Chapter Four

Ainsley

     “Mom, that’s not fair!” Ainsley exclaimed.

     “You have responsibilities, just like every one else in this family! Until you learn that, you aren’t to step foot in another party, sleepover, or…anything else!” Ainsley slammed the cupboard door closed and turned to face her mom.

     “But-”

     “I don’t want to hear another word out of you unless it’s productive!” The woman’s face meant business, Ainsley knew that. She never seemed to know why her mother was angry lately because it seemed she was always angry at someone- mostly at Ainsley, but her attention was often pointed at the dog, her little brother, her father.

     “It’s Tyler, isn’t it?” She challenged.

     “It’s not him, it’s just…Maybe you should go take a walk or something?” Her mom dismissed her with a wave of her hand and began doing some more dishes, whipping the towel around and slamming the dishes down as hard as possible without actually breaking anything.

     Ainsley sighed. While it was hard to be angry at her mother, it wasn’t impossible.

     “I will take a walk.” She said, and put on her sweatshirt. When she was taking it off the hook, the leash underneath jingled, sending the family German Shepherd running at her.

     “Maia, I’m not gonna take you.” She said, ignoring the dog’s attempt at getting a walk.

  &nbsProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0   “Take the stupid dog.” Her mother shouted, unnecessarily angry about it.

     “I never get to make my own decisions around here. I can’t wait ‘til I move out.” Ainsley grumbled as she hooked Maia up to the leash. She was still muttering under her breath as she went down the driveway, walked down the street, and entered the park.

She slowly crossed the park to the shoreline, where the grass became sand.

     “Hey, is that Aine?” She heard someone say. When she turned around, she saw an assorted group of kids from her school. She could set Pen apart from the rest by her bright red hair. She was pretty much attached to a boy, who Ainsley identified as Cameron Barker, Pen’s long-term boyfriend.

     “Oh my God, it ta-hoh-tally is! We need to go, like, talk to her!” That was Pen speaking, her loud, bubbly voice carrying in the warm evening air.

     “I dunno, she kinda looks like she wants to be alone.” Jefferson said. She turned back around to discretely watch them. She noticed Diana wasn’t with Jefferson and made a mental note to see if they had broken up or something.

     Well, at least Pen didn’t seem all that disappointed to not be having the sleepover. She seemed to be rebounding with all those kids, smiling and flouncing around, giggling at this, responding to that. Ainsley sighed. She knew she should have felt lucky to even be kind-of friends with someone as popular as Pen, but seeing her with all of her other friends empathized her loneliness.

     Despite all of the arguments about it, Pen bounced up to Ainsley, laying her bony hand on her shoulder.

     “Hey!” She shrieked, while Ainsley tried to keep from flinching.

     “Hey,”

     “Ehmigawd! Okay, so I saw this supergorgeus guy at the mall today, right? And I immediately thought about my poor little friend, all alone without a boyfriend, so I went over and said hi. And get this: He was British,” Ainsley tried to look interested, but she wasn’t sure how well she was doing. She loved Pen to death, but honestly, she could talk for hours and never really get around to the point.

     “Cool,”

     “Wait, because I haven’t, like, gotten to why I came over here! Anyway, I told him to come hang out with us, right? And he was all like Yeah totally, and he came!”

     “Really?”

     “Yup, he’s the adorable one over there,” She pointed over to a blond guy with that just-got-out-of-bed thing going on with his hair. Pen was right, he did have a certain charm. When he saw Pen pointing at him, he gave a little half wave. Ainsley looked at Pen, who was almost radiating pride at her matchmaking skills, and back to the boy, who looked lonely dispite being in the midst of a large crowd.

     “Well, if he is British…”