I'm comfortably lying on my bed, face down with my legs bent in the air, and I have no idea what to do.
Today I was only supposed to work in the morning, and now I’m just bored.
My parents have come in at least twice each, saying that instead of lying around doing nothing, I could do my homework. It goes without saying that I laughed every time.
I decide to text Carly since, now that I think about it, it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other. Apparently, I’ve been too caught up with the Reid family.
I try to video call her, but she doesn’t answer, and after about thirty seconds, I hang up. I try several more times, but she never picks up.
How strange; Carly is usually glued to her phone.
Then I check the time and realize it’s the middle of the afternoon, and it’s summer.
Carly is probably sleeping.
I look around for something to do, and my gaze lands on the computer.
If this
I stretch out on the table to grab the bottle of wine and fill my glass, then down the contents in one go.I can’t go on without alcohol.This dinner has gone downhill.Paul and my dad are talking about soccer, or basketball, or football; I’m not quite sure which sport they’re discussing, and they’re practically shouting.Julie and my mom are talking about cooking, and my mom is bragging about how good she is at making apple pie, the very pie that I made.Skyler couldn’t come because she’s sick, and Connor is at a friend’s house.James hasn’t put his phone down for even two seconds, and I’m deeply bored.At one moment when we were all distracted, Aisha grabbed Paul’s beer bottle and took a sip, and I think she got drunk because she started laughing nonstop, so Julie made her drink some water and managed to get her to fall asleep.But can kids get drunk?Maybe she&
«Ho un'idea!» esclama James, alzandosi a sedere di scatto sul mio letto.Alzo la testa dal cuscino. «E sarebbe?»Mette una mano sul mio braccio e inizia a scuotermi come una pignatta. «Organizziamo un pizza party!» urla.Stacco la sua mano dal mio braccio e gli lancio un'occhiata assassina. «Smettila di scuotermi, non sono una pignatta.»«Scusa» farfuglia. «Comunque», riprende a parlare, «organizziamo un fantastico pizza party. Io, tu, Connor e Sky» propone. «Tu che ne pensi?» mi chiede.Faccio finta di pensarci su, anche se so già la risposta, e poi mi alzo d
"She can't die. If only she hadn't acted so rich and had eaten less, they would both have been on that piece of wood." Sobbing.James looks at me in shock. "You can't be serious! She's not fat; you're just saying that because the guy is hot," he retorts.I glare at him. "Regardless of how beautiful young Leonardo DiCaprio is, that piece of wood from the ship was big enough for both of them, and not just Rose, so Jack could have been saved."James scoffs. "If Jack had climbed on, the piece of wood would have sunk, and they would both have drowned. It's better that only Jack died, rather than both of them."I open my mouth, deeply shocked by what he said, and I throw a cushion right in his face. "Do you want to see how I drown you, huh? Jack didn’t deserve to die! Hot or not!" I sob loudly.Carly turns to me, and I see that her mascara is running under her eyes from crying. "You're right, Bry, Jack didn't deserve to die. Rose was cruel
JAMESI feel something violently hit my ribs, and my breath catches in my throat.I moan in pain and turn to the other side, but it doesn’t help, as now I’m struck in the back.Oh my God, I can’t feel my spine anymore.I feel an arm hit my head, attempting to stretch out, and then it ends up on my neck, choking me and blocking my ability to breathe and live.Oh no, no.What kind of shitty wake-up is this?I grab the wrist and jerk the arm away from my neck, taking a deep breath afterward, but then I’m hit in the head again, and now I have an arm on my shoulder.I glare at the arm and huff in annoyance, then I push it away and turn back to see who is trying to take my life.Bad idea.As soon as I position myself on my right side, I’m hit by a mass of very light hair that prevents me from seeing anything.Some hair gets in my mouth, so I spit a bit and move it asid
“What are we cooking for lunch?” James asks, as he sprawls out on the couch, taking up all the available space.I raise an eyebrow and look at him skeptically, trying to figure out if he’s joking or not.He’s dead serious.Is he really serious?“Are you telling me you want to cook again, after we burned all the pancakes until the batter ran out?” I ask, confused.He looks at me. “And what would you like to eat? The chairs? And the pancakes burned because, while I was cooking, you distracted me,” he retorts.I open my mouth wide. “I swear, I’ll smash that chair over your head.” I cross my arms over my chest, offended. “And it’s not true that I distracted you.”“Yes, it is.”“No, it’s not.”“Yes, it is.”“No.”“Yes.”“And let’s hear it, genius, how
A disaster.The living room is a complete disaster.There are feathers from the pillows everywhere, the couch has been flipped over so that the backrest is resting on the floor, and the vase that Amanda broke and that I glued back together piece by piece twice is on the ground, destroyed once again.I have no idea why we did this, but I'm pretty sure my neurons aren't the only ones that have committed suicide.Connor came up with the idea to play Don't Let It Fall, a game he clearly made up on the spot, which involved throwing that awful vase of my mother back and forth and trying not to let it fall.I don’t know how long we played, but we stopped when Skyler threw the vase to Carly who, instead of catching it with her hands, had the "brilliant" idea to head it like soccer players do, only she ended up falling to the ground, unconscious, and the vase broke.We are all frozen, staring at her body on the floor, when I wake up from my tranc
“Do you know those moments of complete boredom when you don’t know what to do and you try to come up with an idea, but at the same time the thought of doing something bores you?Well.I feel like that right now.I feel hot, too hot, and lying on the bed certainly doesn’t help.I get up and touch the mattress, feeling the spot where I was lying soaked.I huff, cursing the summer, and head to the bathroom.I turn on the shower and jump under it, clothes and all.Finally, a bit of coolness.I turn off the water and quickly wring out my clothes and hair, then head down to the living room.I flop onto the couch and turn on the TV.I flip through the channels for a while before switching it off, finding nothing to watch.I lie on the couch for a while until I hear my phone ringing, signaling someone is calling me.I read the name on the display: James.I hit the green icon and answer.
JAMES"A terrible idea. This is definitely a terrible idea." Carly, Brianna's talkative friend, keeps repeating the same phrase, shaking her head in despair.Brianna shoots her a glare. "Mine is a fantastic idea."Skyler smiles. "I agree with Brianna."Connor sighs and sits on the armrest of the couch in Brianna's living room. "Would you mind bringing us in on it?" he asks, pointing first to himself and then to me. "Because we have no idea what's going on here."Sky turns to us. "Brianna suggested we go to Hunter, a club, because there's a party tonight, but Carly doesn’t seem to agree.""Of course I don’t! This girl here can’t handle alcohol at all! We’ll just end up in trouble!" Carly bursts out, giving her so-called best friend a dirty look, who at the moment seems more like a red cloth waved in front of a bull to Carly.The girl in question smiles. "I don’t know what you’re talk
Set years later, Liam (the son) is a child, Aisha and Jeremy are teenagers.James and Brianna's HouseWhile James carries out the boxes with the Christmas decorations for the garden, Jeremy and Aisha are in the middle of a snowball fight with little Liam, with Cometa running and barking happily nearby.Brianna stands aside, watching the scene, sitting on the porch with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands. Even though Liam is already a few years old, it's still hard for her to believe that she's a mother. The past few years have been a whirlwind of emotions. Many times, the couple has felt panicked and like terrible parents, just like anyone raising a child for the first time. Especially during Liam's first year. Then things started to improve, and James and Brianna began to experience parenthood more peacefully. Even when Liam fell down the stairs. Because yes, from the moment the child started walking, falling
December 25Have you ever regretted a decision? Like, thinking it would have been better to listen to the person who said your idea was terrible? Because right now, that’s exactly how I feel, as an ambulance loads Grandpa Carl to take him to the hospital.From the moment Grandpa Carl and Grandpa Sean arrived, people started drinking. It’s normal for things to get out of hand quickly in our family, but it’s never happened this fast.We didn’t even have time to sit down at the table and start eating the appetizers when the tragedy happened. Grandpa Carl and Grandpa Sean, probably already drunk, challenged each other to see who could do the best handstand. Grandpa Carl went first, but since he’s old, his mind refuses to accept he’s getting older, so he tried it anyway. He ended up falling badly and hurting his leg, so we called an ambulance.The paramedics just loaded my grandpa into the ambulance
December 24We called Jase, Skyler, and Connor to help us prepare tomorrow's lunch. We spent the afternoon cooking, and while everything is ready, we also made a lot of disasters.Skyler burned two oven mitts; James mixed up the salt with sugar in the cake batter, which we had to redo; I, to avoid letting the egg roll off the table, dropped the pack of 6 eggs I was holding, and I couldn't even save the one that was rolling away; Jase put the turkey in the oven but forgot to turn it on, realizing after an hour; and Connor decided to taste everything instead of cooking, which is why we discovered James's mistake before it was too late.Before the guys arrived, I took off my ring with James's agreement. We want to tell our families at tomorrow's lunch, when we are all together. As for the baby, we won’t say anything until the first trimester is over. We're willing to pay a criminal to kidnap our moms for three months to avoid the pre
December 23I touch the ring on my left ring finger, happy. Last night was one of the best moments of my life. I can't believe that James loves me so much that he wants to spend his entire life with me and my bad luck.We're starting our family, and today I plan to tell him I'm pregnant. This morning I went to buy a sombrero, just in case he wants to run away to Mexico. I've been feeling nauseous ever since I thought my period was coming, but I haven’t started running to the bathroom every morning yet. I just had to hide the nausea and dizziness and pretend everything was fine so I wouldn’t worry James or make him suspicious.I’ve hidden the test in the bathroom, among the pads. There’s no reason for him to open that drawer.Now, in my hands, I have a little box with the proof that I’m pregnant. I walk out of the bathroom and go to find James, who’s in our room. He’s lying on the bed, loo
22 DecemberJamesWhile Skyler is responsible for keeping Brianna away from home until evening without making her suspect anything, I prepare the surprise for my girl: a romantic dinner to give her my Christmas gift in advance.I’ve set up the small table in the living room and scattered candles and rose petals all over the room. I’ve already lit the candles, tempting fate. I hope the house doesn’t catch fire while I’m not looking.Comet has already eaten, so she’ll be in a food coma all evening and won’t try to steal our dinner.I go upstairs to grab the gift, but before reaching my nightstand, I stop in front of the mirror. I examine my figure carefully, making sure everything is in order. I want this night to be perfect. Once I’m satisfied that everything is good, I open the third drawer of my nightstand and retrieve the little box hidden under my underwear, sli
December 21"I saw a video where this guy was hiding gifts inside household items, wrapping them up and making it look like the gift was something else. Do you think we could do that too?" I glance away from my phone to look at James, who’s lying next to me on the couch."And what exactly would you want to do?""I don’t know, like, we could put the wine-tasting tickets on a ladder and wrap the ladder up."James looks at me, confused. "But we don’t even have a ladder.""Well, this is the perfect chance to buy one.""You should think of something else." He adjusts himself on the couch, folding his arms behind his head. His shirt lifts slightly, revealing a part of his stomach. I get distracted from my idea and stare at him, hoping his shirt will lift more."Brianna?""Yes?" I look up and meet his eyes."When I told you to think of something else, I meant the gifts." He smirks.
December 20I’m three weeks pregnant. This is the result of the blood tests I picked up this morning. There are no longer any doubts that a life is forming inside me.Since I found out, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about my future as a mother. I already see myself tumbling down the stairs with the baby in my arms. Or forgetting to pick him up from school, like a couple of times happened with my brother. Or forgetting that I’m a mother and freaking out when I find a child in my house.The last one, though, happened to my mom.One thing is certain: James will want to dress him up as a consequence.Even though his last name will be Reid, he still has the blood of the Lester family. This means that from the moment he steps into the outside world, his life will be a series of bad luck, crazy events, falling paintings, people seeing ghosts, restaurants banning him, alcoholic relatives or ones with onlin
December 19thWhen the alarm goes off, I feel nausea sweeping over me. And it’s not morning sickness, but anxiety from the blood test.Damn needles.“What time is it?” James mumbles from under the covers.“Seven twenty in the morning.”He slowly turns toward me. “Why are you waking up so early?”Oh nothing, just going to check if you got me pregnant.“Because I have a tyrannical mother who decided to go shopping early and will pick me up in twenty minutes.” I rub my face with my hands, trying to wake up. The only thing I want to do right now is go back to sleep.“And since when does your mom want to leave the house this early?”I look at James with one eyebrow raised. Why the hell does he need to ask so many questions so early in the morning? I’ll run out of answers soon. “The real question is: has she ever acted norma
December 18Once, as teenagers, Carly and I had a delay, so we took pregnancy tests. Actually, the delay was one day for her and two for me, and at the time, our cycles weren’t regular. But once you start having an active sex life, anxiety is always lurking around the corner. Those minutes of waiting were endless, and seeing the negative result was a relief. We were teenagers, too young for a pregnancy, and not independent.But now I’m an adult—although my parents would have something to say about that—I live with my partner, and I have a job. Yet, as I sit on the bathroom floor with a positive pregnancy test in my hands, I feel like a teenager: terribly scared. Why did I take the test this time? Because the delay was a week, and ironically, many of the symptoms of a period are the same as those of pregnancy.James is out with his brother and my cousin, and the only sound in the house is Cometa barking, looking f