Spinning at the Seams

Breakfast was eventful. Everyone had ordered chocolate chip pancakes and coffee, which would have been fine, except Mallory got two things of coffee and so did Mel, causing them to become extremely hyper and bouncy. This just irked Shannon, who was not a morning person, causing the whole car ride to the mall to be Shannon telling Mel to stop singing ‘I’ve Got Sunshine’, and Mallory to stop talking about Rob Pattinson.
“Honestly, why did we agree to give them coffee?” Shannon complained to me, I just shrugged.
“Um, because I’m not about to tell Mallory she can’t have something, and I’ve never seen Mel on caffeine, so telling them no didn’t seem necessary.” I pointed out as we walked into the mall.
“I guess, but they’re staying near you, or else their parents aren’t going to see them again.” I stifled a laugh, and kept myself between the three.
We walked for a while, ducking in and out of stores. My camera was full of pictures of us in crazy outfits making faces by the time we decided we needed to eat. Walking towards the food court I couldn’t shake the sense that I was being watched.
“Toni!” Called a voice from behind me, I froze. No. No. No. No. No. This was not happening. I turned slowly, oh yes it is. Adam was strolling towards me, looking confused and rather mad, not good.
“Hey Adam.” The girls who had been ahead of me now stopped and turned to come stand behind me. Shannon pushed forward to stand right beside me, and Mallory took the other side, both looked anxious.
Adam’s eyes scanned my friends and came to rest on Madison, who was standing behind me. “I thought you told me she was at her aunt’s.” I sensed Madison shrug.
“She didn’t want to see you, so I lied. Not a crime chief.” Adam looked even angrier as she said that, causing Madison to shrink back slightly.
“Leave her out of this Adam. I asked her to lie, I didn’t want to see you today.” Adam turned to look at me, he looked incredulous, but that was quickly replaced by anger.
“Why? I haven’t done anything wrong, Toni. I came here to get your birthday gift, and a Christmas gift. I didn’t think you would be here.” Shannon raised an eyebrow, and I frowned.
“Ok, see I consider avoiding me doing something wrong. I consider calling my friends because I don’t want to talk right then doing something wrong. I consider asking my brother what my plans are for the week doing something wrong. So don’t say you’ve done nothing wrong.” Adam didn’t react as I said this, only started moving closer. He was stopped from going any further by another voice.
“Hey sis, what are you doing here?” I turned at the sound of Marc’s voice, and flinched at the word sis. Adam ignored him and started talking.
“Look, Toni, I’m not avoiding you, you’re avoiding me. Which I don’t think I deserve you know.” I still didn’t look at Adam, but rather at my brother’s approaching form. He was wearing a Hollister tee and dark jeans. Rick and Jake were with him, but not paying attention to us, but rather a group of freshmen girls standing near the fountain.
“Toni! Are you listening to me?” I turned from my brother now to face Adam.
“What don’t like being ignored? Now you know how I feel!” I shook my head, and made to leave, when a hand grabbed my arm.
“We need to talk.” Adam said, giving me a pleading look. I just shook my head.
“I can’t talk to you right now, I need time to think.” Adam shook his head, and looked ready to say something when my brother’s voice cut in.
“She said she doesn’t want to talk to you, now leave her alone.” With that my arm was freed from Adam’s grasp and suddenly in my brother’s firm one. He started dragging me along despite my protests.
I looked behind me, Mel was talking to a hurt looking Adam, Mallory and Shannon were both following me thankfully, and I couldn’t see Madison anywhere.
“TONI!” I shot looks around for the hyper voice, and came to find its source a few feet ahead of me, standing with Kelsey and Danielle. I had never been happier to see Molly in my life.
“Molly some help please?” I asked imploringly, she nodded and did a bouncy run only Molly could do towards me. She studied the hold Marc had on me for a moment, before taking action.
“HIYA!” She screamed, giving Marc’s hand a good karate chop. He released me, and grabbed his hand.
“What the hell was that for?” He demanded rubbing his hand and checking for injury.
“For grabbing me and trying to drag me away! I can handle myself Marc!” Marc just shook his head, holding his hand.
“No, you can’t Toni, something’s up with Adam, ok? I don’t know what, but something is, and I’m not going to have him hurting you!” I was stunned, Marc never did this before, and normally he was pushing me towards people, not taking me away from them.
“No, Marc, no, you don’t get to tell me what to do, I can do that myself!” With that I turned and started towards a random store, just trying to avoid it all. I could hear Madison behind me talking to my brother.
I didn’t stop till I came to a girl’s bathroom, and quietly sank down near the door. Shannon sank down next to me, and Mallory followed suit soon afterwards. Neither said anything, just let me stare at the wall in front of me trying to figure out what to do.
Shannon spoke first. “The way I see it we have two options here. We could go out and face them, or we can stay here and wait for them to leave.” I didn’t respond, instead I let everything play out before me.
Adam seemed sincere in his wanting to talk to me, but I couldn’t do that not yet, not till I was sure that I knew what to say. As for Marc, I don’t know what had gotten into him lately, everything was changing so fast for me, and nothing seemed to make sense any more. I put my head in my hands and closed my eyes. How is it that one boy can come in and change your whole life? Before Adam, my life made some sense, well maybe it didn’t make sense, but it had an order.
The order wasn’t perfect, but it was a routine. Marc ignored me, Mom worked so much that I sometimes forget she existed. Julia looked up to me, and followed Olivia, while Diana was my shadow, following my footsteps and making sure I didn’t forget anything. But now everything was so different. Marc was talking to me, Diana was stepping out for herself. Julia was following Diana, slowly but I had noticed Olivia being alone more often, and Olivia was slowly starting to take Diana’s place. As for me, I was different too, I was more trusting, and much more terrified of my future, or what would happen to my family. One boy so many problems, to bad they were going to get worse.