Skeletons

I walked into my house, gently closing the door behind me, “Hey honey, where have you been?” I heard my Mom’s soft voice coming from the sofa in front of me.

“I stayed a little extra at work today,” I slumped on the sofa next to her; she tore her eyes away from her Jane Austen novel.

“You’re just in time for dinner,” she crinkled her nose and placed the book on the pine coffee table in front of us, “How was it today?” she asked giving me a warm, motherly hug.

“It was okay, work was fine, a new guy started today,” I suddenly felt heat rise to my cheeks; I knew what my Mom was going to ask next.

“Is that the guy from school?” She grinned, I nodded my head mercilessly, “You need to stop with this front Lou.”

“What front?” I played along.

“Be nice to him, you won’t get anywhere being horrible to him, I tell you this all the time don’t I? ‘treat people how you want to be treated’.”

“I know,” I rolled my eyes; “It’s why I was nice to him today at work.”

“Good, keep it up yeah?” she raised her eyebrows and placing a small peck on my cheek, “Come on, Spaghetti’s ready, you set the table and I’ll go and get your sister,” We both stood from the sofa, I walked straight to the kitchen and my mom walked upstairs. I grabbed everything for the table-place mats, plates, knives and forks and set the table carefully according to where each of us sit.
I began to think, why do all boys seem to be attracted to Adrienne?
We’ve been best friends for 5 years, and she’s always been the same. I don’t even know why I hang out with her; she’s the complete opposite to me she has normal hair, wears normal clothes and applies normal makeup.
I’m just the freak of a best friend and I totally hate it.
She’s into Britney Spears, while I’m into White Zombie.
When we watch anything remotely scary, she’s the one with her face buried in a pillow and I’m the one refusing to avert my gaze.
When they say opposites attract, they were right.

“Louie!” I heard my toddler sister shout excitedly.

“Zoë! I missed you!” I said attacking her with kisses while she wriggled in my Mom’s arms, “You excited about seeing daddy tomorrow?” She nodded her head energetically.

“Oh, Louisa, I forgot to tell you to set an extra place, I’m doing someone’s hair tonight and I said they could stay for dinner,” My Mom said placing Zoë carefully in a chair. I heard the doorbell ring, “There they are now,” Mom winked.

I walked over to the door and opened it quickly, “Oh well about time MUFFIN!”

“Zacky!” I shouted out throwing my arms around his neck as violently as I could.

“Woman! You trying to kill me?!” he yelled jokingly.

“No I missed you,” I said pulling away from him. There’s a long story between Zack and I and no, we never dated.
Zack and I have been best friends since we met on our first day at school when we were 6, my Mom was still a kid herself, she was just 15 when she had me, so Zacky’s Mom always picked me up and looked after me until my mom finished work.
Then we started high school. Adrienne came into the picture. We became best friends too. Her brain’s always been manifested by boys, it’s all she seems to think about (still to this day too) and Adrienne being Adrienne had the biggest crush on Zacky but when he turned her down, she got jealous of our friendship and literally forced me to stop seeing him. It kind of worked but we’re trying to get things back like they used to be.

“Hey Zack, come sit down we’re having spaghetti,” Mom said cutting up Zoë’s pasta into smaller pieces. She gets into such a state when she eats spaghetti. He sat in the seat next to me, poking my side in the process, “Help yourself kids,” she sighed taking her seat next to Zoë.

“How’s school going then kids?” Mom asked before taking a bite of her salad.

“Fine,” Zack and I both shrugged.
“So Lou, how’s Mr Beefcake?” Zacky asked wiggling his eyebrows at me making Zoë giggle, giving us a flattering view of her half chewed dinner. I elbowed him in the chest and grabbed the plate of rolls.

“Zack, how did you want your hair sweetie?” Mom asked wiping all the sauce from Zoë’s mouth.

“I was thinking of having some purple in it.”

“Sounds good, Louisa, did you want your hair dyed?”

“Sure,” I shrugged already getting bored of my brown hair I had dyed just two weeks ago. Mom was a self employed hair dresser, she's been working her ass off for the past 5 years at my Aunt Lisa's restaurant to earn enough money to open her salon and pay the bills all at the same time. It's a struggle but it'll definitely be worth it and fingers crossed, it’ll be soon.
"How about green and black?" I asked my mom twirling my spaghetti around my fork.

"Should be fine, are you sure school won't mind though?" She raised her eyebrows.

"School have really given up on the whole looking presentable thing mom,"

"Oh no, I can see where this is ending up," She turned to Zacky.

"Can I get my lip pierced?" I asked.

"I let you get your nose pierced isn't that enough?" She asked. Sure my mom was still young herself, but she still didn't grasp the concept that teenagers like holes in their faces.

"Please?" I batted my eyelashes, "It'll go perfectly with my nose ring, plus I'm nearly 18," I smiled.

"Fine," She sighed, "I'm not paying for it and I'm not going with you. Eww," she shuddered. That was easy enough.

"Sure thing, Zacky can come with me tomorrow right?" I turned to him.

"Yep, I wanted a new piercing anyway," he nodded taking a bite out of his roll.

"Okay, your hair is totally done!" My mom said putting the finishing touches on Zacky's newly dyed purple hair.

"Wow, thanks," He grinned looking at the mirror, "How much do I owe you?"

"You know what? Nothing."

"Really?" Zacky asked in amazement.

"Well, I have a meeting on Monday evening, so I was just wondering, in return you could baby sit Zoë with Louisa," Mom smiled.

"Yep, sounds cool, hey Zoë, it looks like me, you and your sister get to have Disney night with lots of ice cream," her face lit up.

"Dude, we're cutting down on the ice cream, you remember what happened last time?" I reminded him. We babysat Zoë a couple of months ago and gave her a bowl of ice cream to shut her up. Instead, she was literally bouncing off of the walls because she was so hyper. Mom was not happy and needless to say, we were in deep trouble.

"Good thinking," Mom nodded, wiping her hands on the towel that she had just removed from Zack's shoulders, all of a sudden the phone started ringing making me jump out of my skin, "I'll get it," Mom told us as she walked into the living room.

"We gonna skip tomorrow?" Zack whispered, hoping my mom wouldn't hear us.

"No, we don't have school tomorrow, remember? It's the teacher consultation day," I reminded him. He grinned happily. I loved those days. An extra day added onto our weekend just so the teachers are told to do their jobs better. Well, or so I've heard from my dad. Shame it doesn't happen every week.

"Sorry Adrienne, last time I saw Louisa she was doing her homework, I can go check up on her though," I heard Mom's voice, I looked to Zack and my eyes widened, Mom walked back into the kitchen covering the bottom of the phone with the palm of her hand. Adrienne she mouthed, I violently shook my head.
"Sorry, she's totally knocked out, she's had a long day at work, I'm sure it could wait until tomorrow at school," my Mom rolled her eye's at Adrienne's constant blabbing, "No school then, well how about just call her tomorrow during the day? Alright then good night Adrienne," She hung up.
"My God, she never shuts up," she joked.

"What was all that about?" I asked.

"She has something 'super exciting' to tell you ," she rolled her eyes. I shrugged and turned to Zack.

"Yeah anyway, tomorrow is it okay if I invite a couple of people?" he shoved his face right in front of mine, showing off his sparkling green eyes.

"Who?" I asked raising my eyebrows, I knew he would invite Brian. They were inseparable regardless that Brian has Adrienne hanging off of him 24/7.

"Just a couple of friends that I want you to meet," he smiled.

"I guess I'll have to see Adrienne first to listen to her 'big news'," I rolled my eyes. Zack tilted his head back and uttered something totally incoherent under his breath, "Come on Zack, you love her really," I joked, he glared at me and tilted his head back again, "Oh and I have work at 3 tomorrow as well so we might have to leave early, you wanna stay over by the way?" I asked.

"Don't see why not," he shrugged.

"MOM!" I yelled so she would hear me from the living room.

"What?" She sighed walking through to where Zack and I were sitting.

"Can Zacky stay over tonight, please?" I asked.

"Sure, If it's okay with Carol," Mom smiled.

"I'll call my Mom," Zack sighed, Mom handed Zack a phone.

It was fun having my real best friend back.