“Move!” Dad barked.
Annoyed, I moved out the way, biting my tongue as he reached for a bottle of beer. He smirked at me and walked towards the TV, turning it on and then finally sitting at the table.
“You couldn’t wait!” I mumbled, grabbing a small bottle of water.
“Huh?”
“What?” I asked, innocently.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing!” I replied.
“Bullshit!”
“I swear I didn’t say anything. Just keep on drinking Dad,” I said and quickly returned to my room, trying not to laugh. My sisters and I did that to him all of the time. Since we couldn’t keep our mouths shut — well, especially me, we would make it seem like he was hearing things or he was getting confused with the TV so we wouldn’t be punished for our sassy replies. My dad hated it when my sisters or I answered back or spoke out of line. He considered it disrespectful and rude, saying we should respect him because he was our father. Whatever! Respect was something that needed to be earned.
Just as I grabbed my book, Abby barged in the room. “Look at this mess!” she said. I sighed, putting the book onto the bedside table. I didn’t mind sharing a room with Abby, though at times I hated it. Besides not being able to read, I was restricted in what I wanted to do. Everything had to go her way or no way. I even needed her permission to stick a poster up. The only way she would let me was if it were one of her favourite actors too, though it was okay for me to stare at Scott Michaelson’s face from every angle. I would have preferred to have Robert Kelker Kelly or Patrick Muldoon from Days of Our Lives.
Abby was a real neat freak. Everything on her side was tidy and looked like it hadn’t been touched while my side looked like it was lived in. I had books on my dressing table, clothes piled high on the floor, and magazines scattered across my half of the double bed, combined with the hundreds of articles and pictures that I hadn’t had time to put in their assorted folders. I had a huge collection of posters that I kept in about fifteen different binders; filled with articles or pictures of my favourite stars. Each celebrity had their own plastic slip and were categorised by most preferred to least. I was very proud of my collection and it drove Abby nuts because of the mess it made. Most of our fights were about that and how messy I was but no matter how hard I tried to keep the room clean, after a week or two the room returned to its original state.
Honestly, as much as I bitched and moaned about sharing the room with Abby, I was relieved. I was very afraid to sleep on my own. If Abby slept over at Zia Sarina’s, I made sure Mum slept with me. When I was about four or five and sleeping with my parents, I had been cursed by this recurring nightmare of monsters trying to get to me through the window. Now that I was older, those monsters had turned into men and I was even more afraid because it could happen. We lived down the road from this bar Starlight and we had heaps of drunken men walk past our house on a Friday and Saturday night. Every week without fail, we would have a group of guys fight and shout obscenities at each other. We had rocks thrown at our windows, beer bottles smashed on the footpath and blood smeared on our white walls with teeth lying in the grass. It was terrifying and every time I heard these fights, I would hide underneath my doona and just pray for it to stop.
“Please not now. I’ll clean it up tomorrow,” I grabbed the magazines, dropped them onto the floor and slid underneath the covers.
“You’d better! I’m sick and tired of this mess,” she started putting her clothes away in the wardrobe.
Mum walked through the door and sat on the bed. “So, what happened to you tonight? Why were you upset?”
“I kissed Brayden Tammurello.”
“You what? How?” Abby asked.
“I didn’t really kiss him, not the way you’re thinking. Just on the lips. We were playing Spin-the-bottle.”
“Aren’t you a bit young to play that game?” Abby teased.
“Hello, I’m thirteen-years-old.”
“What’s Spin-the-bottle?” Mum asked.
“It’s a game where you spin a bottle and then you kiss the person it points to,” Abby explained.
“Maybe you are a bit young to play that game,” Mum said, scratching her head.
I groaned! “Forget about the stupid game! The most important thing is I kissed Brayden!” I said, sipping a mouthful of water.
“Yeah and? I thought you would be happy about that. You sound upset,” Abby said, getting into the bed.
“Of course I’m upset! I really like Brayden. How can I be happy, knowing he’s going out with my best friend?”
“Yeah and?” Abby asked.
“And?” I said annoyed. Did I have to spell it out for her? “I’ve got no chance with him and I don’t want to hurt Lizzie.”
“I know, but you can’t help how you feel. You should just be honest with her!”
“And ruin our friendship? I don’t think so!”
“Well, stay miserable then!”
“You’re funny!” I muttered.
“Maybe, it’s better this way,” Mum said, standing up. “I told you before to stay away from the Tammurellos and the Dantinis. Goodnight, it’s been a long day and I’m tired,” she kissed us and went into her own room.
“Goodnight Cassie and don’t stress. It will all work out. We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” she turned off the lamp on her bedside table. I yawned and stretched out my legs.
Yeah, that was easy for Mum and Abby to say. Don’t stress and stay away from the Tammurellos and the Dantinis. How could I? I stressed about everything that was important to me and it was hard to stay away from those families. I was attracted to one of their sons and I was dating the other. What was I going to do about the two of them? I didn’t want to hurt Vinnie but I really liked Brayden, even though I knew he didn’t hold any feelings for me. Apparently, he told Tessa that he only liked me as a cousin, even though we weren’t. Well, not that I knew of anyway. Maybe someone had an affair or something. Knowing Italians, it could happen but I doubt it. God wouldn’t be that cruel to me, would he?
I
put my hands over my eyes and groaned at the sunlight shining through the blinds. It couldn’t be morning already. I didn’t even remember falling asleep. All I could recall was thinking about Brayden and Vinnie, and then waking up to the rays of light beaming into my face. I also heard the sound of laughter. Loud and very annoying.
“Bitch,” I muttered, rolling onto my stomach.
“What did you say?” Abby asked.
“You heard me.”
“No, actually I didn’t.”
“I said ‘bitch’. You had to wake me up didn’t you? You couldn’t let me sleep awhile longer?”
“Longer? Do you know what time it is?”
“No, and I don’t care either!”
“You should! It is eleven o’clock! It’s about time you woke up or else you’d sleep all day,” Abby said as she opened the closet.
“I wish I could, so then I wouldn’t have to deal with you.”
“Stop being such a mole! You needed to get off your lazy arse eventually,” she said, shutting the cupboard door with a loud thud.
“I’ll