The One I Loathe

Chapter 2

It was 10:30 Saturday morning. Always a morning person I woke up at 8:00, but stayed in my pajamas while talking to Jeremy online since 10:00.

football_rulz: so what time r they gonna be there?

He was obviously referring to the Bennets

super_chic_chick: like i know! all i know is that once they do, my weekend’s down the tubes

football_rulz: eh, its only 2 days. u’ll be fine!

super_chic_chick: yeah...u’ve never met them...

football_rulz: hey do u think u could sneak off Sunday night?

Ohh! A date? My heart fluttered.

super_chic_chick: i’ll manage it, y?

football_rulz: well we have 2 talk. I’ll pick u up at 7?

super_chic_chick: k. that should be fine.

Suddenly my mom popped in my room, with a mortified look on her face.
“Why are you still in your pajamas?! They’ll be here any minute!” She told me between gasps.

Well, I guess I figured out when they were coming. I quickly said my goodbyes to Jeremy and threw on a pair of jeans and a turquoise shirt. I ran a brush threw my normally straightened blonde hair. It was going to be its natural wavy texture today. As I was reaching for my eye liner I heard the door bell ring. Looked like I was going au natural!

I ran down stairs to the front door and saw Cecilia and Robert Bennets greet my parents. Then they saw me and I was showered with hugs.

Abby came in next looking much taller then the last time I saw her. She greeted my parents with fake gratitude. I was such a shame. She really was a quite pretty 14 year old with dark brown hair and dark blue eyes, but she had a rotten personality to go with them.

Trent would be next. But, when I saw what entered, it couldn’t be Trent!

Now I wished I had put on some make-up.



You could have knocked me over with a toothpick.

And that wasn’t just because it was 10:30 in the morning on Saturday, which is when I usually go to bed, or because my legs were practically immobile due to sitting on a plane for 3 hours straight, or even because my ears were hurting not just because of the air pressure change on the flight, but also because I forgot to bring extra batteries for my CD player, so the whole flight I had to hear NSYNC blasting from Abby’s headphones, and guys hitting notes no self respecting male can hit.

It was because of Sophie! The last time I’d seen her, she’s had on so many inches of make-up it looked like war paint, and her hair had be straighter than a 2x4.

But now, she had no make-up on and her hair had its natural wave in it. She looked normal, almost…beautiful.

That’s when I knew I needed some sleep! This deprivation was making me loony!

But then, she looked a little shocked too. Her mouth was practically hanging open and she seemed to be looking at…me! She’d probably noticed my height. Just when I thought I was done growing, I shot up form 5.11” to 6.4” in one year.

After a few moments, she was still staring! Now it was making me uncomfortable. I decided to go with my instincts and go over and talk to her.




He was gorgeous. That’s all I could think. His always pasty skin had become tanned. He’d obviously had been at the Gym, cause I noticed some ripples I’d never seen before. He’d grown taller, out of his baby fat. He had dark brown hair like his sister, but I don’t think I’d ever noticed how blue his eyes were before. But, the most hypnotizing part of it all was, he was looking right back at me, square in the eyes.

My stomach turned. He was coming towards me.

“Hey” he almost whispered.

“Hey” I replied.

Eloquence seemed to have left me. But, it all came rushing back with one phrase.

“Audrey sends her love”

Ugh. That girl was detestful. She was rude arrogant, sarcastic and…horrible! She was one of Trent’s friends who, when we were there the previous summer, had been trying to get Trent to ask her out for years. I never heard if they got together or not. But then why did I care?

“Oh, you mean she’s capable of love now?” I shot back.

Now this was the relationship I was used to.

“Get over yourself.” he replied.

“Whatever.” I said, for lack of a better word.

Desperate to get away from him, I followed Abby as she tromped up the stairs. Mom had obviously told her that she’d be bucking with me. When I caught up with her, she flounced into my bedroom and dropped her three large suitcases in the middle of the room.

“Uh, you’d better move those. I think there’s room in my closet” I told her between gritted teeth.

“Super! Then you can move them.”

My, how I missed this girl.




"Sophie, will you do the dishes, please?" My mom, asked a 8 year old me.

"Sure, Mom!" I replied, and went over to the sink.

"I'll Help!" Yelled Abby, running in from the living room.

"Aww, now isn't that nice of her?" My mother cooed.

I rolled my eyes, this couldn't end well.

As soon as my mother left the kitchen I began to wash the cups and saucers.

"I'll wash, and you can dry ok?" I told her, handing her a dish towel.

"OKAY!" She said, taking the towel, and standing ready to dry.

Well, maybe she had gotten better since the last time I'd seen her.

As soon as I finished washing a cup, I handed it to her, and she cradled it in the towel.

But, as soon as I turned my head, I heard a loud shatter, and the teacup was in pieces on the ground!

"You did that on purpose!" I yelled at her.

"Yeah, just like I did this!" And before I could stop her, she had reached into sink and pulled out a cup, and smashed it on the ground, all the while smiling smugly.

"Now your gonna get it! Those were my grandmother's!" I told her, finally hoping she'd get her dues.

But all my hopes were shattered like those teacups, when my mother ran in, and Abby started crying!

"She...She...made me do all the work! And the cups were too...too...slippery, and I dropped two....and S...Sophie got mad, and was going to hit....m...me!!!!" She wailed.

"Sophie!" My mother yelled at me before I could get in a word edge wise, "You should have known better!"

And before I could protest, I was sentenced to do the dishes for the entire week now, as well.





Oh no! She was not going to leave me to do all her work like she did every year.

“Wait! There is no way-”

“Thanks a mil!”

And with that she flounced out of the room. It took all my strength not to throw her suitcases out the window.

I couldn’t wait for Monday already.


She hadn’t changed a bit. I blamed my momentary lapse of judgment on my lack of sleep. I admitted she was attractive, but her personality was still as stuck up as it had always been. I had been there 5 minutes and I already had to suppress the urge to run out the door, and catch the next flight back to New York.


But hey, it was only two days! I could handle it!

Hopefully.

Suddenly, I heard my cell phone ring. I glanced at the caller ID and saw that it was Sam. Finally! Some relief!

“Hey Sam!”

“Hey Trent, are you there yet?”

“Unfortunately” I said with a big sigh.

“So have you seen…her yet?”

Leave it to Sam to be preoccupied with a girl when I’m suffering!

“If you mean Sophie, yeah I have. We had a…special conversation a couple minutes ago.” I said choosing my words carefully.

“Oo! Did she mention me?”

Ugh. Did he ever think of anything beside himself? Maybe he and Sophie were meant for each other after all.



"So, tell me again. How are you related to these people?" Sam asked me, as we waited for the Jamesons' to show.

"I told you, they're my parents friends from college, and their children!"

"Oh, right. So how old are their children?"

"Will's 17, but he's still pretty cool. Sophie's 15, our age, but she's the one you gotta worry about."

"Oh..Ok." He said.

He was probably going to ask something else, if not at that moment, the door opened and the Jamesons walked in.

My mom ushered us to the door to greet them.

I saw Sophie, looking as fake as ever, and gave her a glare. She rolled her eyes at me, and looked next to Sam, rather strangely. Kind of like the way a cheerleader looks at a bug, wishing someone would remove it from her presance immediantly.

"Oh, Sophie, dear, this is Trent's friend, Sam. His parents are out of town for the week, so he's staying with us as well,"

My mother introduced Sophie to Sam.

But Sam seemed to be frozen. He mouth was gawked, and he was turning red from his cheeks to the tips of his ears.

"Hi..." He mangaged to squeak out.

Oh great. My worst fear has come to pass. My best friend had fallen for my biggest enemy.





“No. We didn’t talk that long.”

“So…how does she look?”

I was about to say amazing but silently bit my tongue and simply said that she looked about the same.

“Would you do a favor for me?”

Oh no, hear it came. Reluctantly I told him, “Sure…what is it?”

“Could you let me talk to her?”

Yep. Just what I thought.

“NO WAY! NO! You aren’t wasting my minutes on your love life.”

“Aww! Come on! I’ll just say ‘Hi’ and ‘Bye’! Promise!”

I groaned. The things I did for this kid.

“Fine. But be quick!”

“Thanks dude! I owe you one!”

Oh, he had no idea.

I walked over to Sophie’s room and knocked on the door. I heard a voice say ‘Come in’, so I obliged. As I opened the door, she was lying on her bed writing in a journal of some kind, I guessed. She had her headphones on. When she looked up and saw me, she closed the book rather abruptly and pulled her headphones down off her ears. I heard Jimi Hendrix blasting from them. Who knew she was a fan?

I covered up the speaking-in-to-part of my phone and explained the situation to her.

“Look, do you remember my friend, Sam, from last summer?”



Of course I remembered him. The guy had been at my heels all week. I really don’t know why, he just had this obsession with me. Anyway, I thought after I left he would forget about me, but apparently not.

I answered that I did remember him.

“Well, he wants to talk to you.” Trent explained.
I reluctantly agreed.

When he handed me his phone his knuckles kind of brushed up against mine and it sent goose bumps down my spine. Why did it do that?

I quickly grabbed the phone from him and put it up to my ear.

“Hello?” I spoke into the phone.

Silence.

“Sam?”

Suddenly I heard a slightly shaky teenaged boy’s voice.

“Yeah, Sophie. I’m here,”

“Oh ok. Good. So, um, how have you been doing?”

“Good and you?”

“Fine, thanks,”

More silence. Was he always this talkative?

“I, um, just wanted to say that I had a great time last summer…”

This is where he sped up.

“…and that I think your really pretty and smart and cool and I’m wasting Trent’s minutes so IgottagoBYE!”

Silence.

“Ok…bye Sam,”

Dial Tone.

I pressed END on the phone and handed it back to Trent who had been leaning against my doorway the whole time. On receiving his phone, he turned around and began to walk down the hall.

Why was I feeling so guilty? I had to do something about this awkwardness between me and him.

“Trent?” I called after him.
He turned around.

“I’m sorry Will isn’t here to hang out with, and I know I haven’t been very welcoming, so…I’m sorry”

“It’s fine.” He mumbled and looked down at his green converse.

“No! I mean really sorry!”

On an impulse I grabbed his hand and looked up into his eyes, which was no small feat! I was considered pretty tall at 5.9’ but standing next to his tall body I felt like an ant.

I continued, “…and if there is anything I can do to make you more comfortable, please let me know!”

What was I saying? Since when did I care about Trent?

“Yeah, actually there is something you can do!”

I knew he was too arrogant to refuse some female help.

“You can let go of my hand.”

Yikes! Was I still doing that? Despite myself I couldn’t help the blush that crept up my cheeks.

“Oh! Right! Silly me!” I replied, quickly dropping his hand.

Thinking quickly I added, “Hey there is a Play Station II in the game room if you want to entertain yourself.”

“Ok. Thanks,” he said dryly.

I was trying to be nice to him and he still acted like a jerk!

Fine, if he wanted war, he’d get it.