Chapter 3: Business-like

After Mika bandaged me up, he didn’t talk to me. He laid back with his own notebook and wrote with his knees raised to angle it. I took out my own notebook and worked on my own stuff. Of course, he was writing lyrics and songs for the band where I was writing stories. Mika was the songwriter of the group and his lyrics were always annoyingly catchy. He was the voice of the group because no one sang the way he did. He had an alto voice that was amazing in contrast with the drums and guitars.

I stopped looking at him and focused on my own writing. I’d never get anywhere in my career by being jealous of his talent.

 

“Cupcake”, both girls clapped and she exchanged a knowing look with Dixie.

“One each”, she took out a container with four vanilla cupcakes in it.

“Sprinkles and everything”, Mara bounced up and down.

“These are perfect”, Jessiden took hers, “when do you get the time to do all this cooking”.

“Well I made these early this morning Heath, Archer and Clive finished off the first batch in ten minutes flat”, she had her own.

“Hot guys eat more food than most people”, Jez started up the stairs.

“Why does everyone think they are so hot they’re goofy and most of them are awkward type people”, she asked.

“They have muscles and look like movie stars though”, Dixie reminded her.

“I have yet to see a movie star that looks like them”, she looked down to see the four guys in question sitting at their table.

 

I’d written some last night, but this new section made me very aware that I was in a van full of attractive young guys. Only Max was available since Mika was an idiot, Deke wasn’t interested, Jed was baked, Neill was my brother and Kyle had a girlfriend. I liked Max as a friend, but he really wasn’t my type. Most of the guys were like brothers to me honestly. I peered over at Mika and noticed he was looking back at me.

“Chewing on your pen like a toddler,” he remarked.

“Yeah. What about it?” I challenged.

“Erasable,” he guessed and I nodded, “They are the best.” I looked at his pen and recognized the design immediately. I’d bought the sticker myself.

“That’s mine,” I launched myself at it.

“Not anymore,” he raised it out of my reach.

 

“What are you five?” I climbed onto his knees and grabbed the hand holding my pen.

“Say please,” he warned.

“I will bite your hand, Townsend and you’ll need stitches,” I tried to slide it out of his hand.

“You’re being very unreasonable,” he raised his hand higher and jumped for it landing in his lap after hitting my head on the ceiling.

 

“Behave back there,” Neill laughed and Michael stole my pen too.

“A*****e,” I tried to grab it.

“Say something nice,” Mika said dangling the pens in front of my face, “That’s all you have to do.”

“Your skin looks better without the acne,” I sighed and he handed me my pen, “The other one, please.”

“Neill said I could have it,” he said.

“Mika, I said that, but I don’t think I allowed my sister on your lap,” Neill looked back at us. We both realized how close we were and I climbed over to my side of the space immediately.

“He can keep the pen,” I opened my notebook and pretended to write.

“Sorry, man I didn’t do it on purpose,” Michael muttered, “She started it and I shouldn’t have let it happen.”

“You’re too uptight,” Neill snorted, “You two are the only creative people I know that behave like business people.”

 

“Dad made me take those business courses,” I wrote down random words, “Michael is just a control freak.”

“Sorry if you don’t like my rules, Emmeline, but they work,” Mika focused on his notebook.

“You two both realize that you’re writing random words,” Neill said and I threw my spare pencil at him, “Ouch.”

“Sit down properly we’re about to hit traffic,” Mika ordered.

“You’re like nine months younger than me,” Neill complained, but Mika gave him a look, “Yes, mom.”

 

“It’s starting to get dark,” I looked out the window.

“We’ll be driving for another three hours to the next gas station,” Cassia called from the front seat, “Get comfortable, guys.”

“And girl,” I said then my alarm went off on my watch. I bit my lip and tapped my pen against the page.

“Does anyone else here that incessant beeping?” my brother questioned.

“No,” I started writing again then Mika’s phone buzzed, “Is that Caroline Winters?”

 

“Who?” Mika said taking out his cell.

“He and Caroline only dated for eight weeks, Em,” Neill told me, “She was a total freak show.”

“That has to be some kind of record,” I watched him read the message, “What is your new girlfriend saying?”

“My phone is telling me that Neill’s sister needs to take her medication,” he commented and the guys laughed.

“Oh,” I said turning off my alarm.

“Your alarm was already telling you that, wasn’t it?” he said seriously. I shifted uncomfortably staring at my pill bag. “Take them,” he ordered.

“Anti-depressants are known to make you have suicidal thoughts, plus I know these give you all kinds of side effects,” I ran my fingers along the cuts on my hand.

“They decrease her sexual drive,” Neill announced.

“Damn, that would ruin the night for me,” Jed grinned back at me.

 

“Jed,” Michael smacked him in the back of the head.

“Ouch,” Jed rubbed his head then looked back pouting, “That was mean. Why would you hurt me, man?”

“It’s not the side effect that concerns me,” I hit Neill, “I don’t believe in the power of pills.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Mika opened a fresh water bottle and took out the anti-depressants, “Take them.”

“I don’t want to,” I crawled back away from his hand.

“Em, just take them,” my brother said seriously.

“I don’t want them to make things worse; they are bad enough,” I crossed my arms.

 

“Em,” Mika said warningly.

“I don’t want them,” I snapped.

“Well, we didn’t want to wake up the day before yesterday to a call saying you were dead,” Michael said angrily, “You scared the hell out of all of us, Em; either take these pills or I’ll force them down your throat.”

“Mika,” Neill sighed.

“Take them,” Mika put them in my shaky hand and glared at me, “Don’t be a coward.”

“Fine,” I put them in my mouth and grabbed the water bottle. I swallowed the capsules and water then took another sip of water.

“Alright,” Michael asked.

 

“Neill, can I have some of those Tylenol 3’s?” I avoided eye contact.

“Headache,” Neill handed one to me and I took it with more water.

“On this trip, you have to take your medication and tell me when you have side effects, headaches or pain,” Mika ordered, “You’re tough, but it’s really your downfall.”

“I’m not tough,” I drank more then opened my notebook again; “If I was then I wouldn’t have been still going to that school.”

“I know you’re upset that you’re disappointing dad,” my brother remarked.

“I don’t care,” I insisted.

“Yes, you do,” Neill continued, “He wanted you to go to college, but not at the cost of your life.”

 

“Neill,” I brought my knees up to my chin.

“He’ll have to get over it; you don’t have to make him happy because Suzanne makes him miserable,” he tried to assure me and I thought about my father’s face last time I saw him. He looked so stressed and worn out; part of the reason was me and that did hurt. Neill was still talking, but I felt like I was shrinking into myself. I couldn’t hear anything.

 

“Neill,” Mika said loudly and I snapped out of it, “Cliff Foster is not the best topic on the ‘fun’ state tour.”

“Right,” Neill cleared his throat, “I don’t suppose Em could tell us about her boyfriends.”

“Nosy,” I wrote while I spoke, “The latest one was Heath, he was an angel with a dark side.”

“How dark?” Cassia called from the front.

“He is almost as dark as me; that’s why we had to take a break from each other,” I explained.

 

“What does he look like?” she inquired.

“Blonde hair and blue eyes,” I avoided Mika’s gaze, “He has an angel wing tattoo; it’s really cool.”

“You don’t like tattoos,” Neill frowned.

“I like his,” I shrugged. Heath was a lie, of course like all of my other boyfriends other than Mika and the one guy I’d dated before him. I used characters from my stories as my fake boyfriends and so far it had worked.

 

“I have a question,” Michael kicked me, “Where was your boyfriend? Where were your old friends for that matter when you were cutting your wrists?”

“I broke up with Heath already,” I commented, “And I don’t have any college friends.”

“What about Sharron and Monica?” he referred to my high school friends.

“Monica got pregnant in senior year and she doesn’t have time to talk,” I sighed, “And Sharron doesn’t think I support her dream of becoming an actress, plus she moved to Hollywood.”

 

“Why didn’t you try making friends?” he demanded.

“Because no one there wanted me; most of those students blame me for hallway patrol because I actually dared to complain about the parties,” I kept my pen moving, “Sorry if I actually wanted to sleep.”

“You’re excused,” Kyle said.

“We should have come sooner,” Michael said. Deep down I wish they had. 

Author's Note

what do you think of the dialogue?