Don't Wanna Try
Chapter 26
“Good luck,” he whispered into her ear and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as she exited the limousine a block before her home.
“It’s the blue house,” she reminded him. “Just a block up; I’m carrying my cell, so if you get lost…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be there.”
Old, familiar feelings of unsettled business washed over her as she walked towards her mother’s home; the neighborhood hadn’t changed much—some houses had been repainted, but most still had it chipping away with unkempt yards with metal gates surrounding them.
It was depressing—especially after having lived in California for so many years where green wasn’t just a color, but a state of being. The palm trees and fresh-cut grass were an image she had learned to need. She hesitated as she approached the fading blue house that she used to hate going home to; still hated as it represented times and memories of things she’d rather forget.
With immense courage and strength, she pushed through the heavy gate and walked towards the front door of the house.
She rang the doorbell once, not having bothered to take her key to New York.
“Who is it?” a gruff voice asked.
“Jonathan, is that you?” she asked. “It’s Vanessa.”
“Oh, hey sis!” he greeted as he unlatched the door. “Been a while.”
“Yeah, well…”
“Come in,” he interrupted, not really needing an explanation. “Mom’s pretty excited that you’re back.”
“Only for a few hours,” she sighed. “You’ve sure grown up,” she remarked as she took a long look at her matured brother; his shoulders had broadened, his face hardened, and he grew at least two feet since she’d last seen him.
“I’m eighteen, duh!”
“Shit, already? Last time I was here, you were what? Fourteen?”
“Yep.”
“Why the hell are you still around? Shouldn’t you be in college or somethin’?”
“Goin’ there this fall,” he said.
“Oh, where?”
“Gonna be joinin’ you soon, yo. UCLA.”
“Congrats,” she smiled sadly. She hadn’t realized she’d missed so much of her brother growing up—he had nothing to do with why she had to leave or why she hadn’t been back in four years. “I’m fifteen to twenty away from the campus. I went there, you know.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“’Nessa, is that you?” her mother called from the kitchen.
“Yeah, Mom,” Vanessa hollered back.
“Well, look at you!” she exclaimed as she patted her hands on her apron and approached her daughter. “You’ve uh, matured nicely.”
“Thanks,” she replied hesitantly. “You look good,” she offered as she noticed her mother’s graying hair and wrinkled eyes.
“I’ve got breakfast ready, you haven’t eaten yet, have you?”
“Nah, not yet.”
“Well, come on, let’s get to eatin’.”
“The food’s better than I remember,” Vanessa said, breaking the silence that had descended over the morning meal.
“You should visit us more often,” her mother replied pointedly.
“Let’s not get into that right now, okay? I just got here.”
“Fine,” she conceded. “But we will ‘get into it’ before you leave.”
“I have no doubt.”
“Will you be staying for dinner, honey?”
“Yeah, I will. I invited a guest, too, I hope you don’t mind?”
“No, of course not. Who did you invite?”
“Well, it’s sort of a surprise,” Vanessa replied with a slight smile and a devilish glint in her eyes.
“What sort of surprise?” her mother asked warily.
“A good one, I swear.”
“All right. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
“Yep. I hear Jon’s attending UCLA in the fall.”
“Oh, did you?” her mother cast a hard look in Jonathan’s direction. “I was going to tell you.”
“Were you? I’m sure he’s known for a while that he’s been accepted. Was I going to find out when he rang my apartment?”
“Now, honey, that’s not fair.”
“Not much is. Look, I don’t mind or anything, but you could have told me.”
“Well, Jon did get accepted. And you’re right, I was hoping he could stay with you since you’re all established,” she ground out the last word like venom.
“I’m not. I’m working as a secretary.”
“Whatever. So, can he?”
“Yeah, Jon can bunk with me for a while. He’s gotta get himself a job after the first year, though. Pay his way.”
“He’s been holding down a job since you left, honey,” her mother reminded her.
“Freshman year is tough shit.”
“Watch your language! I’m sure Jon can handle it. Tuition is very expensive, you know.”
“Yeah, it is. He can stay for two years and then claim residency. It’ll reduce the annual fees by nearly seventy-five percent. Plus, he doesn’t have to pay for boarding, which cuts out eight thousand right there.”
“It’s more than we can afford, really.”
“And you know who to thank for that, now don’t we?”
“Stop it. I won’t have you talking about your father like that!”
“Whatever,” Vanessa mumbled and shoved some food into her mouth to keep it occupied from saying anything else.
Jonathan glanced back and forth at his mother and sister. He never found out the full story as to why his sister up and left when she was sixteen.
Chapter 27Author: zines@aol.com
These stories are for entertainment purposes only. They are completely fictitious, and the authors mean no harm to EMINEM, his family, friends, or anyone else that may have been depicted as a 'real life' character. No money was made on the fiction here, either directly or indirectly, i.e. paid advertising. In other words - it's just a bunch of shit we wrote for fun. Please don't take it seriously.