Keep Me Guessing

I woke up Saturday morning earlier than normal, at seven, thinking that I would call my parents in a few hours. I got ready for the day and was eating a bowl of cereal when my uncle came downstairs. He smiled at me and ruffled my hair, getting a glare that could have melted ice in return. His booming laugh filled the room and I couldn't help but smile, my uncle was always so jolly and kind, I have only seen him get seriously angry twice during the whole time I have been here. Once when Jack broke an expensive vase and then again when he tripped over Jack's backpack, slamming his head into a wall.

"You're up early, uncle Dan." I remarked.

"I guess I am, it is only eight…" he trailed off. "Oh well, now I get to spend some time with my favorite seventeen year old niece."

"I'm your only seventeen year old niece."

"See, then of course you're going to be my favorite!"

"Uncle Dan, you are a loser sometimes."

"Well look at Jack, dear…" he laughed.

"Jack is my favorite cousin though!"

"I'm sure of it. So what are you up to today sweetie?"

"I'm going to spend some time with Alex today." I said. "Just me and my best friend."

"Isn't that Cheyenne?"

"Well, yeah, but Alex is my best friend from Maryland. Cheyenne is my best friend anywhere. Anyways, uncle Dan, I wanted to call my parents, so I'm going to go do that?"

"It's six over there honey."

"I guess I'll have to wait an extra hour or so then, won't I?"

"You will." He said. "You can always watch the tube with your uncle."

"Maybe I will."

I put my dishes into the sink and followed my uncle out into the living room where he turned the TV onto the movie, Men In Black. Halfway through it, I excused myself, wanting to call my parents before they went out somewhere for the day, leaving my uncle on the couch with aunt Michelle. Jack and Cheyenne were still sleeping at eleven in the morning, the lazy bums.

"Hey Addie," My mom chirped, picking up the phone. "What's going on in Maryland?"

"Not much, I am keeping my grades up, and Zack and I are still together."

"That's great," my mom said. I heard some muffling and then my dad got on the line as well.

"What are your plans for the day Addison?"

"Oh, I'm going to hang out with Alex for awhile. We haven't had much time to spend in awhile so we're taking a day."

"That's nice sweetheart," my mom said. "Listen, we love you and all, but we were actually just heading out the door."

"Oh, that's cool, is Faye home?"

"No, she spent the night at Kylie's."

"That's fine, I guess I'll just call Alex then. Bye. Love you!"

I hung up the phone and glanced at the clock, 11:19AM, there's no chance that Alex would even consider answering his phone at this time. Groaning I lied down on my bed and took a notebook from my shelf, beginning to doodle all over the cover of it. There is only so much time you can spend doodling on a notebook, especially if you have no artistic abilities. My phone began to ring, and I opened it, desperate for a distraction.

"Hello, Addison Sophia's whorehouse how may we of pleasure to you today?"

"Yeah, hi, I need Addison Sophia herself today."

"Around what time will you be needing the main whore?"

"I was thinking about two, I'll pick her up."

"She'll be ready."

"Thank you."

"Good bye."

I laughed, once in awhile, I would answer my phone like that, I loved getting different reactions from it. Once my dad had been calling me when I answered like that, let's just say that was more than slightly awkward and I didn't have my phone for a week. It was noon, two hours to kill before Alex came to get me. I was walking downstairs when suddenly, I was grabbed hold of and drug away quickly. When I regained my balance and my brain activity, I realized that it had been Cheyenne who had drug me away like this.

"I cheated on Alex." She said quickly. The words danced around my head, my first reaction was to reach out and slap her; that's what I did, leaving a red print on her cheek. "What the fuck?"

"How could you do that to him Chey?" I screamed. "God he's the first guy to ever let you be more than a fuck to them since we were twelve!"

"I know." She whispered. "But I can't fucking help it, okay? He's too good for me, you know! Everybody is! I am just a fucking whore!"

"Yeah," I said coldly. "You are."

"Goddamnit Addison! Can't you fucking be on my side for just one fucking time?"

"You cheated on my best friend Cheyenne! You're like my sister, yeah, my best friend forever, but before you got here he was my best friend too Chey, and you are playing with his heart! How the fuck am I supposed to be on your side when you're doing this to him?"

"God, I don't even know why I told you! You're such a shitty friend to me."

"I'm a shitty friend?" I asked, appaled. My voice dropped to a deadly low tone. "Yeah Cheyenne, I'm a shitty friend who picked you up countless times from parties where you called me wasted. I'm a shitty friend who drove you to the clinic twice so you could get an abortion. I'm a shitty friend who waited with you at the doctor's when you heard you might have gotten an STD. I am the shitty friend who was there for you when you had to get your stomach pumped and who helped you out countless times when you were going to fail so many classes. I am a shitty friend."

The look on her face was one that I had never once seen on her face before. Guilt. Regret. Tears were streaming down her face and I could feel them running down mine. I turned and walked out of her room, ignoring the looks that I was getting from my aunt and uncle and heading straight for my room.

There was still time to endure until Alex would get here. My stomach dropped. Alex. I was going to hang out with him today, how was I supposed to hide this from him? Possibilities weaved in and out of my head, all getting discarded. I could tell him, but I didn't think I should be the one to. I could not tell him, but I would feel like a bad friend for knowing and not saying a word about it. I also remembered that he had a problem and was going to tell me today, I just hoped to God it was much simpler than what I was dealing with right now.

There was a knock at my door. I was surprised at who it was. "What?"

"Alex is at the door for you." I nodded coldly and started downstairs. "Wait!"

"What?"

"Don't tell him."

"I won't." I looked at her and saw that she had lost all traces that would have shown she had been crying and hoped I had done the same. "Hey Alex!"

"Hey Addie," he smiled at me. "Let's blow this popsicle stand."

"For seriously."

We drove off, laughing, and singing along with the radio the whole way to the cliff. True to my word I made to him during the summer when I had first came here, I hadn't told anyone about this place. He pulled up in almost the same spot he had parked that first time and hopped out, with me trailing behind him. We sat down side by side, looking out at the city below us, unknowingly to everybody.

"Alex, you had wanted to tell me something?"

"Oh, yeah," he looked off at the city, his eyes, most likely his mind, were distant.

"Well, what is it? Maybe I can help?"

"Maybe," he looked towards me. "I cheated on Cheyenne."

"You did what?" I nearly choked on air.

"It was a mistake," he said sadly. "But I don't regret it."

"I like Cheyenne, I really do, but there's no spark anymore."

"Oh," I looked away, biting my tongue, hoping he wouldn't notice. "Do you know what you're going to do?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Talk to her maybe."

"I might." He was quiet, as was I. "Okay, seriously, we have to do something fun now. This is Alex and Addie's fun day just together, we can’t just here and think or be sad or anything."

"I agree with you Mr. Gaskarth. Whatever shall we do today?"

"I think that we should go to the mall. Buy snow cones, eat said snow cones."

"I think that we need to do more than just that! Why don't we go to the CD store, fool around, and convince everybody to buy Britney Spears CDs?"

"Now that, is an extremely excellent idea my dear!"

The two of us grasped hands and skipped into the mall once we got there, earning large amounts of incongruous looks from a variety of age groups. Grandparent age, parent age, teenagers, and little children, each one eyed us bizarrely, perhaps wondering if we were going to harm them in any way. Even if we wanted to, the way they were thinking we would hurt them was most certainly not how we would go about hurting them. The clerk in the music store was eyeing us suspiciously, and I laughed, pointing it out to Alex. Today has just been put on the list of "weirdest excursion". This day had indeed been odd.