None Other Than You Read online

  "We miss you!" Shelly squeals as Nicole drags her arm and pulls her away.

  As soon as I hear the familiar twinkle of the door bells, I turn to Teigan, "And they were?"

  He sighs and shakes his head. "Ex's from West Lake." I raise my eyebrow in question. "I know, I know, 'Why would I date them?' huh. They were okay at one time…" The two of us stand in line, staring out the door at the blonde's retreating forms, his arm still around my waist…

  Wait, what?

  The two of us lock eyes at the same instant and pull apart immediately.

  "Never, do that again." I warn. He simply nods and says in a quiet voice close to my ear, "You're welcome, Ace."

  Chapter Four: Mom's Friends

  "Hey guys, I've got hot chocolate!" I say, backing into the house with the cups in my hand. I turn around to see Ryan and Emma on the couch in exactly the same position I left them an hour ago. Sighing, I place the hot chocolate on the table and shake my head muttering, "You're both stubborn."

  Emma stands up quickly like she's uncomfortable and says, "Duke there's somebody here—"

  "So I'll see you again tomorrow!" An unfamiliar voice says. "Six-thirty, right?" A woman about my mom's age, possibly a little younger walks out of the kitchen arm in arm with my mom. She's about a foot shorter than my mom with short, curly blonde hair and skinnier than me. She's also wearing an immaculately white sweater with a pair of tight designer jeans.

  "Any time between there and seven will be just fine Paula. It was good seeing you again." If she's hugging my mom then they've probably known each other for a while. My mom doesn't exactly give hugs out very easily. They give each other a quick hug before the stranger notices me.

  The stranger's eyes widen at the sight of me, and I catch their familiar dark blue color before she says, "Is this little Delaney?" Her voice is laden with shock and surprise. "And I thought Ryan here looked different!" She gushes, walking forward, swinging her hips side to side and enveloping me into a giant hug. "The last time I saw you, you were wearing overalls and came up to my hip!" She laughs, releasing me and setting her arms firmly on my shoulders. "My you've gotten pretty." She sighs.

  "I'll agree with that. My little girl is definitely a blossoming beauty."

  "Mom." I blush and look at the floor, avoiding the stranger's eyes.

  "You don't remember me do you?" The woman asks, taking her hands off my shoulders. "I'm Paula Teigan, your mom went to school with my husband and we've been friends ever since your brother, Daniel, was born. But I haven't seen her in years and, to find out she's my new neighbor." She smiles a bright, white-toothed grin in my mom's direction, and then glances towards the clock above the T.V. "I better get going!" She grabs a purse by the couch as my mom opens the door for her. "I'll see you all tomorrow night!"

  And with that she was out the door and across the street.

  "What's happening tomorrow mom?" Ryan asks, standing up from the couch.

  Is it just me or do I see a fading blush on his cheeks?

  "The Teigan's are coming over for dinner tomorrow night."

  "Wait. What?"

  That's when it hits me.

  "I'm Paula Teigan…"

  I had been so preoccupied with wondering why on earth she was hugging me I hadn't put two and two together. And her eyes… they were definitely Teigan's eyes, the same piercing blue that watched the entire walk home from Pete's.

  Emma snickers beside me and covers her mouth with her hand. My mother, oblivious to these things as usual turn off the still running T.V. and turns to us saying, "Yes. It's been ages since I've seen their family and I heard that Darren went to the West Lake and now he just transferred to Oakridge on Monday." She looks at us expectantly, "Have you met him?"

  Immediately her eyes find mine and I blink, sensing she knows something. "He's in a couple of my classes." I mutter, avoiding her eyes. With her creepy mom instincts I know she knows I'm leaving facts out. Automatically she looks to Emma, who spills her guts out.

  "He's in five of her classes and her group in P.E. and he's hit her in the head with a volleyball a total of six times now and we think at least four of them were on purpose, the fifth is still on debate." She rants quickly. My mom snickers, her light brown eyes lighting up.

  "You know, you knew Darren when you were in diapers." My eyes shoot up to her and she smiles even wider. "He would chase you around the yard with worms in his hand and you'd run right to your sister, crying for her to 'make him go away'." She laughs and shakes her head. "You know Paula and I always had this funny little scheme to have the two of you marry—"

  "MARRY!?!" I shout incredulously. I pull the most disgusted face imaginable and stare at my so-called mother. How could she possibly THINK of sticking me with him for all of eternity?

  "What's gotten into you?"

  I fold my arms saying, "Nothing, he just… He's not my favorite person in the world."

  She shakes her head and walks into the kitchen, "Okay, I won't say anything. But he'll be here for dinner tomorrow, like it or not."

  My shoulders drop and I hang my head after she's gone, while Emma loops her arm through mine; Ryan looking jealously at the contact. "Let's go up to your room Duke." Groaning I let her lead me upstairs.

  "Wait, what about Ryan?" I whisper, stopping our ascent.

  "Nothing is going to happen tonight Duke." She sighs dejectedly.

  I look at her face, the expression most definitely depressed.

  Once we're in my room, Emma takes a seat on my pillow-covered floor beside my bed. My room is completely blue. It has light blue walls with one accent wall by the window that has dark blue and white circles on it. My carpet is a dark blue, my pillows are different shades of blue, and my bedspread is white with dark blue, light blue, and black circles decorating its fabric. Emma wraps one of my various blue blankets around her waist and pouts, waiting for me and Lark to settle in ourselves. I give a bouncing, hyper Lark Mr. Banana, her favorite chew toy, and turn on a quiet CD before sitting down next to Emma, her back facing me.

  We have a sort of ritual, whoever is talking focuses on talking, while the person listening gives the speaker a massage. Both of us have a lot of stress in our lives; my giant family and her advanced classes and overprotective parents, so it helps to relax a bit, and rant about how much life sucks.

  "Tell me what happened after I left." I say, as she closes her eyes and sighs.

  "Well you left really suddenly, and Ryan and I just kind of looked and each other and shrugged. We kept watching the movie and he didn't scoot any closer, so neither did I." She starts fidgeting with her hands, which I've learned to mean that there's a lot more of the story to hear. "After the movie ended he looked at me again and asked if I wanted to just watch some T.V., so we watched Whose Line Is It Anyway, and something really funny happened, and you know how I lean forward when I laugh?" I nod as she continues, "Well I kind of bumped into him, and he bumped into me, and he was this close to my face Duke!" She says, placing her fingers about an inch apart and turning around to show me. "This close!"

  She grunts, frustrated, and leans against me, her arms folded. "Well what happened?"

  "Your mom walked in through the garage door. It slammed open and scared both of us so bad we practically jumped to opposite ends of the couch." She sighs again, and closes her eyes. I know that right now she just needs someone to listen, so I don't say anything until she starts up again a minute later. "He was about to kiss me Duke. You know I've waited forever for this to happen, and it almost did."

  "Well then who's to say it won't happen again soon?" The idea of them together was weird, but just think, if they get married my best friend would be my sister-in-law.

  And then it hit me, "Hey, I don't want to spend dinner alone with Teigan and his family or whatever, so what if you come tomorrow? Then you can be there with Ryan and try to talk to him once the Teigan's leave, as long as you promise to talk to me and not let Teigan talk to me in any way shape or form unless forced to do so
by parents?" Her eyes snap open and she stares up at me, nodding her head furiously.

  "Let's go ask now!" She squeals, scrambling to get up and throwing open my door to run downstairs. Lark barks and jumps up to run down after her, and of course, like a good little friend I follow. At the bottom of the stairs she halts, making Lark run into her legs and me almost trip over my dog.

  "What?" I hiss.

  "You ask your mom."

  "Why?"

  "Because, she's your mom."

  Rolling my eyes I retort, "You practically live here, she's like your mom too."

  "Please." She whimpers, begging me with her eyes.

  "Fine." I submit. I walk around her and into the kitchen where mom is currently munching on a pop tart, her usual home-late-from-the-hospital snack. "Hey mom," I ask sweetly, "Do you think it would be okay if Emma came to dinner tomorrow?"

  She looks and me and shakes her head, swallowing her bite. "I told the Teigan's it would be just us honey. I'm afraid that wouldn't be very fair."

  "But mom—"

  "Don't 'but' me. I said no. I'm sorry but that's the end of this discussion." She pops the rest of the pop tart into her mouth, crumples up the wrapper and throws it in the garbage can next to the counter. As she walks past me, arms folded and face scrunched, she kisses my forehead. "Good night sweetie. You'll be fine."

  "But—"

  "No."

  "But—"

  "Good. Night."

  "BUT—"

  "GOOD NIGHT" She says, slamming her door in my face.

  "Ugh!"

  * * *

  "Boner…. Fifteen points." Emma says, scribbling furiously on the notepad. "I'm so beating you by like, fifty points!" She giggles drawing five more pieces from the bag. We're almost out of letters. Only three more turns and she wins so we can stop playing stupid Scrabble.

  Rolling my eyes I look at the board. "How come half of your words are dirty Emma?" I snicker, "What has gotten into you tonight? Sex, Butt, Bedroom---"

  "That's not dirty."

  "--Boner."

  Shrugging, she smiles, "What can I say, I've developed a dirty mind. I thank band and drama for that one."

  "Yeah Ms. Band Camp." I snicker, throwing a C at her from my board. "I give up. I can't win anymore." I push myself up from the ground and stretch my arms up into the air as Emma laughs and clears the board. She glances at the clock on my nightstand and, yawning, grabs her shoes from the floor.

  "I'd better be going home. Mom said she wanted me to actually sleep in my own bed tonight." She rolls her eyes and smirks. "For some reason she thinks I'm over here to much and she can't figure out why?"

  I follow her down the stairs saying, "Hmmm, maybe 'cause your best friend lives here?"

  "Nah. She says you can't be that interesting." She giggles as I swat her arm.

  "Ha. Ha." I say following her out of my room.

  "Hey, where are Sarah, Brent and the triplets?"

  "They should be back soon." I say, yawning.

  "Still out looking for apartments?"

  "Yeah, they want more than anything to get out of the—"

  The thud of the front door hitting the closet as it blows open is only the first half of the reason why we practically jump two feet into the air. The second half is Sarah yelling, "WE GOT IT! WE GOT IT! WE GOT IT!" She bursts into the living room as Ryan and Mom race down the stairs and Sarah waves around a piece of paper.

  "What did you get Sarah?" Mom grumbles as she grabs this paper. "This is… You got the apartment?" She asks, looking at her oldest daughter in disbelief. Sarah nods her head, grinning madly and the two embrace. Brent walks in at just that moment with Maura, sound asleep on his back in a carrier, and both Adler and Anthony in his other hands, sound asleep and snoring.

  "I could use a little help here." He says, struggling to kick their diaper bag through the door. Emma and I race over and grab the boys out of his arms as he grins, pulls the bag inside and closes the door.

  Glancing over at Sarah and Mom still doing a happy hug dance I ask, "So you guys got the apartment?"

  Smirking, he replies, "We did. And for a great discount too. The landlord said that her daughter just had twins and they're a handful in themselves. She told us she'd pray for us on Sunday in mass." He snickers. Taking Adler out of Brent's arms, I walk over to my sister, still jumping around the room with excitement, and give her a hug.

  "Congrats big sis." I gin, "Finally got a place of your own."

  She ruffles my hair, giggling, "Shut up you. So I never really moved out. I needed help okay! You try having three babies at once."

  "Hey I've helped raise them too ya know!"

  For about an hour we all sit in the family room, playing with Anthony, Adler, and Maura while laughing about all the stupid things we did as kids. We also starting packing Sarah and Brent's things so they could move out as soon as possible.

  "We want to be self-sufficient as soon as we can." She said.

  Emma ended up getting home an hour and a half late because of all the talking. I decided to walk her over to her house as the rest of the family was putting the triplets to sleep.

  "So you'll talk to Ryan again?"

  "I think I'm going to leave that up to you this time." I say, shoving my hands into my hoodie to keep them warm.

  She glances at me with an exasperated look, "What do you mean? You're his sister why can't you talk some sense into him?"

  I laugh and shrug, watching my breath turn white in the cold air. "You like him, and you need to talk to him yourself." Still staring at me, I laugh and cover my mouth with my hand as I watch her blue eyes narrow.

  "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up Knight. One day it'll be your turn having to talk to a guy and you'll want me to do it for you and I won't."

  I watch as she walks up to her door, her hand on the handle before I stuff my hands back into my pockets and say, "Somehow I don't think that day will be anytime soon Em."

  "You think that now…" She says before glaring at me and closing her front door.

  "Whatever you say Em." I mutter before turning around and heading back to my own home.

  Chapter Five: Hot & Cold

  Bringing my hands close to my face I blow in between them, rubbing them together forcefully. It's freezing outside, as it should be at the end of November. December is right around the corner, and that includes family frenzies, frantic present buying trips to the mall, and of course, the highlight of my final, senior year of high school, the Winter Formal.

  Which is coming up in a short two-week period of time.

  Outside my house I can still hear the squeals and shouts of my mother and sister and decide to brave the cold a little longer. Sure I love my sister but I can't say I won't be glad to get her, Brent, and the triplets out of there. Once they're gone I'll be able to sleep an entire night through for the first time in seven months.

  Which is a long time to go without sleep I might add, and sleep is a very integral part of a high schooler's life. I mean, you have to get sleep to do well on a test. You need sleep to stay awake in class so the teacher's that catch you head-bobbing in class don't write you off a detention for a Saturday, taking away one of the few mornings when a teenager can actually catch up on sleep for the week.

  Teachers deprive us of every moment we have to sleep with homework that takes hours upon hours to complete, along with projects that keep you at friends (or not so much friends') houses at all hours of the night.

  I guess there's also the part about high school drama and keeping up appearances.

  And the hormones, don't forget about them.

  What would high school be without the daily drama of boy meets girl?

  "Ugh. Boys." I mutter out loud to myself, taking a seat on the curb. I glance up at the blackened sky, no sign of stars through the thick clouds. Something tells me we'll be getting snow soon. The thought makes me smile. Everything good always happens to me when it snows.

  Maybe it's a sign something wonderful will happen
to me in the next few days! Or even the next few moments!

  "You're out here again in the freezing cold. When will you learn, Knight?" Rolling my eyes I peel my sight away from the night sky to glare at the sight of a bundled up Teigan holding out a coat.

  So much for something wonderful happening.

  I glance at the brown coat, most likely one of his own and frown. "What, were you spying on me?"

  He shakes the coat in front of me and I grab it, muttering a thanks. "I took out the garbage and saw you wandering in circles in your driveway. I figured you weren't goin' in for some reason." Of all things he sits down next to me, leaning back on his arms like earlier. "You seem to like it out here."

  "Maybe."

  "What is it you find so appealing out here?"

  "What?"

  "What makes you keep coming out here and sitting. Before you said it was because your brother and your best friend were inside, now…?" He looks at me expectantly.

  "Why do I have to tell you anything?" I ask, folding me arms and turning away from him.

  "Because I'm me."

  "There you go again!" I say exasperatedly.

  "With what?" Putting his hand on my shoulder he turns me to look at him.

  "You're arrogance! You think you're all that don't you?"

  He shrugs his left shoulder. "Maybe."

  "I'm sure you do." I say, pushing his hand off my shoulder. "I've seen you walk around the school like you own the place. You've only been here a week Teigan and you're acting like you're king of Oakridge."

  "Why do I have to tell you anything?" He asks. I stare at him with my mouth open. He's using my own words to mock me. He folds his arms as well and faces me, a stubborn grin planted permanently on his face. We sit in silence as a car passes by, splattering the two of us with a light spray from the water on the ground. I glance back at him, his gaze just as intense on the black pavement. I should try to be civil to him; after all he is the son of my mother's friend, right?

  "Can I ask you something Teigan?"

  His eyebrows rise to the point they disappear under his shaggy black hair. "What do you have in mind? Are you asking me to the dance! And so soon!" He holds his hand up to his chest and mock squeals.