Young Annabelle Series: Young Annabelle, the Truth About James, What My Heart Wants (20 page)

CHAPTER 1
5

THE TRUTH ABOUT JAMES

“Going to a party?” I repeated slowly, narrowing my eyes at Jenna.

She must have been ill, because there was no way she just asked me to go to Peter’s party with her tonight. I went to her and rested my palm against her forehead.

“I’m not sick Annabelle!” Her eyes widened underneath the edge of my hand.

I dropped my hand from her forehead. “You don’t feel warm.” I said in mock-concern, striding over to the window. I rested my chin on my fist, in a thinking stance as I peered out the window at the sun setting.

The conundrum.

“Are you serious?” Jenna asked in disbelief. “I’m not sick. I’m serious. Dead serious!”

I gazed back at her, tilting my head to the side.

“Are you speaking English right now?” I asked her slowly.

Her chin jerked forward. “You know very well what I’m saying. So stop pretending you don’t understand me. We are going to that party!”

“Okay, whatever you say.” I quickly told her, turning and crawling back on top of my bed.

Ohhh chips!
I reached for the half eaten chip bag. At least there was one good thing happening in this moment.

Yay for chips.

Before touching the bag, it was cruelly snatched away, causing the inwards to spill all across my floor.

“Hey!”

“These will not help you!” Jenna held up the now empty bag as I crawled off the bed in haste.

“There’s nothing in there anymore, it’s all over my floor! You’re cleaning that up!” I snapped at her.

She raised an eyebrow and flicked the empty chip bag into the air. It floated down, landing on top of my pillow.

My jaw dropped.

“That’s what I thought bitch!” Jenna exclaimed, flipping her long black hair to the side.

Did she just flick her hair at me?

She did not just flick her hair at me!

“Do you wanna go right now? Because we can totally go, right now!” I threatened, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Darling you couldn’t take me on your best day and if I seem to recall, today ain’t one of those kinds of days for you. Don’t push me.” Jenna stated, holding out her hand.

Talk to her hand?

Oh no, bitch did not just give me the hand!

“Who do you_”

“Don’t push me!” Jenna yelled over me.

“Push you _”

“Don’t push me Annabelle, I swear to God! I will beat your dramatic ass!” Jenna warned, pulling her hand back down.

She’d better lower that hand!

Taking a deep breath, I unfolded my arms. “I’m not going.”

“You’re going.” Jenna stated quietly.

“I’m not going.” I repeated, my jaw clenching in frustration.

“You. Are. Going!” Jenna stated slowly, then turned and headed toward my closet. “Now let’s see what you’ve got that’ll be good for the party?”

“Don’t you dare open my closet!” My feet remained still. “You do not have permission to open my closet, I forbid you!”

Jenna halted in front of my closed closet and flipped her hair over her shoulder, again.

Oh no she didn’t!

“That’s right, I did it again and I’ll do whatever I God damn well please, try and stop me, I dare you!” Jenna’s hands paused on top of the door knob. “Besides, I still owe you a beating for keeping a certain douchebag a secret for over a month, so in all actuality I’ll win both ways. Either, I open this closet or you come here and stop me and then I beat your ass for being a stupid idiot, and for keeping James a secret. You choose!”

I clenched my teeth tightly. Damn her!

I flipped on to my bed, hiding my head into my pillow. “Do whatever you want, I don’t care anymore!”

“First smart decision you’ve made in a while Annabelle, I’m proud of you!” I heard the closet doors snap open. “Now let’s see what you’ve got good enough to grace Peter’s party to with.”

“You’re going to be disappointed then. I’ve got nothing good enough for a party, so in all actuality, we should just snap the book closed on going to this party. I’ve got no party clothes, absolutely nothing!” I muttered loudly.

“Found something!” Jenna announced. My head snapped up in confused shocked.

“What!” I twisted my head to see what she’d found. Jenna pulled out a hanger from the end of the rack, a hip level shimmery black tank top. I didn’t know how she found that. I struggled to remember how it got into my closet in the first place.

“It still has a tag on it.” Jenna held up the tag in confusion. I thought back, sorting through memories of anything that held a shimmery black tank top.

Mom.

Last June, before the weight loss spectacle, adventure, quest, Mom came home from the mall with bags of clothing for the entire family. Among the purchases, she was considerate enough to buy her slightly overweight daughter something she could wear outside, like to a party.

“I know it’s only a medium, but the sales lady said the material stretches and after you lose weight this summer, I’m sure it’s just going to look fabulous on you!” Mom gushed
, last June.

I remembered her eyes got all dreamy as she gazed at the shimmery top. She popped open my closet without asking me and took out a hanger, hung the tank top on top of it and slid it on the rack in the back.

“Think of it as something to work towards Annabelle!” She gushed some more, then exited the room.

I didn’t think I’d said a word or moved one inch during her ‘positive’ reinforcement. I didn’t think I’d moved or said anything for a good five minutes even after she’d left - I was still thawing from the shock of what had just happened.

“Snap out of your flashback Annabelle!” Jenna snapped her fingers across my face. “I’m ripping off this tag!”

“What?” I muttered, slowly coming out of my fog - but it was too late, the tag was ripped off and thrown into the tiny brown garbage bin underneath my desk. “I’m not wearing that!”

“You’re so wearing it!” Jenna said back, holding the tank up into the air to examine it more thoroughly. “This is nice, you’ll look great in it!”

“I’m not wearing it, it’s too small anyways!” I snapped at her. “And I’m not going to that party, no way, no how!”

Jenna’s arms dropped with the party top in hand. “When is this going to stop Anna?”

I blinked a few times as my mouth all of a sudden felt dry. I didn’t understand what she was asking me, but strangely it stumped me anyways.

“When is what going to stop?” I answered confused. Jenna sighed loudly and plopped down on my bed, crossing her legs while she carefully placed the top flat across my bed.

“When are you going to look at yourself as a contender?” Jenna said as she looked up from the bed.

I looked away, all of a sudden uncomfortable with the line questioning. It had gotten really deep, and I wasn’t known to excel in expressing my feelings.

“A contender – what?” I pretended not to understand her, hoping she’d forget about wanting to know the answer and move on to other menial lines of questioning, like the stupid party.

Which I still was not going to go to. Why the hell would I want to go? Obviously I didn’t want to go and watch James canoodle with slut bag Donna while I stalked privately in the corner like a loser.

Jenna let out a breath and tilted her head to the side. “In life Anna, let me tell you something, there are things that you’re going to want, really want and when we want such things bad enough, we do things that are out of our comforts. Like lets say for instance, you – you want the L.U.V thing.”

I let out a disgusted hiss, in disbelief that she went
there
. “Stop – just stop – you’re speaking in code, it’s annoying and it’s not L.U.V it’s L.O.V.E”

Jenna shook her head slowly. She thought I didn’t understand her logic. “Well since you so politely mentioned it – yes, I think it’s time I went all philosophical on your dumbass.”

“Dude! I will totally hit you if you start, so don’t even_” I began to say but Jenna sat down abruptly beside me and grabbed my shoulders, pushing them so that I’d face her completely.

“Life – is a long – long road, that shiny gold star that marks growth and acceptance is patiently waiting along the way – you just need to find your way to it.” Jenna finished the gibberish with a look of contentment.

I needed to tell her that whatever she just said made…..absolutely no sense. For the good of mankind and the entire world, maybe even the galaxy, I thought I should tell her to never – ever speak that shit again.

Ever.

“Jesus Christ!” I hissed, looking away immediately.

“Do you have it, Anna?” Jenna got off the bed and stood in front of me with her arms folded across her chest. “Do you?”

I looked up with a combination of irritation and impatience on my face. “Do I have what? What are you talking about?”

“Have what it takes to make that journey?” Jenna answered breathily.

I just stared at her. I struggled to answer because it would mean searching through my psyche for the truth about how I really felt, and I didn’t want to be more down on myself than I already was.

“Why don’t you just answer that for me since you seem to
think
you know me so well!” I told her, as a matter of factly.

“Bitch, I think you got it in you. All you need is to stop caring about what everyone thinks, especially whore-bags and assholes.” Jenna said. 

I looked back to the floor, her words sinking inside me. I wished they didn’t affect me, but they did, and I felt my mind slowly sway towards actually going to this party.

I looked back up at her.

She stood with her hands to her hips, awaiting my reply, be it nasty or finally in agreement.

“What about my hair? I’ve got so much it takes forever to style.”  I held out a few strands to show her.

Jenna dropped her arms and her stance returned to relaxed. I’d conceded, so her work was done–well, for now at least.

“Leave the hair to moi!” Jenna said happily. 

*~*~*

Leave the hair to moi! She said!

I remembered those words, and I couldn’t believe I trusted them. Thirty minutes later, Jenna finally sprayed the last inch of hair of my now extremely perfect high ponytail. The skin around my face felt stretched as if I’d just had a facelift.

It hurt, bad. I was annoyed that I let her do this to me.

“What now?” Jenna said as she caught a glance of my irritated expression.

“Are you done now?” I scowled at her, jerking my head back from her retreating evil fingertips that not so long ago were tugging at my poor roots. “It’s been torture, pure torture!”

“Shut it!” Jenna scowled back and placed the hair spray can on my desk. “You should be thanking me. I’ve taken you to another level – just wait, you’re going to see when all the guys ogle you at Peter’s later. I’m going to have to act like your bodyguard to keep the boys away.”

“Dare to dream. That’s not going to happen!” I went to the mirror next to my closet to examine her efforts.

It wasn’t bad, in fact, it was really good. My long dark brown hair was combed back tightly into a high ponytail, showcasing my cheekbones and the rich caramel of my eyes.

“Not bad right?” Jenna smirked from behind. “I know, I know. I’m the master. It’s alright we’re alone here – you can admit it!”

I turned to face her, starting to chuckle. “I’m not calling you a master!”

“Whatever, I can see it in your eyes.” Jenna rolled her eyes. “But you see, a little fix here, a little fix there and wow, you’re a superstar Anna.”

“Whatever.” I looked to the floor, but then looked back up to her when I remembered a little something we should have been thinking of from the beginning. “What about my parents? You know how nosy they are, how am I going to tell them I’m going to a party?”

In the middle of fixing her own hair, Jenna’s eyes met mine through the mirror. “Your parents aren’t even home. I kind of forgot to tell you. In fact nobody’s home.”

“Nobody’s home?” My eyes widened. “How?”

“I came over right when they were about to leave, told me they heard you snoring and didn’t want to disturb you but when you woke to tell you that your parents were going to a party at a friend’s house, and Charles and Katherine were going over to their friend’s house for sleepovers. Fun.”

“They were going to leave me alone and not tell me until I woke up to an empty house!” I blubbered in shock, leaning back down onto my bed and stared at my beloved ceiling.

“Get off the bed!” Jenna snapped angrily. “You’re ruining all my hard work!”

She marched right over and hauled me up by my shoulders. “Eyes wide open. It’s makeup time.”

“My family doesn’t give a shit about me.” I moaned. “I’m an afterthought, I’m an inconvenience, that’s all.”

“Shut up.” Jenna murmured. “Don’t talk like that about yourself. Just because you don’t have a life doesn’t mean the rest of your family can’t.”