push the hair away from you!’As if I knew there was a right and wrong way to sweep! I pushed the leaves and dirt off of the porch and nearly twisted my ankle when I stumbled on a broken board.
I continued to sweep along the cobblestone path that led to the outdoor kitchen pergola with a grill station, pizza oven and outdoor bar. Mom and Dad had entertained regularly in the past, but not recently. Now the whole place looked shabby and almost derelict, the covers and counter grimy, weeds sprouting up between the pavers and the surrounding lawn untidy and definitely in need of a mow. As I looked back to the house, it was grubby with moss and dirt on the eaves and tiled roof, and the paint was peeling on the porch railings and around the windows.
I’d been away in the city with Dad for six weeks over the summer, though surely that wasn’t enough time for the house and gardens to fall into a state of disrepair. Luckily, our house was at the end of a long driveway and mostly hidden by the red maples that lined it. From the street you could only see the side of the three car garage, an addition a decade ago. The actual house was close to a hundred years old—and at that moment, it definitely looked it. Inside it was all fancy and the decor updated, but how had I not noticed that the exterior hadn’t been maintained? I guess, the sheer grandness of it made you overlook these things.
The buzzing of my phone sent me hurrying back to the porch, broom left to fall onto the path when I saw Naomi’s name on screen.
Breathless, I picked it up. “Hey. Hi, Naomi!” My heart jumped with joy to see Celeste’s smiling face next to Naomi. “Oh, Celeste,” I gushed. “Wow, I thought you guys had dropped off the face of the earth.”
“We’ve been so busy,” Naomi said, her dark hair shimmering with side bangs which was a new look for her. “Senior camp was wild.”
“I’m so jealous,” I said. “It looked like so much fun.”
“We missed you,” Naomi said, prompting Celeste to sniff, “Yeah, it wasn’t the same without you.”
“I’ve missed you guys so much,” I said, plonking myself down on the chair. “You both look so amazing. Celeste, I love your new color. You didn’t tell me.”
Celeste tossed her brown hair, the honey blonde highlights adding sophistication. “I thought I did,” she said. “Anyway, it’s just been so busy. We’ve had meetings for student council and homecoming and we’re even starting a pre-prom planning committee. We want it to be absolutely epic.”
I swallowed hard, wondering if I’d imagined the bite of sarcasm in her voice. Prom was something we’d talked about at the end of junior year, how the three of us would make sure we’d be on the committee to organize the most amazing prom ever—the three of us.
Celeste continued on, not seeming to notice my mouth tighten. “And soccer practice is going to be more intense than ever. Coach Mayhew is pushing us to retain our state championship title.”
“We’ve got so much to catch up on,” I said, somewhat meekly, almost like I had a premonition of what was to come.
“Yeah, we’ve got soccer camp this weekend,” Celeste said in a tone that was a little too sharp. “And you won’t believe this but Mia Jaquiery who plays in the National League is gonna be there. It’s gonna be ahh-maze-ing!”
She literally stretched out that word for a good three seconds and I felt every crisp syllable deep in my chest. Trying hard to be happy for them, I managed a smile, “That’s so cool.”
“Yeah, but also Quinn, you won’t believe this either,” Naomi chimed in with a giggle. “Noah’s having a party at his house this weekend. It’s going to be epic.”
“Noah?” Now my throat seized a little. “Noah Forbes?” Noah Forbes was Brizendine royalty, a league above us all, and not someone we’d mixed with. Even prep schools had their hierarchy and it wouldn’t be far wrong to say we’d all despised Noah Forbes.
He was a class A jerk, a snob who looked down on me for not living in Pine Ridge. He’d once called mevillage girl, like Snow Ridge didn’t rate on the map. Then he’d somehow found out that Dad’s company had imported a whole range of plastic furniture and that was a constant source of mockery, his jibes getting old and repetitive as he asked,‘How’s that plastic furniture? Nice and comfy?’whenever he saw me.
Celeste had been at the wrong end of his taunts too, after she’d hit a sign when she was attempting to parallel park. He laughed and mentioned it every time he saw her.
Yet Celeste seemed to have forgotten all that now as she swooned, “Oh yeah, it’s incredible. We’ve been invited to Noah Forbes’s mansion.” Then there was an abrupt change-up. “It’s just for Brizendine kids, so we won’t be able to meet up this weekend.”
Just like that. Brutally blunt.
“Oh...of course not,” I spluttered, my heart sinking at the cold rejection. “I...understand.”
