Like a Million Lights

The rest of the day were spent by Tanner and I, lounging on the couches in the living room and watched all of our favorite movies together. It was like the old times when we usually spend our Sundays like this. I was leaning back onto the hand rest with my legs rested on Tanner’s lap as we watched Little Mermaid. The front door opened and mom’s voice was heard from the foyer until she appeared in the doorway of the living room.

“Hey you two.”, she smiled and placed her keys on the small table next to the couch. “What did you do today?”

Tanner shrugged his shoulder. “Nothing, just staying inside all day.”

“Well, I’m going to prepare for dinner. You two should wash up as I could see you still have your PJs on.”, she eyed Tanner before walking towards the kitchen.

I sighed and sat up, pulling my legs from my brother’s lap. “I’m going to take a shower.”, I muttered but before I stood up, Tanner caught me by my wrist.

“Are you sure you’re gonna be fine, Rissy?”, he asked, sounding concern.

“My life is somewhat a shit hole, so what could get worse than this?”, I retorted sarcastically before standing up and rushing towards my room.

The whole thing that happened this morning was in a constant loop in my mind, like the universe didn’t want me to forget that Joel were with Danielle now and how he didn’t wait for me to get better. I knew that I hurt him like hell, but it didn’t mean he could flirted with my now ex best friend in front of my eyes.

When I was done with the shower and changed, I heard the front door bell rang. Tanner was in his own shower and mom was busy in the kitchen, so I rushed down to the door with water droplets dripped down from my hair. I turned the knob around and opened it, revealing the sleepless Joel.

“Whoa, not expecting this.”, he muttered when he saw me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Who do you expected to get the door? Danielle?”

His eyes widened and his brows cocked up. “W-Why did you even say that?”

“Look Joel, I know you hate me to the core or whatever, but you seriously didn’t need to flirt with my whore of a friend in front of my eyes.”

“Wait, so it was you at the diner?”, he sounded surprise. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arm. “It was you?”

“No shit, Sherlock.”, I spat. “Now, what do you want? Or I would close this door on your face in 5 seconds.”

“I need to see Tanner. We’re going over some dates.”

“Oh, I don’t know that you and my brother are now going out.”, I smiled sinisterly. Joel scoffed before pushing his way aside me and walked up the stairs, not forgetting to call a hi to my mom on his way.

I closed the front door and decided to help mom at the kitchen. When I walked in, she was placing the pasta on the bowl. “Hey mom, anything I can help with?”

“You were late, honey.”, she chuckled and moved the bowl of pasta to the middle of the island. “But could you arrange the garlic bread on the plate?”

I nodded and quickly did what she told me to. We stayed quiet for a moment and it was weird because usually we never stayed quiet to each other. I was very open to her and we were close, but it was before I fell into that hole. “So, Joel’s here?”, she started.

“Yeah.”, I muttered. “Unfortunately.”

“Mariza, you two used to be so in love.”, she added as she added some olive oil into the salad. I looked up to her from the garlic breads and our eyes met. “What happened?”

“Let’s just say the night before I went away, something happened.”, I sighed and looked down again. Her eyes were too intense.

“Your love used to be so big, so bright and well, like other young love. It shouldn’t be passed out just like that.”, she mused.

I bit my lower lip in attempt to not scream at my mom. She probably got my bad vibe so she done the salad and patted my hand. “Just be careful, honey. I just want you to be happy.”

“Thank you.”, I smiled a little before excusing myself out. There was chatter when I walked up the stairs and Tanner had his door opened again. I walked by and saw him and Joel was discussing something in front of his computer, but stopped when they noticed my presence.

I quickly walked off and continued my way to my room. I closed the door behind me when I got in and saw that my computer screen lit up, with a notification of a new e-mail. My inbox was so full that I never even bothered to check it but I had a feeling that I should check this one. I sat down on the computer chair and moved the mouse like I was in a race. Half a minute later, I was already reading the e-mail. It was a forwarded e-mail from my friend who lived outside the state and she didn’t know what happened to me, so I think she still wanted to be my friend.

My eyes scanned the words and widened when I realized what e-mail it was. A smile twisted on my lips because I just found what I needed. What I could do to turn my life around.