The Art of Life (48 page)

               
“Okay,” I whisper.
 

               
We walk out of my room, when we
suddenly hear, “Ugh, Jeremy, there is someone here.”

               
With a very quick speed, Jeremy
flies down the steps.
 
I hear my mom
yell, “Who in the hell are you!?
 
What
are you doing? I am going to call the police!”

               
“Mom,” I shout.
 
“Don’t!” I run down the steps.
 
“Leave them alone, they are my friends.”

               
“What do you think you are
doing!?” She snaps.

               
Jeremy gets in front of me and
seethes, “She is moving out and you will not speak to her.”

               
“She is my daughter!
 
You can’t tell me what to do!
 
She is in high school, she can’t move out.”

               
“Isabelle is 18,” Jeremy yells
harshly.
 
“She can do whatever she wants
and she is moving out.
 
And if I have my
way, you will not know where she is going.”

               
My mom crosses her arms.
 
“You aren’t moving out.
 
I will not permit it.
 
Don’t you think you are being a little
dramatic?”

               
“Dramatic!?”
Jeremy screams.
 
“Your daughter is
attacked in her bedroom, in her bed and you think she is being dramatic!?”
 
He steps aside and points at my throat.
 
“I don’t know about you, but that looks like
it probably hurt!
 
You dumb bitch!”

               
Narrowing her eyes, my mom
finally looks at me.
 
As soon as she sees
my throat, her hand goes over her mouth.
 
“Isabelle,” is all that she can say.

               
“You will not speak to her,”
Jeremy growls.
 
“Josh, take Isabelle
outside.
 
I will get the rest of her
stuff.”

               
Josh puts his arm around me and
ushers me outside.
 
My mom comes up
behind us.
 
“Isabelle, you can’t move
out.
 
I love you!
 
I am your mom!”

               
Turning around, I just scream,
“You don’t love me!
 
You don’t know what
love is!
 
Maybe you will realize what you
have lost when I am not around to take care of you anymore!”

               
That obviously pisses my mom
off.
 
She snarls, “Well, go move in with
a guy at the age of 18.
 
Don’t
come
running back to me when you are knocked up.”

               
“You are such a….” I yell,
leaping forward.
 
Josh grabs me and picks
me off the ground.
 
I try to squirm out
of his grip, because I really want to go punch my mom.
 
“Put me down!” I command.

               
“No,” Josh replies.
 
“I don’t need there to be bloodshed.”

               
Kicking and screaming, he drags
me to the car.
 
Kent opens the door and
Josh shoves me in.
 
I pout and glare at
him.
 
“Don’t give me that look,” Josh
demands.
 
“We are leaving before anything
else happens.”

               
“I really want to kick her,” I
snap.

               
“I know,” he laughs.
 
“And as much as I want to let that happen, I
need to make sure it doesn’t.”

               
Cassandra comes up next to the
car.
 
“Go, help Jeremy.”

               
Josh nods and leaves.
 
I look up at Cassandra.
 
“He’s a traitor.”

               
“No, he is just looking out for
you,” she replies.
 
“We all are.
 
You are one of us now, like it or not.”

               
Tears start to blur my
vision.
 
“I hate her, I really do.
 
What in the world did I ever do to deserve a
mom like that?”

               
More screaming is heard from the
porch.
 
I look out the window to see
Jeremy and my mom yelling at each other.
 
Kent and Josh load up the last of the boxes.
 
“Jeremy!” Kent yells.
 
“Come on!”

               
He glares at my mom one last
time, before coming to the car.
 
I watch
a little wide eyed.
 
Jeremy gets in the
car and slams the door.
 
He just stares
out the windshield, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.
 
“You are not coming back here.”

               
“I wasn’t planning on it,” I sigh.
 
Reaching over, I take one of his hands off
the steering wheel and pull it onto my lap.
 
“Thank you for defending me.”

               
Jeremy rubs his thumb on my
hand.
 
“I have to.”

               
“You have to?”

               
“No,” he whispers.
 
“I want to.”
 
Jeremy brings my hand up to his face and kisses it.
 
“Let’s get you home.
 
We have some serious unpacking and organizing
to do.”

               
I snort.
 
“We have to tackle the spare bedroom and get
your stuff out first.”
          

               
“Let me go in there first.
 
There is some stuff I need to take care of,”
Jeremy says really quietly.

               
Of course, I know what he is
talking about, the photo album. Wait, the girl in there, I wonder if that is
who he was in love with.
 
They seem so
young though.
 
Who is she, if not the
person he loved so much?
 
Hmmm, maybe I
will never know.
 

               
Carrying up the boxes is
tiring.
 
After all this, I need a
nap.
 
We pile everything up against the
dining room wall, to keep it out of the way.
 
Cassandra, Kent and Josh leave after a while.
 
Jeremy thinks I need some time to decompress.
 
I sit down on the couch and put my head
between my legs.

               
Jeremy comes over and sits down
next to me.
 
Rubbing my back, he says,
“Just breath.
 
It’s done with.
 
You don’t have to see her again if you don’t
want to.”

               
“She is my mom and the only family
I have,” I sigh.
 
“As
awful as she is.”

               
“Sometimes, friends are better
than family,” he replies, taking my hand.
 
“You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.”

               
I take a deep breath and look at
Jeremy.
 
“Can I ask you a question without
you getting mad?”

               
“Uh oh,” he laughs.
 
“Go ahead.”

               
“Do you have any family?”

               
There is silence as Jeremy looks
at me thoughtfully.
 
“One day, I promise
I will answer that question, but for now I will say that I can sympathize with
how you feel.”

               
 
“All I have ever wanted was a loving family,”
I mumble.
 
“I don’t think I will ever
have that.”

               
Squeezing my hand, Jeremy says,
“You will.
 
You will be a great and
loving mother and wife.
 
You will give
your entire heart to someone.
 
I just
know it.”

               
“I don’t want to end up being my
mother,” I whisper.
 
“I could never do
that.”

               
“Izzy, you are not going to
become an alcoholic.
 
I don’t think you
will ever touch alcohol, and if you do, it’s not going to be like that.
 
Plus, I won’t let you get there.”

               
That makes me feel a little
better.
 
I rest my head on his
shoulder.
 
“When do you want to tackle
that bedroom, because I don’t think you want to sleep on the couch much
longer?”

               
“I thought I could sleep in the
bed now,” Jeremy chuckles.

               
“Oh, one night we sleep next to
each other and suddenly we are sleeping in the same bed?” I ask, trying not to
laugh, too.
 
“Why clean out the other
bedroom then?
 
I mean, geez, I can just
put all my stuff in your room.”

               
Jeremy snickers and says, “No, I
don’t think we can put all of our stuff in one room.
 
Anyway, aren’t you a girl, don’t you need
private space to do all your girly stuff?”

               
“Girly stuff, what kind of girly
stuff
am
I supposed to do?”

               
“I don’t know.
 
I am a dude, why would I know that?” Jeremy
asks, looking at me with a smile.
 
“You
can have Cassandra over and you can giggle about boys on your bed.”

               
A snort comes out of me.
 
“We have better things to do than talk about
boys.
 
We aren’t 12.”

               
“Yeah, but you are going to have
to talk to someone about me.
 
I mean, you
already said how you love the way I smell.
 
Imagine what else you will find that you love about me.
 
Like, you may enjoy me walking around in my
boxers.”

               
I shove him away.
 
“You really think every girl wants you, don’t
you?”

               
He just grins.
 
“Oh come on, if I was a girl, I would be all
about me.
 
I am AWESOME!”

               
“Yes,” I sigh.
 
“You are so awesome, I don’t even know if I
can contain my impulses to jump you.”

               
“Jump me?
 
Wow, I didn’t realize the draw was so
big.
 
I may have to lock my bedroom door
at night.”

               
My eyes roll into the back of my
head and I groan.
 
“Jeremy I am not going
to come into your room uninvited.”

               
“Hey, I don’t care if you do,”
he says, pushing my hair behind my ear.
 
“If you need me, come in.”

               
“If I have nightmares again,” I
mumble sadly.

               
Jeremy runs his fingers through
my hair.
 
“Yeah, if you
ever need me.”

               
“Thanks.”

               
“Well,” he exhales.
 
“Let me go get a few boxes out of that room
and then we can get started.”

               
Nodding, I reply, “Okay.”
 
Jeremy stands up and I turn to watch him go
into the spare bedroom, or my bedroom.
 
I
am not surprised to see him carry out the box with the photo album.
 
I quickly look away, so it doesn’t seem like
I am watching him.
 
He goes back into the
room and retrieves a second box, this one smaller.
 
I am surprised to see a velvet jewelry box on
top.
 
That peaks my interest.
 
What would he be doing with jewelry?

               
When he comes back out of his
room, I look away and act like I was staring at the floor.
 
“Alright,” Jeremy says.
  
“Let’s get started.”

               
“Okay,” I exclaim.
 
Wow, Isabelle, that isn’t suspicious.
 
“What are we going to do with all this
stuff?”

               
“A lot of it is trash,” Jeremy
retorts.
 
“I will get some garbage bags.”

               
With a laugh, I say, “We should
tackle your room with a trash bag.”

               
“Whatever,” Jeremy drawls
out.
 
“We can clean my room next….I
guess.”

               
“Go, get what we need.
 
I will grab the vacuum.”

               
There is a lot of dust and I
sneeze for, I swear, fifteen minutes straight.
 
Jeremy tears down the boxes, as I clean.
 
A good two hours later, you can actually see the bed and floor.
 
“Hey, this is actually a really nice room,”
Jeremy says, putting his hands on his hips.
 
“Maybe I want this one instead.”

               
“Seriously?”
I snap.

               
“No,” he laughs.
 
“Man, you are gullible sometimes.”

               
I try not to smile.
 
“You are mean.
 
I am not gullible.”

               
“Really?
 
Are you sure about that?”

               
“Shut up,” I laugh.
 
“Naïve, not gullible.”

               
Jeremy shrugs, “You will learn
you can’t take me seriously.”

               
“I think I have figured that one
out already.
 
I mean, really, who could
take you seriously?”

               
With a devilish grin, Jeremy
grabs me and throws me on the bed.
 
I
scream and try to squirm out of his grip.
 
He just sits on me.
 
“You should
be nice when your best friend is so much stronger than you.”

               
“I will find your weakness one
of these days!” I yell, laughing.
 
“Anyway, we need to wash these sheets and stuff.
 
Who knows how long they have been sitting
underneath these boxes.”

               
Tapping his chin, Jeremy says,
“Well, since I moved in a year and a half ago.”

               
“Oh!” I exclaim.
 
“Gross!
 
Get off of me!
 
That is
disgusting.”

               
“
Wah
,
wah
,
wah
,” Jeremy retorts.
 
“
Ooo
, I am
Isabelle, I can’t touch dirt.
 
I will
shrivel up and die.”

               
I cross my arms.
 
“I can’t touch dirt, really?
 
What have I been doing for the last two
hours?
 
This place was filthy.”

               
“I never needed this room.
 
So, I piled junk in it.”

               
“Well, now it’s MY room.
 
No more piling anything in it,” I retort,
shoving him off of me.

               
“I won’t be doing anything to
YOUR room.
 
I won’t even come in here at
all,” Jeremy says, plopping down on the bed.
 
He puts his hands behind his head and just stares at me.

               
Rolling my eyes, I say, “You
don’t have to stay out of here.
 
If I can
come into your room, you can come in here.”

               
“Nope,” Jeremy retorts.
 
“You need your privacy.”

               
“What if you have nightmares?” I
giggle.

               
A sudden serious expression
passes over his face.
 
Jeremy whispers,
“Those stopped a year ago.”

               
“Well,” I say softly. “If YOU
ever need me, you know where I am.”

               
“Thanks,” Jeremy replies,
smiling.
 
“Who knows, I may take you up
on that someday.”

               
The sudden silence is
overwhelming.
 
We kind of just stay
still, staring at each other.
 
Finally, I
reach down and start to pull up the blanket.
 
“You need to get off, if we are going to wash this.
 
I bet you want to sleep in your own bed
tonight.”

               
“I don’t know.
 
It was nice sleeping with you on the couch.”

               
That makes the corner of my
mouth twitch up.
 
“Yes, well, I still bet
you miss your bed.”

               
“Yeah, I kind of do, though this
bed is pretty comfortable.
 
I mean the
combination of a warm body and a soft mattress makes for a big temptation.”

               
“Do I have to worry about you
crawling into my bed at night?” I ask, smirking.

               
Jeremy stands up and rips the
cover off.
 
“I don’t know.
 
I guess you will have to sleep with one eye
open.”

               
“Awesome,” I state sarcastically.

               
“Hey, remember you want to spray
my scent on your pillow.
 
What’s better
than having the real life thing next to you?”

               
 
I groan and say, “I don’t know.
 
I tend to wrap the blankets around me like a
cocoon.”

               
“Ah, an Isabelle
burrito, how cute.
 
Enough
repartee, let’s get your room ready.”

               
We do.
 
The sheets are actually really nice….once
they are clean.
 
Jeremy helps me hang my
clothes up in the closet.
 
When we open
the box with my underwear and stuff in it, Jeremy lifts up one of my bras from
the lingerie store.
 
“My, my, my
Isabelle, what have we here?”

               
“Give me that,” I snap, grabbing
it from him.