La Vie En Rose

“It’s time to get up! Gigi! Gigi! GEEEGEEEEE!”

I opened up my eyes, trying to register what time, day, month and year it was. I slowly sat up and saw Cole jumping onto my bed and laughing at me.

“Finally!” He grinned, “Come on sissy, time to get up!”

“Cole.” My voice was raspy, “What time is it?”

“It’s noon!” He exclaimed, a bit too loudly in my opinion, “Mommy sent me up here to wake you up because Tim is making a massive breakfast!”

I squinted my eyes at him and sighed, “Alright. Tell mum I’ll be down in a bit.”

“Kay!” He jumped off my bed and quickly added, “Love you sissy!”

I smiled at him. He was so cute, “Love you too, little bro.”

After he left, I drastically dropped back into my pillow and groaned. If Jet-Lag had a face, I would punch it. Three times. No, four times. Maybe I-

“Oi, bitch.” Now Lola was standing in my doorway, clad in a large high school spirit shirt and pajama pants, “Up. Mom made us coffee.”

“Coffee?”

I was up now. Eyes wide and the limbs were working. The sound of coffee was sounding glorious right now. Superb.

By the time I got to the last step, a strong waft of eggs, bacon and coffee filled my nostrils. I was practically drooling by the time we entered the kitchen.

“Morning!” Mom cheerfully greeted Lola and myself, “Ready for breakfast?”

My mom was wearing her typical dark blue denim boot-cut jeans, a pale pink tunic shirt with a cropped white cardigan. With her chocolate-colored hair tied up in a ponytail, she leaned against the counter with a cup of coffee in her hands while Tim finished making omelets, bacon & toast at the cooker.

Lola and myself joined Cole on the stools in front of the bar-styled counter. I could tell already that the kitchen was my favorite part of the house. The large windows, that face the backyard, let in the noon hour sunlight, brightening up the whole room. One of the windows were opened a crack, to let the cool air in. Everything was perfect.

“This is great, Tim!” I exclaimed as I demolished my scrambled eggs, “Thank you.”

He chuckled, “It’s my pleasure, Gigi.”

My mom rubbed his back as she stood next to him. She then asked, “So what are you guys doing today? It’s beautiful out! You should go for a walk.”

I shrugged and looked over at Lola, “Hey, take me to that park you were telling me about last night?”

Lola sat up straight, her eyes twinkling with delight, “Yes! Good plan! I need to get ready!”

“But you haven’t even finished your-” Before mom could finish her sentence, Lola was out the door and jumping the stairs.

“Don’t worry mom,” I grabbed Lola’s plate and mine and put them in the sink, kissing my mom on the cheek, “I got this. You coming little bro?”

Cole shook his head, “Can’t. I have karate class soon!”

“Yes you do.” Mom warned him, “Hurry up with your bacon and get changed into your gear. Tim is gonna drive you to class.”

“Yay Tim!” Cole cheered. I laughed as he hopped off his stool and started karate chopping Tim, who played along with him. My mom rolled her eyes and started looking through the newspaper that was sitting on the counter.

An hour and a half later, Lola was finally ready. I forgot how long it takes her to get ready for anything.

“Listen, there’s a 99.9 per cent chance that Ross will be at that park!” She exclaimed as she tugged on her gray cardigan. She ended up wearing the white shirt with ruffles that I sewed for her last year, tucked into a high-waisted pink skirt, “I have to look classy! I don’t want him to think I’m another high school girl.”

I, on the other hand, was wearing something completely different. There was a chilly bite in the air, I must admit, but the sun was out and I was going to take advantage of it so I decided to wear a strapless couture floral romper, accompanied with my brown sandals, straw-stitched fedora and white colored cat eye sunglasses.

“I know this phrase is overused a lot, in many situations, but” I paused for effect, “be you. He’ll like you.”

“I know, I know.” She hugged herself as we walked down the sidewalk, “I just want this to happen. I really want a boyfriend. It’s been a while, ya know”

“Oh yeah” I sighed, “I know.”
If anyone knew what a while was, it’s me. The last time I had a boyfriend, I think it would be a pretty accurate belief that dinosaurs were still around. I’m such a picky person, it makes it difficult to go for a guy. On top of that, I have important duties, goals and ambitions to attend to. I never have time to go looking for a boyfriend. It sucked but my future was more important to me as of late.

When we turned the corner, a large park finally came into view. As we grew closer, I could see a bulky and aged sign with the words ‘Chestnut Park’ written in a large font. The park itself was captivating, with large sets of grass, accompanied by large oak trees that provided shade. Lola and I walked the pale pink colored path that glided around the park at a leisurely pace. While Lola rambled on about different things, I took in the surrounding area around me. The park was ravishing to say the least. I noticed in the middle of the park, the most populated part I realize, was an enormous water fountain, surrounded by cast iron bistro tables and chairs. Old men could be seen occupying a couple of the tables, with their books and coffee while their pet dogs sat lazily beside them.

I noticed Lola was anxiously looking around, trying to spot her crush. Her eyes nervously skimmed over the large areas of grass, where a bunch of boys were playing frisbee.

“Huh” She sighed, “I guess he’s not around today. Weird, he usually is walking his dog on Saturday afternoons.”

“You stalker!” I laughed. She laughed too and playfully punched my arm.

Spending time with Lola was refreshing. Even though she had a loud mouth on her, she would always intently listen to my problems if I ever wanted to vent about them. I mostly vented to her about the stress I was dealing with at school and how building up an empire was a lot hard than I thought (Donna Karen made it look so easy. Augh.) and Lola would usually come to me about boy advice or girl problems. She was a cheerleader at high school, so she had to deal with a lot more malicious girls than I do.

After we made a satisfying walk around the park and got bored of sitting on the swings, we made a quick detour to the local Starbucks before heading home.

“Mmm I haven’t had a good hot chocolate in a while” I hummed as I happily held my tepid cup, “The fact that there is a starbucks down the road will empty my wallet. I’m done for.”

She looked up at me and gave me a wary smile.

“Anything wrong?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her sudden timidness.

“Nah,” She sighed, “I just don’t want to go back to school on Monday. Granted, it’s only two more days and then I have the rest of the week off for Thanksgiving but I have a ton of homework to do and there’s a psychics test and then I have a 2 hour cheerleading practice after school...”

She drifted off and sighed once more.

“Things I don’t miss: high school.” I joked, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll go shopping after to take the edge off”

“Perfect!” She exclaimed.

We finally turned onto our street. It was now the late afternoon and there was a wonderful breeze in the air. As I pushed my bangs aside, something caught my eye in the distance. A boy on a BMX bike. With further investigation, I realized that there was more than one fella on the street. There were at least four, maybe five. Some were sitting on the sidewalk while there was one doing tricks on a skateboard.

“Hey Lo” I started, still starring, “Is that-”

“Ross with his brother and friends?” I guess she was investigating too. She then answered my question, “Yes.”

“Is Ross the one-”

“On the bike.”

This whole “finishing sentences” thing, was something we were pretty good at.

Ross, who was doing tricks on his little BMX bike, finally noticed my sister and I approaching and biked over to us. He was cute, I had to admit. He was wearing skinny jeans, slightly rolled up to his ankles, with black lace up vans to match and a blue plaid shirt. I was baffled by the fact that my sister was interested in a guy who dressed like this. She went for the jocks, who were on a lacrosse or football team with a shaved head. This guy had a mess of brown hair on the top of his head.

“Hey Lolo!” He greeted Lola with a friendly smile, as he carefully biked in a circle around my sister and I.

“What’s up, Roro?” She responded. Oh my God, they already have nicknames for each other. I’m going to be sick.

I gave my sister a look and she ignored it, knowing full well I would make fun of her later.

“Not much” He laughed at their humorous greeting, “Hanging out with friends. Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

She nodded. As we approached closer to our house, the rest of the boys Ross was hanging out with, finally realized we were in their presence.

“Lola!” One of the other boys exclaimed, “Where’ve you been? Haven’t seen you out in a while.”

She shrugged, “What can I say? I live a busy life.”

“Oooh busy bee” One of the guys sitting on the sidewalk laughed.

I stood awkwardly, drinking my hot chocolate. While they carried on a nonchalant conversation, I studied the three guys on the ground slyly behind my sunglasses. They were definitely a lot older than my sister. I’d say about two or three years older at least. I also noticed all these guys loved wearing worn-out skinny jeans, vans and plaid shirts. Except the one on the far right. He was wearing a black tank top with an eagle on it. Looked thrifted...which leads me to my next question. Who WERE these guys?

“Hey Lo, think you can pencil us into your busy schedule?” The one that was previously on the skateboard was now standing behind the three guys on the sidewalk. He continued, “We’re playing a show tonight at the Ray. You should come.”

Lola looked at me and then back at the guys, “Sure, why not?”

“Bring your friend here too” They all looked at me. Ugh, this is weird, “Do you like music?”

What kind of question is that?

“What’s music?” I asked sarcastically.

“Damn!” One of the guys on the ground laughed, “She’s quick!”

“Don’t mind my sister” Lola spoke up while I smirked, “She’s swift when it comes to dishing out sarcastic remarks.”

“Sister?” The guy in the eagle tank top stood up quickly. Holy shit, was he tall, “Guys, where are our manners? I’m John, Ross’s brother and apparently your neighbor”

I smiled, he was being nice. And now that I’ve been able to get a better look, I noticed he has green eyes. Olive green. Ow.

“And this is Garrett, Eric- but we call him Halvo - and Kennedy” He continued, pointing to the other two guys on the curb and skater boy.
“And I’m Ross...but you already knew that.” Ross chimed in, giving me a wave. My sister bit her lip.

“Nice to meet you guys.” I smiled, “I’m Gigi.”

“Gigi” The supposed ‘Halvo’ hummed, “What an exotic name. Are you French?”

“No, I just...” I tried to chose my words carefully, “I have a French-obsessed mother.”

“Very true.” Lola added.

John smiled. I couldn’t help but feel pleased with myself for amusing him.

“Aye, JohnO” Garrett was now standing, brushing off his pants, “We should go get our gear packed up. Pat’s gonna be here with the van in about twenty minutes.”

“Yeah, we have to go too actually.” Lola said, “Our mom is probably wondering where we are.”

“Alright” Kennedy answered, also standing up, “So we’ll see you guys later at the Ray?”

“Definitely!” Lola grinned while I nodded.

“Good. We take the stage around seven.” John was now looking at me again and I felt a sudden wave of anxiousness fall over me. He was so, so attractive, “It was nice meeting you.”

I started taking a couple of steps backward since my sister was already making her way across the street to our house, “Nice meeting you too.”

I smiled one last time before turning on my heel and quickly catching up with my sister.

Once we were safely inside the house, I looked at my sister in complete shock.

“Ross’s brother” I stated, now waving my arms in the air like a maniac “HELLO!!”

She laughed, “Hot, right? He’s twenty years old too, I believe”

“Oh ow, ow.” I clutched my chest dramatically, “My heart.”

Arizona, just got a little more interesting.