But Not For Love; Chapter 1; By Olivia

I awoke to the familiar screams of my family members on that bright Tuesday morning in early February. Outside of my window the weather was perfect (not too hot, not too cold, kinda low sixties), and it was altogether great. But inside of the window… well, that was a different story.

I pulled my pillow over my head, wishing I could drown out the argument coming from down the hall. From what it sounded like, my older brother, Carter, and my mother were arguing. Again.

After listening to this everyday for seventeen, almost eighteen years of my life, I probably should be used to awaking to the sounds of arguments and fights. Falling asleep to them too.

My mother, Amanda McLaughlin, was an alcoholic. I was used to getting calls from my mother at weekends, asking me to come pick her up from some random bar, or sometimes some of her alleged friend’s houses. You know how it is supposed to be a mother looking after her children? That’s not what it’s like in my home. Not at all.

My father wasn’t much of a parent either. He wasn’t an alcoholic like my Mother; rather he was a workaholic with a terrible temper. To be honest, I was glad when he was rarely home. He had never actually hit me, but he had come close to it a few times. When he was home, I lived in fear of doing something wrong to upset him. I was scared of his shouting when he was unhappy, but I shudder to think about what he would have done to us physically.

So, on to Carter, my brother. He was a troublemaker- always has been, always will be. He was just that kinda guy. He spent most of his school years in in-school-suspension, detention, and was occasionally caught by the cops. It was never surprising to hear he had punched someone in the jaw over something stupid, or to get a call asking for his bail. He was a bum. He was always drunk or high and ran with the wrong crowd.

With all this mess in my family, it was definitely surprising I wasn’t totally screwed up like the rest of them. I had learnt at a young age to stay away from everybody at home and try not to provoke them. At home, I was nobody. I was only good for cooking or cleaning or bailing somebody out. Thankfully, my life at school was different. I was popular, but not the mean-girl type. I was more known as the girl who was everybody’s friend and was always be there for them.

If only they knew…

Back to that Tuesday morning. Hearing those screams, I wasn’t sure I could handle it anymore. They were driving me crazy. I was almost at breaking point. I jumped out of bed, ready to tell mum and carter to shut it. But as I stepped into the kitchen, as usual I lost all my courage. Instead I just put some bread in the toaster and got ready for school.

*~*

I drive my Honda to school, thinking about how annoyed I was my family. Are you wondering how I manage to drive a decent car? Well, I worked every day for two summers just before I got my license. I bought the car on my own. I needed something to ground me, and that I could call my own.

I pulled into a car parking and grabbed my bag, hearing the last bell ring. I dashed through the doors, hurrying to class. I didn’t want to be late. I dropped into my desk just before the final bell rang, breathless.

“Hey Katy” My friend Alexis nudged me.

“Morning Lexi” I replied “How you doing today?”

She turned around in her desk to face me, and I knew I was about to hear her latest sob story- probably about a guy who had broken her heart recently. “Well…”

Our teacher, \Miss Simms, stood up from her desk.

“Alright class, let’s get started. Today we will be assigning partners for your Author Project” she grabbed a sheet of paper from her desk.

“First up, Alexis Green and Michelle Forest” The pair seemed happy at this- they were best friends.

“Next, Katy McLaughlin and Jamie Hall”. She continued on, reading the list, pairing up everyone.

“Now I will give the rest of this period for you and your partner to go to the library and pick your author. The first draft of your statement will be due Thursday.”

I found Jamie, a nice, but shy girl with thin brown hair which hung to her shoulders, and we started walking to the dusty old library.

“Sooo” she started “How do you want to do this? Do you just want to work on it at my house this afternoon?”

“Sure” I said it quickly so there wouldn’t be a chance of us working together at MY house. I didn’t want her around my family.

We chatted about which author to pick on the short walk over. We decided to do our Author Project on Louisa May Alcott, who wrote ‘Little Women’, one of my all time favorite classics. At the library we picked some books on her and split it between our two bags. Before the bell went, we decided to meet at the front gates after school and I would follow her home in my car.

I never really hung out with Jamie before. All I knew is that she lived in a nice neighborhood, her dad owned a large landscaping business, which meant they were well off, and she had an older brother. But, I had learnt to be friends with everybody, and since Jamie seemed sweet, I thought we would work together and get along fine.

*~*

The rest of the school day flew by, as usual, uneventfully. When the final bell rang at 3pm, I stuffed all my books in my backpack, and went to meet Jamie at the front doors. I found her waiting outside, trying to avoid be trampled by the mass of students rushing to their cars.

“Hey Jamie” I said with a smile.

“Hello again” she said smiling shyly back at me. “Are you ok with doing it at my house? Because if it’s not, it’s totally fine. No problem whatever”

“No, it’s fine with me!” To be completely honest , I wasn’t really ready to go home, and since I wasn’t working, going to Jamie’s place was a good excuse.

“Ok, well you can follow me home or whatever you want to do”

“Sounds great!” I replied. We walked to the car park together. She had parked two spaces down from me, so it was easy to follow her out.

*~*

We drove about twenty minutes to the nicer side of town, into a nice subdivision known as “Oak-ridge”. I knew a few people from this area, but I didn’t know the Halls lived here. I followed Jamie up the driveway that led up to a large brick house that had to be at least 3 times bigger than mine. I parked my car behind her silver Mazda, and got out. She motioned me to follow her, and I did. Jamie walked through the front door, and the first thing I noticed was the wide staircase in the foyer. It looked like it should be in Gone with the Wind or something like that.

“Wow, you have a really nice home!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, it’s ok. Just a second”

“She turned her head away from me and yelled “Jordan! I’m home!”

I heard a male voice coming from somewhere in the house. “Ok, whatever!”

“I have a friend home!” she yelled. Then she turned to me. “Come and meet Jordan” Jamie walked down the hall to the left, so I followed her. She went through a doorway, and we were standing in a office or study or something. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was. Whatever.

I could see the back of a guy’s head, and assumed it was Jordan. Over his chair, I could see his sandy blonde hair. From what I could tell, he was working on a Pages document filled with squiggles.

“Jordan” Jamie said. The guy spun around.

I was speechless. The guy was beyond gorgeous. I felt like he should be stepping out of a photo shoot instead of turning around to meet me. I self-consciously smoothed my top, and wondered what my hair was like. Oh well, I couldn’t do anything now.

“Hey,” the hot guy said. “I’m Jordan.” He stood up and held his hand out to shake mine. I pushed past my uncommon nervousness and spoke;

‘Hey, I’m Katy” I stuttered slightly.

“Jordan Hall. Nice to meet you” was his reply. He was dressed in jeans and a blue polo which bore the name of his family landscaping company, Hall Lawn and Landscapers. Looking closely, I noticed he had bright green eyes, which lit up when he smiled.

“Katy and I are working on a English project together” Jamie butted in. Jordan’s eyes flashed from her to me.

“That’s cool,” he said. “Hey, you look familiar. Do you have an older sister or brother who might have graduated with me, like almost four year ago? What’s your last name?”

Oh My Gosh. Now I’m going to need to own up about being related to Carter. AHH!

“Actually,” I began “My brother, Carter McLaughlin, must have been a year or two behind you or something. Maybe you knew each other”

“Carter McLaughlin,” he said, seeming to search his mind of a connection. “Oh wait, I remember him. Yeah. Him”

Apparently Jordan hall and my brother had not been the best friends when they went to high school together. No surprise there of course. Carter always ran with the wrong crowd… Jordan didn’t really seem like that type. But then again, you can never judge a book by its colour.

“Yeah. Him” a hint of bitterness crept into my tone. Hey, don’t judge me. It’s not easy making a good reputation for myself being Carter’s little sister. It had been more than difficult. I hope Jordan didn’t notice it. I didn’t want him thinking badly of me.

Why do I care? I just met the dude, for heaven sake! Im losing my mind!

“Well, It was nice to meet you, see you around” I was awarded with the smile briefly.

“You too” I replied, and followed Jamie out of the door.