I should start with the simple facts about myself. My name is Cynthia, I just turned eighteen, the day before my high school graduation as a matter of fact. My father left our family ten years ago, something that my mother can never forget. My mom is wonderful, but lately has been distracted with carrying on a full time job. I have a brother, John, who is ten months older than me.
John and I have always been close, well, not always... It was really just since dad had left. John had become my brother and my best friend, and in many ways my dad. I enjoyed the company of my big brother when our mom was out. Which happened to be most of the time. She had gone from housewife to single working mom and wasn't around much anymore. We were close to her though. We had to be. It wouldn't have been right for John and I to have been bratty teenagers to her, not when she was working so hard for us.
--
I woke early on Saturday morning. John and I were both pretty strung-out with finals week having just finished at school. And mom was, well, to be honest I rarely know how she really felt. She had been working late the previous night and was probably still asleep. I probably should have been asleep still too. It was seven-oh-clock on a Saturday morning for heaven's sake.
Still, I was up and wasn't going to be getting anymore sleep for the time being. I blearily walked downstairs to the kitchen and reached for a water glass. I leaned against the sink and looked into our backyard that was being gradually filled with light. I loved our back yard in the morning, the sun always made the grass look particularly green. The day promised to be warm, but it still looked like it was chilly in the morning sun.
I searched around the cupboards for a suitable breakfast and found that I was running dangerously low on Lucky Charms. "Get mine out too," said John who and trudged into the kitchen wearing his pajama pants and rubbing sleep from his eyes.
I complied and tossed him his box of Coco Puffs. "What are you doing up so early?" I asked. I pulled the bowls and milk out and set it on the counter.
"I gave up the idea of more sleep when you went thundering past my room and down the stairs," he complained, pouring himself his breakfast.
"I was not thundering!" I said indignantly.
"Call it what you like. It was loud."
"You can sleep through anything," I defended myself.
"I crashed when I got home from school yesterday, so I think I was pretty ready to be awake."
"You're such a loser. What self respecting nineteen year old boy goes to bed at four-oh-clock on a Friday night?"
"You're one to be talking about being a loser. You did nothing last night, just sat around by yourself. You should get yourself some friends."
"I have plenty of friends, thank you very much," I said huffily.
"Why don't you have a boyfriend, Cyn?" he asked.
I shrugged. I hadn't gone out with a boy since my freshman year. Maybe he was right and I was a loser. I guess I had just been a bit stressed out with school and mom, I hadn't thought much about boys. Okay, I actually had thought about them, quite a lot, but not actually done anything about going to get one. I found out pretty quickly that most guys my age weren't interested in romance and I wasn't really sure if I was just interested in sex. Well...I was very interested in sex; I just wasn't sure who with. "Guess I just haven't found one yet," I mumbled.
"I think they have found you though," he pointed out mischievously. "Come on, what about Alex? I think he's into you."
"He has a girlfriend."
"Pierson?"
"I'm too smart for him."
"Jonathan?"
"God John, don't you think it would be a little bit awkward to go out with someone with the same name as my brother?" I said exasperatedly. He shrugged. "Why is it such a big deal anyway?"
"You should get out more, that's all. 'Sides, you not bad looking, it wouldn't take much work to find a guy."
"What a compliment," I said sarcastically, "Well, I'm glad I'm not bad looking."
"Okay little sis, you're really pretty. Is that better?"
I brushed away the compliment shyly. "You're one to be talking. Why don't you have a girlfriend then?" I shot back.
"I have my hands full with my two lovely ladies at home; I doubt I could handle another one."
"Because mom and I are so much work," I said sarcastically.
"You're not and that's the best part. I get stuck with women who need me and they don't need a thing in return," he laughed, smacking me on the butt on his way to the dishwasher.
"You think you're such a lady-killer..."
"Because I know I am!" he said, grinning deviously as he left the room.
I shook my head exasperatedly. Good-looking men were always such bastards. Okay, my brother wasn't a bastard, not really. Actually, if more guys were like him I'm pretty sure there would be a lot less women like mom. Yes, dad was a bastard in my opinion, but I don't think mom had made the best choices either. I don't think getting pregnant when she was nineteen was such a good idea, but that was none of my business.
I went back upstairs and looked for something to wear. It was a Saturday morning, why was I even looking at clothes? I went to take a shower. I would decide what to wear when I was done.
Once I was thoroughly refreshed and clean I went back to my room. I put my underclothes on and found a shirt that would be suitable. John burst into my room. Okay, he didn't really 'burst', he actually just walked in. The thing was that at standing at six foot two, he just kind of took up space.
"God John, what's your problem? Ever heard of knocking?" I said, frustrated by his intrusion. At least I was wearing a shirt and panties but it still made nervous.
I didn't have body issues or anything like that. I actually was pretty satisfied with how I looked. I was about five six, slim but not anorexic. Unlike most California girls my age I wasn't eager for a boob or nose job. I was a happy 30C and wasn't interested in having back problems because I wanted plastic DDs or whatever the attraction was. More importantly, I didn't feel the need to have superficial men, like dad, attracted to me because I had big boobs.
"Yes, I have heard of knocking but I naturally assumed that you were decent because your door was a jar," he said defensively.
I shifted and reached for my shorts. "So what do you want?" I demanded.
"Oh, I was just going to tell you that I going to take you to a movie this afternoon and on our way home we are picking up a pizza," he said, "And I'm not asking you. I'm just telling you ahead of time."
"Okay. I agree to my kidnapping," I said. There were worse things in life than being forced to go to a movie with your brother. "Now get out." I pushed him to the door.
I was grateful for the relaxing day. It promised to be a decent weekend too. The teachers had spared us weekend homework after finals and the next week of school promised to just be movie watching and yearbook signing before graduation. I relaxed and basked in the sun until it was time to see the movie.
