"No. I hate him. Mom and I are broke because of him! We're barely able to pay rent and he doesn't even care!" I take a breath, trying to calm down. I don't want to yell at Chelsea but I don't understand how she could forgive him and want a relationship with him after he walked out on us and moved across the country to be with another woman.
"Let's just talk about something else. Tell me about school. Did you make any friends?"
"No. Well, kind of. There's this girl, Eve, that talked to me but we're not really friends. She has a twin brother. He sits next to me in AP Physics."
"Is he cute?" she asks, a smile in her voice.
"No. And did you forget I have a boyfriend?"
"I'm just saying, you might want to keep your options open."
Chelsea has never liked Chad. She doesn't think he's right for me. She thinks he doesn't give me enough attention, but I'm not the type of girl who needs a lot of attention. I'm independent. I do my own thing. I don't expect Chad to take me out every weekend, which is why our relationship works. We both like our space.
"Have you heard from him today?" she asks.
"Chad? No, but he's busy. He's in a lot of clubs at school and some of them had meetings today. And tonight, he's going to the driving range with his dad."
"He can't find even a few minutes in his day to call you?"
"He texted me. That's enough."
"Not when you don't see each other like you did before."
"What are you saying? That he's going to break up with me because I changed schools? Why would that matter? It's not like I moved to a different state."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," she says, but the way she says it tells me she doesn't agree with me. I'm not going to argue with her. She doesn't know Chad like I do. She used to see him at the country club but he was younger then and immature. He's grown up a lot since we started dating.
"I should go," I tell her. "I have to read a chapter for tomorrow."
"You have a lot of homework?"
"No. After I read that chapter, I'm done. This school is so much easier than my old school. My studying time is going to be half what it used to be."
"That's something to be happy about."
"Not really. My new school has a bad reputation. Going there could hurt my chances of getting in a good college."
"You'll be fine. Your grades will get you in. Hey, I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay? Tell Mom I said hi."
"I will. Bye."
There's a knock on my door. "Brook, can I come in?"
"Yeah."
My mom opens the door. "Honey, would you mind running to the store? We're out of milk and a few other items. I'd go myself but my boss just called and asked if I'd do some work tonight. I told her I would since we could use the extra cash. But if you're busy, then I guess—"
"I can do it," I say, going past her. "Do you have a list?"
She follows me to the kitchen. "Right here." She hands me the list and two twenty dollar bills.
"I don't think I'll need that much," I say, handing her back a twenty.
"Take it. Things are more expensive here."
We leave in a poor neighborhood and things are more expensive than in our rich neighborhood? That doesn't make sense, but nothing makes sense right now. I take the money and the list and go.
The store is a couple blocks from our apartment. It's really small, nothing like the mega stores I'm used to in the suburbs. The list has apples on it so I go to the produce section and see some red apples on a rack next to bags of potatoes and onions. I look around for more apples but these are all they have. Our old store had every variety of apple you could think of, all shiny and perfect, sitting in neatly stacked rows.
