Page 11 of Hitting the Goal Line
Eventually my mom turns back to look at me. “How do you feel about it?”
I could lie and tell her that I love it and make my dad happy. But if I do that, he is capable of actually buying this dress and making me actually wear it for my quince. I’m going to want to burn every single picture.
I cringe a little as I answer my mom. “I’m agreeing with Blake.”
“The kid has no style whatsoever,” my dad grumbles, acting all butt hurt about this.
Blake stands up from the chair that he is occupying and sticks out his tongue at my dad. I swear, Blake is the son that my parents never wanted.
“I have better style than you, old man,” he throws out as he walks to one of the racks that is filled with pink dresses.
Blake makes a face and shakes his head before quickly moving on to the next rack. My best friend knows me so well.
I go back into the dressing room and quickly get out of the cupcake dress. Thank God I decided to dress down today, in bike shorts and in one of Blake’s hoodies that I stole last year, because getting undressed and redress again would be a nightmare.
Quinceañera dress shopping is already a nightmare.
After getting dressed, I leave the dressing room and go find Blake in the sea of dress racks.
I find him in the orange section and instantly make a face. I don’t want to wear an orange dress. Please don’t let him pick out an orange dress.
Thankfully, though, he not looking at the dresses, but instead his phone.
“Setting up a hot date back home or something?” I ask when I approach him.
Blake and I are officially in that stage where we are seeing the opposite sex differently. We’ve both started dating, him more than me, and so far I’m finding it not as fun as a lot of people said it would be. Blake on the other hand, loves it. He loves that all the girls are flocking around him, hoping that he will ask them out. He never does, but he still loves the attention.
He looks up at me and shakes my head. “It’s Hunter.”
I feel my eyes go wide at the mention of his brother’s name. For the last almost six years, they haven’t been close at all. After their parents divorced, Hunter went to go live with their dad in Billings and Blake and Jainie stayed with their mom. Blakeabsolutely hated everything about the situation, his dad and brother included.
For a few years, Blake and his sister were going to Billings one weekend a month but that only went on until Blake started high school and now he doesn’t go at all, just Jainie. I find it interesting and weird that he stopped going when his brother moved to California for college but I don’t say anything. Maybe subconsciously Blake wanted to repair his relationship with his brother but when he went to California, he stopped wanting to try.
The two of them don’t really talk a whole lot now as it is, maybe a quick text checking in once every few weeks. If I remembered correctly, that check in was maybe two weeks ago, so I’m finding it weird that he is texting him now.
“Does he know you are in California?” I ask, going over to one of the racks to distract myself a bit.
“Yeah, I told him. He was going to drive down from Seaside, but his coach called in a second practice before they play Oregon, so he wasn’t able to.”
I’m speechless. Hunter actually made plans to visit Blake?
I honestly can’t remember the last time that he made any type of plans to visit one of his siblings when it wasn’t a holiday.
“Have you guys been talking for a while?” I ask.
If Hunter knew Blake was going to come dress shopping in Los Angeles with me and made plans for it, it makes it seem like they have and that’s news to me.
Blake always tells me everything, why wouldn’t he tell me about this?
He gives me a nod as he pockets his phone. “Yeah, just for a few weeks though. He texted a little bit ago, to check in, and we just continued talking.”
“Just like that?” I ask, feeling a certain type of way about it.
I like Hunter, I do, but I saw the hurt in Blake every time his father picked Hunter over him and more so when his dad chose Hunter to move with him and not his other two kids. I don’t want them to get close and then see Blake go through that hurt again.
“Yeah, he said he realized the fucked-up situation that we were put in and how he added to it and that he wants to make it better. So we are trying to make it better.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask, feeling a little hurt that he would hide something like this from me. This is big. Trying to repair his relationship with his brother is big and we tell each other big things.
