The Start of Something…

"Correction, you need to go shopping," I said pointing at her, "I have clothes.”

"Clothes from who knows how long ago," she puts her hands on her hips.

"I don't like to dress up like you and I am very comfortable with my baggy clothes. They don't show off my hideous body," I say collapsing back on my bed.

"Say that one more time and you won't have a mouth to speak out of. You are not fat! How many times do I have to tell you? You are gorgeous and if you just let me show you how beautiful you are, you will finally change your mind about yourself."

"I give up. I'll go to the mall but I will NOT be buying any clothes." I climb out of my bed and shuffle to my closet.

"Rayleigh, will you at least buy some shirts?" I ignore her and grab a baggy sweatshirt and some ripped jeans and walk to the bathroom to get changed. I swiftly pulled off my oversized t-shirt and put my bra on and my jeans. As I walked out of the bathroom I pulled my hair up into a messy bun. Rubbie is sitting on my bed texting on her phone.

"Let's go," I say as I grab my phone off my nightstand. It was pretty old, 6s. Rubbie and her family were pretty wealthy and she had the iPhone 12 mini. I never really cared...

"Bye sweetheart," my dad said as he kissed me on the side of my head.

"Bye daddy. Tell mom I said I hey and that I love her when you go to visit."

"Will do," he said as he walked back to the kitchen. My mom just suffered a heart attack and she is scheduled to get surgery in about a week. Both my dad and I are super nervous but my mom said she doesn't want to stop living our lives, so we all agreed that we will do our normal routines and visit at the end of the day. I love her so much. Both of my parents are worried about the cost of everything. We aren't rich but we try our hardest to make money. I have a job at the library, I love books so it's my happy place.

"Earth to Rayleigh. Let's go," Rubbie chuckled as she waved her hand in front of my face, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah right, sorry," we walked to her car. A nice black 2020 Mercedes Benz.

"How's everything going with Carson? Is he treating you well? If not I'll beat his ass," I say shrugging as if I was the hulk and I had superhuman strengths.

"Don't worry," she smiled, "everythings been going great. I think we are going to take the next step in our relationship. He wants to meet my parents..."

"That's good right. He wants to know your family. Why do you sound so worried?"

"I don't know. You remember how it was with Kyle. My parents hated-"

"They hated him because he was a piece of shit. He only wanted to get in your pants, Rubbie. I hated him."

"Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking. But my point is I want them to like him because I really do and you know how much my parents blessings mean to me..." she was gripping onto the steering wheel really hard her knuckles turned white. I put my hand on her shoulder and rubbed it soothingly.

"Don't worry. I know they'll love him. He is a great guy. You should see the way he looks at you. He looks at you like you're the only person he sees. You're his world. Trust me your parents will see what I see."

She takes one of her hands and puts it on mine on top of her shoulder and leans her head on them.

"Thanks, Ry," I pulled my hand away.
"I'm here for you." I state.

"What about you? How's your mom? Anything new?"

"No, she is getting heart surgery on Thursday or Friday. I'm really nervous," I unconciously bring my hands to my face and bite my nails.

"Don't be. Your mom's a bad bitch. She’ll get through it like nothing happened," she turns to smile at me.
"You're right she really is great," I laugh.

The rest of the drive we listen to music and sing along. Rubbie was great, so full of life. Naturally beautiful with long auburn wavy hair. I wish I could look like her and be able to attract all the guys with one smile, but unfortunately that wasn't my case. I had shoulder blade length long hair that was brown with streaks of red, blond, and a goldish looking color when I'm in the sunlight. I am almost five foot four. My thighs touch when I walk. I'm about 185 pounds, everyone I know says I'm not fat but when you're in high school and see every girl you know skinny and tall you'll always compare yourself to them. I'm pretty curvy. I have a tanish olive look to my skin. The only thing I don't like about myself are my legs but it's unfortunately what I was blessed with. I really like my eyes and lips. My eyes are hazel brown and my lips are plump and pink with the curve on the top. I like my smile. Thank god for braces right? I have dimples which Rubbie said are super cute. I'm not perfect but I have learned to live with my flaws. Like everyone says. Embrace yourself. I will try...

"How about this top?" Rubbie chirps as she holds the blouse up to her body. It is white and flowy. I just know it will look great with her sun kissed skin.

"It's cute. Not for me but DEFINITELY for you," I exaggerate the word definitely.

She rolls her eyes and she puts it in the shopping cart. She picks out a couple more shirts and we make our way to the undergarments parts of the store.

"Ry, I don't care what you say but you are going to get two sets. You need to pamper yourself," she glares at me and I give in. I do need some more bras and panties.

"Fine," I cross my arms. I walk around the section and find a black laced set. I found my size and went over to Rubbie. She jumped up and down with excitement.

"Oh. My. God! You will look so hot in these!" she shouts. I look up and see two older women staring at us.

"Rubbie, keep it down!" I whisper. She pretends like she's screaming. I roll my eyes and try to find a second pair. I saw a set that immediately caught my attention. The set was dark blue and it looked super "elegant". I found a slutty set. Now it's time to find a nice feminine set. I found my size and ran to the cart. Rubbie was looking at some sets.

"Rubes, look!" I whisper squeal. She takes a look and her eyes widen.

"Bitch, you do not know how easily you could seduce a guy wearing that. I'm so happy you're stubborn ass self is finally having some fun. Put it in the cart before you change your mind," she whisper squeals back. After we purchase our things we decide to go eat lunch at Red Robin.

"You know you should really be excited for school this year. It's senior year. Try to live a little. You need to get laid." She says so matter of factly.

"I've told you this already. Sex means a lot to me. It has to be with someone I like, A LOT. I don't want to be a slut," I say with a mouth full of french fries.

"Whatever," she scoffs.

We talk about our schedules and realize we only have study hall and lunch together.

"Shit," Rubbie whines, "How am I going to get through this without you."

"No, how am I going to get through this without YOU?" I whine back.

"Ugh," we both whine in unison.

"I want to go home... I need to take a shower and I need to get all my school stuff together for tomorrow.

"Okay let's go," we split the bill and get all our things and head back to my house.

"Hey sweetheart. You're home early," my dad says as he sits up from the couch.

"Yeah I gotta get ready for school." I smile in response.

"Hey Mr. Aikens," Rubbie waves and heads upstairs with me.

"I got something for you," Rubbie says as she dangles a bag in front of my face.

"Rubbie," I cross my arms and glare at her.

"Rayleigh," she copies me. Then she throws the bag at me. I groan.

"Open it bitch," she chuckles. I open it and I see a blouse, correction... four.

"Rubbie-"

"Rayleigh you need to see how pretty you would look in these. Just try them on. For me?" she pouts.

"Fine."

I walk into the bathroom and try them on. The first one I try on is the white blouse I said would look good on her. It hangs about four inches below my stomach and it has a slight v-neck to it. It shows my shoulders and is loose around my arms. You can see my collarbone and it makes me feel good. I walk out of the bathroom and Rubbie is sitting on my bed.

"I kinda like it..." I hold back a smile.
"Oh my god, Rayleigh! You look beautiful!" she claps her hands together like a proud mom. I twirl around as if I'm wearing a ball gown. We both giggle and she shoves me back into the bathroom to try on the others. One was a black flowy top that showed some of my back. She knows I don't like Skin tight shirts. The third one was actually a sweater. It also had a little v-neck and it was striped. They weren't thin stripes. The stripes were thick. First black, then gray, then white. I loved it. Then the last one was a nice plain black drop shoulder sweater.

"When did you buy these? I was with you the whole time," I say as I flop onto my bed.

"Ah, ah, ah. Magicians don't share their secrets," she smiled as she waved a finger in my face.

"Whatever," I shove her.

"I got to go. It's almost time for dinner. See you tomorrow? I'll pick you up," she says as she gathers her things.

"Okay, sounds good," I see her out, then gather up my things to go see my mom.

"Hey dad. Are you ready?" I yell out.

"Yeah hold on," he grabs some flowers out of the kitchen and makes his way to the door. It has become normal for him to buy flowers everytime we go to see my mom. Especially orchids. She loves them so much.



Once we get to the hospital we ask the nurses if anything has changed and nothing has happened which calms my nerves a little bit. They would have called us if anything happened.

"Hey mom," I say with a smile. Even Though I want to cry.

"Hey sweetie," she says as she puts down her pencil.

She was doing a crossword puzzle. Her room smelled like flowers and lit up with twinkle lights that I put up for her a week ago.

"How you feeling honey?" my dad asks as he kisses her on the temple. She closes her eyes and smiles. Their relationshiprelashonship was the epitome of perfection.

"Better now that you guys are here," she opens her arms. I gently give her a big hug. She kisses me on the cheek.

"Are you excited about your first day of senior year," she wiggles her eyebrows.

"Yeah right," I playfully rolled my eyes, "Rubbie and I went shopping. She surprised me with some new shirts."

"She has always been a sweet girl," she says.
"Yeah...”

We talk about our days and we talk about her and all the things she needs to do to prepare for her surgery. We eat dinner together and head home.

"Goodnight sweetheart. See you in the morning."

I am not excited for school tomorrow at all. I just know that some chick is going to come up to me and say something hurtful. Just like it's always been.