"You're burnin' bridges baby, Burnin' bridges, making wishes..." -- Boys Like Girls 'Heels Over Head'
9
She wasn't surprised to find her sisters sitting on the couch in their pajamas, trying to act nonchalant with the television turned so low it was practically mute. She rolled her eyes as she attempted to make her way through the living room, only to be stopped when her sisters decided they wanted to talk to her.
"What? Are you not going to tell us how your day was?" Janie asked sarcastically.
"I didn't think I had to. Besides, when have either of you ever been interested in anything of mine?"
"You are such a spoiled little brat!" Ellie cried. "I can't believe mom just lets you run around like you do."
"Excuse me?"
"Thats right, I said it. Mom is irresponsible and an idiot for letting you take the boat out today. You could have hurt someone!" Ellie's voice was so calm and seemed rational, but the way she said it had so much emotion that it felt like a whip tearing your skin apart.
Tessa scoffed. "You have no idea what its like to be mom! She's been through hell and back and you two don't give a rat's a**. She would do anything for the four of us and here you two are acting like a couple of ungrateful turds."
"Three," Janie corrected her.
"What?" She hadn't even noticed she said four.
"You said four, and there's three of us. Unless you've forgotten how your selfishness killed our family." Janie told her again and she fought back tears as she turned to walk away. She wasn't about to let her sisters see her cry. She knew she had stood up to them as much as she could without hurting either of them, so she let it be.
She heard her sisters giggling like idiots as they returned to their respective bedrooms and threw the first object she could find against the wall. It just happened to be a photo album with tons of loose photos just waiting to be placed in their proper spaces. Pictures went everywhere, but she couldn't clean them up. Not right now. She needed to get out of the house.
She stopped in the kitchen first to grab a bottle of water, and as she began to leave, she came face to face with her mom.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" She was the only one her mom called sweetie anymore.
She shook her head and smiled at the nickname. "Nothing. I just need to go to Wal-Mart."
"Oh, ok." Her mom smiled innocently. She didn't show any signs of hearing her daughters' previous argument. "Be safe."
She gave her mother a hug before heading outside to her car, where she wept the whole way to the store.
- - - -
Wal-Mart was practically empty and only three registers were open in the whole store. She had been down almost every aisle, and now held a blue sundress, a bottle of red fingernail polish, and the latest edition of People. She was still in the magazine section, looking for another magazine to keep her attention for more than five seconds.
"You've been crying," that deep voice. He was the only person who could creep up on her and not scare the life out of her.
"You're supposed to be in Florida still," she said as she turned to him and her green eyes met his hazel ones.
"Tim broke his leg on the beach so we had to come home early." He chuckled at the thought of whatever caused his younger brother to break his leg.
"I bought you something," he smiled. "But its at the house."
"You shouldn't have done that," she laughed and he shrugged.
"Anything for my girl." She had absentmindedly grabbed another magazine and had begun making her way to a register. "You know, the two of us have got to find a new way to work out our stress. We'll be bankrupt if we keep this up."
She hadn't even noticed that he was holding three cds. She laughed as she thought about how to two of them had made so many late night trips to this place when things at home were bothering them.
"So what's up with you?" he asked when they reached their cars, which were parked next to each other.
She wasn't sure if she wanted to tell him the whole thing about taking the boat and Teddy out to the lake. She shrugged, "Ellie and Janie are just being...." She tried to search for a better word than b*tches, but couldn't find one, "Ellie and Janie."
He made a face which said that he not only understood, but would hate to be in her shoes at the moment.
"What's bothering you?" She asked him, so that she could avoid talking about Teddy.
He shrugged and made a face. "Jenna... She's been acting really odd lately and I'm not sure how to take it."
"What, you think she's cheating?" Tessa asked and when she saw his face she laughed. "She'd be an idiot to cheat on you. You're the most romantic, charming, chivalrous guy I know. Anyone would be lucky to have you."
He smiled shyly, "Thanks Tess." Had he always left the 'a' off her name? "I should probably get home before Tim decides to be an even bigger brat and tell on me."
"You're twenty-one. What are they gonna do? Ground you?" They both laughed at this before saying their goodbyes.
- - - -
After sleeping well past noon the next morning, she jumped out of bed in a hurry to get ready for work. When she was showered and fully dressed, she went through a mental checklist of everything she would need for the day before heading downstairs, only to find her mom and two sisters sitting on the couches, intervention-style.
"Tessa, sweetie, your sisters have brought up a good point this morning," her mom spoke, "I probably shouldn't have let you take the boat out like that. Anything could have happened and I can't lose another baby."
"Mom, I'm fine." She said. "It probably won't happen again anyway. I was just bored and Teddy came by and I haven't been to the lake in a long time so I wanted to go."
"Ok. But I just want to be clear, ok?" She nodded and gave her mom a hug.
"I'm going to work now, ok?" Tessa said, which was more directed at her sisters than her mom.
"Ok sweetie. Love you."
"Love you too,
mom. Bye." She let the screen door slam behind her as she left the house. Her sisters may not have been her mother's favorite, but they sure had a way of manipulating her.
- - - -
She was stocking the pet shampoo aisle when he came in. He found her quickly and propped himself on his elbows next to her.
"So I'm thinking about getting a puppy, but I want to know what the best flea shamppo is first," he tried to act serious as he asked her but because she was trying not to laugh, he was having a hard time keeping a straight face.
"Well, first off, if you're going to adopt a puppy, you should wait another week," she gave a look at him. "My golden retriever is about to have puppies."
"Ok. And the shampoo?"
"Well, thats a tough one. Some shampoos work for one dog and some don't. It just takes some experimenting."
"Experimenting, huh?" He asked flirtily and she felt her cheeks blushing.
"Which means you'll be in here a lot."
"Well, I can't say thats a bad thing," he joked and she snorted from trying to hold back her laughter.
"So what are you really in here for Ted?" She laughed.
"Well, I came to ask you if maybe... You would like to go out to dinner with me sometime."
"Oh yeah? And what if I'm not hungry?" She joked.
"Everyone has to eat eventually," she didn't realize how close he was to her until this very moment. She could reach out and touch his hair or pinch his cheeks or even kiss him.
The bell over the door rang as someone burst through the door. "Tess, you have to come outside and see this! Tim-" Marshall had been about to burst with excitement, and then he saw Teddy and he forgot what he was saying. "Hi."
"Hi, I'm Teddy."
"Marshall." He shook Teddy's hand. "Tess, you know him?"
"Yeah, I mean, sorta, like, in an unofficial, I don't know his last name sort of way," she was having trouble finding words. "I mean, he comes in a lot and we talk sometimes."
She knew she had just dug herself a hole she would have trouble getting out of.
Great Tessa, just great."Anyway. Nevermind, Tess. Its over now, but we got it on video if you want to see it later. Just let me know," Marshall said as he waved and left the store.
She turned back to Teddy, who was now wearing an indifferent look on his face, which kind of scared her. "So you were asking me to dinner?" She tried to get back to their conversation.
"Yeah, but forget about it now." He said as he shook his head.
"Wait. What?"
"Tess. You just said you practically didn't know me. You took me to the lake yesterday and last time I remembered, people didn't take strangers to the lake." He was trying to contain his anger, and was doing a good job of it, except for the emotion in them.
"Ted, I really don't even know you're last name. I don't know your favorite color, your favorite band, or sport, or car, or whatever."
"You don't have to know all that about someone to really know them." He told her and she rolled her eyes. "Don't believe me, huh?"
She just kept looking at him. She wasn't sure how to talk to him at the moment.
"I know more about you than you notice about yourself, Tess. Call me when you feel like knowing me," he said calmly as he walked out of the store.
"This is not going to be a good day," she mumbled to herself as she angrily sat the remaining bottles of shampoo back onto the shelf.
She wished she could go back and stop burning bridges between herself and the ones she loved... or wanted to get close to. Was it even possible for someone to change the way they had been for years?
