The One I Loathe

Chapter 1

It was that time of year again. I hated our yearly rendezvous with the Bennets. At 16 years of age and 16 years of rendezvous, it got a little old after age ten.

You see, my parents have been best friends with the Bennents since they were in college, so naturally they expected their offspring to be equally buddy-buddy, but sadly, no such luck.

We lived in Bluecreek, Colorado, a small town just outside of Colorado Springs. It was a quaint little village, with old Victorian houses everywhere. With a population of about 5,000, it didn’t have the hustle or bustle the big cities had, and I enjoyed it. In contrast, the Bennets lived in Albany, New York. At least once year, we tried to get together for a week or a weekend. I suppose I used to enjoy seeing them, but now they just seemed a nuisance.

So that’s why I didn’t exactly jump for joy when I heard my mom yell from downstairs, “Sophie! The Bennets are coming for the weekend! Oh and they’re bringing Trent and Abby so don’t make any plans!”


Joy. A whole weekend of trying the entertain the
Un-entertain-able teens. Trent was my age, but always hung out with my older brother Will, who sadly was away at college. Abby was 2 years younger than me, and had developed a knack for bossing me around. And, now, due to Will’s absence, I was stuck with both of them!


For knowing them my whole life I didn’t know much about either Trent or Abby. Mainly just that Trent had a slew of “bad girl” girlfriends, much to the aggravation of his mother, and that he loved rock music as much as I loved a pair of pink heels. And Abby was a whiny little brat who always got her way. So, obviously, we’d never really hit it off.


Then there was me. I was a writer. Poetry, fairy tales, romance; I wrote them all! It was my ultimate creative outlet. Whenever I would have a nasty break up (which was quite often) and I was left with a broken heart, I discovered that writing was a healthy way to get my emotions out. But lately, I hadn’t had a “guy-hating” poem for a while. And that was because of one guy: Jeremy Russell. We’d been dating for over a year, since last summer. He was cute, popular, a football star, and the sweetest person I’d ever known! I felt so lucky to be dating him. I mean, out of all the girls in the school, he choose me!


The sound of the telephone pulled me out of my reminiscing. After two rings I finally picked it up.
“Hello?” I spoke into the handset.
“Sophie?”
“Hey Hilary! How’s it going?”

Hilary was my best friend. We’d met in elementary school and have been friends ever since. I couldn’t get through school without her!

“Great!” she replied, “So do you want to catch a movie this week-end?”
If only.

“Sorry, Hill! No can do.” I told her.
“Oooh! Got big plans with Jeremy?” she asked suggestively.

I smiled at the mention of my boyfriend.

“No, I wish.” I said sadly. “It’s the traditional Bennet/Jameson get-together”
“Oo, sorry…”

Hilary had never actually met any of the Bennets, but she still sympathized with me every time they came down, though.

“And this year, I have to keep both of them company” I moaned.
“Oh! That’s right! With Will off at college…”
“Right…” I sighed.
“Well, this might be a good chance to get to know Trent better!”

Ah, Hilary, always the optimist.

“I don’t want to get to know him better! We’ve ignored each other for most of our lives, why start now getting to know each other?”
Besides, we only saw each other once a year anyway!
“Good point. Well, I’d love to keep chatting , but I still have “Mount Homework” to scale!”

We said our goodbyes and hung up.
I flopped down on my bed and let out a big sigh.

“SOPHIE! Have you cleaned up your room? Abby’s going to be sleeping in there with you!” My mom yelled from the hallway.


I groaned.

~*~



“Trent! Abby! Don’t forget your toothbrushes!”

“We won’t Mom!” Abby and I chorused.

I’ll never figure out why my parents keep insisting we see the Jameson’s every year. I hate packing up and leaving all my real friends to go see these people I’ve seen my whole life but still don’t know, and pretend to be best friends with them for 3 days. Not exactly my idea of fun.

I’d finished packing early (It doesn’t take long to throw a couple of shirts, jeans, and a toothbrush into a backpack) so I decided to call my best friend Sam.
It rang.
“Hello?” Sam answered.
“Hey man, it’s Trent”
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Well, I’m heading out for the weekend. It’s the Bennent/Jameson get together weekend ’05.”
Sam seemed to perk upon hearing that.

“Oh! So, you’ll be seeing…Sophie?”

Ever since the Bennets came from their home state of Colorado, up to New York for a week that past summer, Sam had a huge crush on Sophie.

“Why do you like her? You’ve only met her once. You don’t even know her!”

“I know she was gorgeous! And, that she expressed feelings for me too” He said proudly.

“Dude she said she liked your shirt.”

“Hey when you’re a man of my experience, you learn to read between the lines.”

I rolled my eyes. The guy had one girlfriend and suddenly he’s an expert?

“Whatever you say...”

Sophie Jameson was exactly the type of girl that I couldn’t stand. She was a pink freak/shop-o-holic/who, although we really never discussed her music tastes, probably listened to some boy band or something. When we were younger we used to be best friends but when puberty set in, I guess we went our separate ways. So, mostly I tried to avoid her by hanging out with her brother, Will. But, since he was off at college, I was stuck with Princess Shop-o-lot for 48 hours! Not to mention she was a total goody-two-shoes. We were total opposites in every sense of the word.

Beep…Beep…

“Hey Sam, that’s my call waiting. I’ll talk to you later man?”

“Sure. Give Sophie my reg-”

I switched lines before he could finish.

“Hello?” I said to the other line?

“Hey, Baby. What’s up?” A female voice responded.

Audrey; My girlfriend of 2 months. Now that’s my type of girl. She was a rock chick through and through. She’d rather go to a concert than the mall any day. Basically, she was the hot female version of myself.

“Not much, Audrey. Hey, I won’t be able to do anything this weekend.”

“And why not?” She asked, angrily. I loved it when she got angry.

“I’ve got a family thing in Colorado.”

“Oh no…Don’t tell me it’s that times of year again?”

“ 'Fraid so, Babe”

“Hey give Sophie my love.” She replied, sarcasm dripping from each word.

Sophie had met Audrey last year before we were dating, and needless to say they didn’t exactly get along.

“Sorry, it’s already been taken by Sam” I chuckled.

“Oh, don’t tell me he’s still hung up on her?” She said, annoyed.

“More than ever.”

“The poor sap. Well, I’m being summoned to dinner table. I’ll talk to you Monday.”

“Alright, love you.”

“I know,” she said and hung up.

In an odd way I found that so attractive.

“Trent, you had better get to bed early tonight,” Dad said, suddenly appearing in my doorway,” We have to leave at 6:00am tomorrow to catch our flight,”

I repressed saying something sarcastic, and replaced it with, “Sure, Dad.”

He left, and I sat down on my bed. Yep this weekend was going to be a blast alright.

I groaned right before cranking up my stereo to deafening tones. If I was being forced to go, I wouldn’t go quietly.