Hate Every Beautiful Day
Chapter 23
By: Makena
Makena lay on her back on her bed, staring up at the plastic stars on her ceiling as a tear slipped down her face and ran into her ear. She sniffed and tried to wipe it away as she turned over on her side and continued to cry.
"Makena? Are you in there?" Makena looked over at her door and listened as her father knocked softly.
"Y-yeah," Makena got out, trying to hide her tears long enough for her father to talk to her.
"I'm making myself a salad. Did you want me to make you one?"
"No," she said with a sigh. "I'm not hungry."
"Did you want me to get you a pop, then?"
Makena sighed and rolled her eyes. Why couldn't he just leave her alone? "I'll get one later," she said. She heard him move past her room and down the stairs as the tears started again.
'Stop it!' she screamed at herself, burying her face into her pillow for a moment as she tried to block the sound of the phone ringing from downstairs out of her mind. 'You made the right choice.'
"Makena!" her father yelled up to her. "Phone!"
Makena groaned and leaned over the side of her bed to pick the portable up. She sighed and clicked the talk button and pressed the phone to her ear. "Hello?" she answered.
"Guess who?"
"H-hi Shannon," Makena got out, wiping the remaining tears from her eyes. 'He's not worth it... I don't know him, and he's not worth it...'
"Okay, what's wrong?" Shannon asked.
"I... stubbed my toe," Makena lied. "It hurts."
"Stubbed your toe, nothing," Shannon said. "You're a bad liar. What happened?"
Makena sighed, contemplating weather she should tell her friend or not. She blinked a couple of times and wiped the last of her tears away.
"Come on," Shannon said. "Out with it - I already know something's wrong and I won't rest until you tell me."
"Okay," Makena said. "But you can't tell ANYONE."
"Do I ever?"
"I was just saying," Makena said. "It sort of started after I took Benji from you on Saturday night. I took him home and we... kind of... had sex."
"Kind of?" Shannon asked suspiciously.
"Well... we did... that's not the point! Well... it sort of is, but..."
"Just get there?"
"Sorry," Makena apologized. "So we had sex, and then today, Benji confessed that he likes me."
"Um... what?" Shannon asked, a little surprised.
"Don't make me repeat it," Makena repeated. "I know you heard me."
"Okay, okay," Shannon said. "So... what'd you say?"
"I don't... I didn't say a whole lot of... anything," Makena admitted, trying to remember exactly what she had said. "I... I rejected him." She paused as a couple of fresh tears began to fall down her face. "And I'm starting to wonder if I made the right choice."
"Maybe you should ask Aaron?" Shannon suggested after a moment of silence. "I mean, call him and ask him how much he likes you." She paused. "I think maybe you did the right thing."
Makena sighed. "I hope so." She paused. "Sorry... what'd you call about?"
"Oh," Shannon said. "I was just calling to see if you were going to come with us to see Paul and Benji in Acme this Saturday."
-----
Makena listened to each ring and took another breath. Finally, some one answered. "Hello?"
"Hi," Makena said, suddenly aware she was on the phone. "Is Aaron there?"
"Yeah, hold on." Makena waited as Aaron's mother yelled to him and checked the time on her alarm clock by her bed.
"Hello?"
"Hi Aaron," Makena said. "It's me."
"Hi!" Aaron said happily. "I was working on my homework."
"Oh," Makena said, not exactly caring. "Aaron... how much to I mean to you?"
"What?" Aaron asked.
"What do I mean to you, Aaron?" Makena repeated. "How much do you like me? Can you see us together after high school? Having kids? Come on, Aaron... I wanna know."
"Well..." Aaron began. "I can. I can see us getting married and having kids and... the whole works. I can see it all. I'll go as far as to say I love you." He paused. "Makena, I love you."
Makena smiled. "You... love me?"
"... yeah. I do."
"I love you too," Makena said. She could tell Aaron was smiling.
-----
Benji walked down the mostly empty hallway, holding a bottle of Mt. Dew filled with vodka and clutching his backpack strap. Another pointless football practice had ended and he was on his way home to finish another pointless day where he would wake up the next morning and continue leading his boring, pointless life.
'What a waste,' he thought bitterly, taking a long sip of his beverage. Just as he was capping his Mt. Dew bottle, some one grabbed onto his hoodie sleeve and pulled him into an empty class room. He stumbled inside and turned around to see who had pulled him inside. Makena was standing just inside the room, arms crossed and looking slightly nervous.
"Hi," she said, eyeing his bottle. She sighed slightly and looked back up at Benji.
"Um... hi," Benji said.
"Where can you see us?" Makena asked.
"What?"
"If we were going to hook up - not saying we are - how far can you see us going? I mean, can you see us together for the rest of our lives?" Benji shrugged. He didn't know what she was doing, but decided to answer anyway.
"I don't know," he replied honestly. "I don't like to live in the future... I live for now."
Makena sighed and cursed. "Damn it," she sighed. "Why does your answer have to be right?"
Benji frowned and watched her pace for a second or two. She finally stopped and looked at him.
"Okay," she said. "Bye."
"Wait wait wait wait wait," Benji said, this time grabbing onto her hoodie sleeve. "What the hell was that about?"
Makena sighed and straightened her hoodie out a little. "I was just... trying to make a decision..." she began. She sighed again. "I have to go. See you tomorrow."
Benji frowned but let her go. She confused him sometimes.
-----
Joel shivered. It was October now, and he was walking around the garage in bare feet, a t-shirt, and a small arm load of beer bottles he had recently taken out of the fridge.
"Shoulda grabbed a hoodie," he muttered to himself with a small laugh. He went to the old icebox that sat beneath a bunch of boxes and behind some other things they kept and carefully removed all the boxes with his free hand. They were mostly empty, but some of them were stuffed with random crap nobody cared about anymore. He lifted the top of the icebox and placed his armload of beer inside. He tried to put the top back on, but the icebox was too full.
"Uh-oh," Joel said, trying to force the top on. It wasn't a large icebox, but it had already been filled with beer Joel had stolen from the fridge on previous occasions. He sighed and tired to force the top down a couple more times before extracting the top few that wouldn't allow the ice box to close and set them on the ground. He shut the box and piled the boxes back on top of it before taking the bottles back into the kitchen.
His sister was sitting at the dining room table, humming to herself and reading a book from the school's library.
"Sarah," Joel whispered from the garage, poking his head inside. "Benji home yet?" Sarah looked up and shook her head.
"No," she replied. Joel nodded and stepped inside, walking to the sink. He set the bottles down on the counter and slowly opened one before pouring it down the drain.
"What are you doing, Joel?" Sarah asked curiously, watching her brother empty the bottle's contents.
"I'm making sure Benji doesn't get a hold of any of this," Joel replied honestly, looking over at his sister as the first bottle emptied out in the sink. "Don't tell him I did this."
"How come?"
Joel sighed and snapped the second bottle open, pouring its contents down the drain. "He shouldn't drink, and he would get very pissed if he knew what I was doing."
"Oh," Sarah said. "Okay." She watched Joel empty the rest of it out and place it outside in the recycling to return at the store for a refund. Joel sighed and weighed the bag in thought. He felt bad for throwing all the beer away, since money was pretty tight, but at five cents a bottle, he might be able to get at least some of that back.
He heard the door open and set the bag down to see if Benji was home. He opened the door that led out to the garage and noticed Benji already taking some of the remaining beer out of the fridge. He sighed and stepped inside, freezing. Sarah looked up at Joel with a questioning look on her face.
No one said anything while Benji took his beer and himself into his bedroom. Finally, when they heard the sound of the stereo playing in the twin's room, Sarah spoke up.
"I thought you dumped it all out," she said.
"I should have," Joel said with a sigh. "I should have."