The Newbie

"It looks like it's just us tonight. Mom and Dad have another dinner to go to. What do you want to order?" I tilted my head toward my brother who was sitting on the sofa, just staring at the tv screen like a zombie.
" uhhh. actually its three of us. You know that guy Harry from school? Well we're doing an Econ project together and he's coming over to work on it. He's on his way over here now"

Out of all the people, he was paired up with Harry. It wasn't bad enough that Ashley called me almost every day to complain about how alone she felt. Sometimes she would call and say she was outside our house at around 4 am. It's almost like this girl never slept. What would happen if she saw his car parked in our driveway? What would she even expect? I shook my head and took a seat next to my brother. He was watching Captain America: Winter Soldier. One of my favorites. Back in North Carolina I had a white Jeep with a Captain America tire cover and whenever I would pass my friends, I would make sure it was on the left and say: "On your left". It pissed them off, but they loved me for it.

Twenty minutes after I sat down, there was a knock on the door. Riley got up, expecting Harry but when he opened the door, Ashely stood in front of him.
"Hey, can I speak to your sister?" Riley turned to me and then stepped aside from the door to let her in.
The way Ashley moved towards me was like she was gliding through the air. I noticed her eyes were puffy and her nose was red, she had been crying.
Great, I thought, now Harry is on his way over here and I have Ashley crying at my doorstep. I knew it wasn't going to be easy to get her out of our house. I had to think of something quick. Before I knew it, I started to speak
"Hi Ash, I know you came over to talk but I'm actually running late to meet my parents for dinner with some of my dad's business partners. Is there any chance I can pop over your place tomorrow and we can get some coffee or go to the mall and talk then?" I had no idea why I even came up with that lie but it was the first thing that came to mind. She wasn't going to check to make sure I went to dinner and there was no way she would find out I actually would go. Without saying anything she nodded and started for the door.
"I'll see you tomorrow then. 10 am at my place. I'll call the spa and have two appointments set up." Then she was gone.

"Jamie, what was that about? You're not going to dinner with mom and dad. You weren't invited. And plus, you can't even drive in England." Riley must have been so confused. I don't even think he knew Ashley and Harry were ever together.
"Well, Ashley is Harry's ex. They broke up a couple of weeks ago, and if she see's him here she'll be broken. She tries to make it look as if she doesn't care that they broke up, but she does. And for some reason she had decided to call me every night and keep me on the phone until the crack of dawn. So, lets just say I did all of us a favor by lying to her." Riley didn't even respond. He was still trying to grasp what I just said. For someone who is super smart, he can be really slow at comprehending simple things as a break up and how complicated it can be. He walked back over to the couch and assumed the same position he had been in five minutes ago.

Ten minutes later I heard a car pull into our driveway. For some reason I thought it might be Ashley trying to convince me to stay in and watch sappy movies with her and eat ice cream, but luckily for me, it was Harry. Even though I knew he was coming over, I didn't even bother to change. I was still in my sweats and slippers. I could care less what he thought of me right now. All I wanted was for Ashley to stop calling me at night and keeping me up, even if it meant going to the spa for hours on end and listening to her complain about how no one cared about her feelings, which is so not true. I cared, but I just don't want to hear about it all the time. I know that isn't the nicest thing to say, but she had said it herself, she was happy to be free of being in a relationship.

"Hey man", my head snapped as I heard Harry's voice coming from our doorway. I hadn't even noticed Riley had paused the movie and answered the door. "I brought some sushi. I wasn't sure if you guys ate fish so I brought some chicken and beef too" How did he know I was going to be staying in tonight. There was this huge party at someone's cabin tonight.

As the two of them approached the couch I turned my head and smiled, "Hey Harry". He responded with a slight nod. What is up with guys and responding in nods and grunts? It's so weird. Whatever. Soon my nostrils were filled with the scent of tuna and fried rice, my favorite and once again Captain America was being blasted from our TV.

"You know if you have the TV on that loud, you could go deaf right Riley?", no response. Of course. The two of them were inhaling the food, almost as if they hadn't eaten in months. By the time I reached for the fired rice there was barely anything left, at least they were nice enough not to eat the spicy tuna.

The minute I placed the first piece of the tuna into my mouth, I heard my brother laugh and I saw him staring at me. I glanced over at him and gave him a stare, as if to say: what. He shrugged and then looked over at Harry super quickly. It was then I realized the roll was covered in Wasabi. Those jerks. They must have done that while I wasn't paying attention. Right then and there I felt a burning sensation in my mouth and rushed to get a bottle of water. I could hear them cracking up on the couch. When I got back, all the food was gone. Even the Wasabi covered tuna.
"Don't you guys have a project to work on?" I stated curtly. That was not funny. What if I was allergic to Wasabi? They wouldn't be laughing if I started to choke and my throat started to swell, well maybe Riley would have. He would probably think it was funny until I was blue in the face. He always laughed at other people's pain. It was one of his many flaws as a brother.

The next day when Riley dropped me off at Ashley's he gave me a worried look. I didn't have time to ask him why he gave me that look cause Ashley was already standing at the entrance of her house. She looked like she hadn't slept in days, poor thing.
In her room, Ashley told me what was going on. Her parents were getting a divorce and she had no one to turn to. She told me that normally she would talk to Harry about this stuff, but he wasn't answering her texts or calls. When she asked me about the business dinner, I kinda got nervous but then I found myself repeating what I overheard my dad tell my mom. The dinner was boring and all the guys wanted to talk about was alcohol. There wasn't one mention of business plans or anything of the sorts. Ashley bought it and then continued to sob. I didn't really know what to do. I'm not good at comforting people. As much as I would love to be, I'm just not. When people try to comfort me I tend to get more upset. I'm the type of person who goes off by themselves when things get difficult, unless I really trust you, I won't vent to you or give you any indication I'm upset. That right there was why I don't want Ashley confiding in me, I don't know what to do, or what to say. All I did was kinda rub her back and tell her everything was going to be okay in the end.

A lot of my friends have divorced parents and they seemed to have come to terms with it. I assume it must be hard on the kids. Thankfully Riley and I have each other if anything happens but Ashley is an only child. It seems as if her parents don't even care about what is best for her. They started having problems right when Ashley entered middle school and they didn't bother to try to hide it. Ashley knew about the affairs and the wild nights her parents had. I really felt bad for her. And to top it all off, they were upset with her for ending it with Harry. I mean give the girl a break. It wasn't love and if it was, it for sure was not meant to be. Harry seems fine. He actually seems more than fine.
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A couple of weeks after Ashley told me about the divorce, she was distant and rarely at school. I think her parents decided to fast pace the divorce and get it over with. I know they have to fight for custody, neither of them want to share her but they are going to have to unless they can prove the other parent is not responsible. Ashley said she would be out of school for a couple of weeks during the trail to give her some room to think about what will happen when the divorce is finalized. There is so much going on in her house right now, I would not want to be under that roof at this time.

Physics class was super easy, not just because I payed attention but because I already took this class last year and passed with flying colors. It was almost like I was the only one who understand was our professor was talking about, besides Harry. I have to give him credit. Behind the whole pretty boy act, he was surprisingly smart and down to earth. I had overheard him and my brother going over their project and they had some really great ideas about a start-up company. Riley has always been interested in politics and business, he gets that from my dad, while I focused on science and math. I'm also pretty found about English. But back to Harry. I noticed he was wearing a new bracelet that was made out of pure gold. The only reason I knew this was because I had read an article about this particular bracelet. There are only 30 of them in the world. How the hell did he manage to get one. I know he's rich and all, but most of them have been passed down from generation to generation. None of them have been sold recently. As I began to speak, I noticed there was something engraved into it: To H, love Grandpa.

Notes