Book of Short Stories.

Anger from 1-10

Prompt: "...on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your anger? One being 'I'm so proud of you, here, take the keys to the car' and ten being 'the police will never find the body?'

Twelve.

Crap."

"Oh my God in Heaven. She is going to kill you." Elliot looks at the tear in his sisters dress.

"I know! What do I do?" A terrified look covers his face as he looks at me.

"Don't look at me like that. You ruined it, you fix it!"

"But you're her best friend, if you take the blame, she will forgive you much faster than she will me. You know that." I shake my head, turning to walk out of the mess I walked into. "Wait!" He grabs my hand to stop me. "Brandy, please help me. She'll be home any minute." As the last syllable leaves his lips, the door that leads to the garage from the kitchen, opens. Elliot shrieks like a little girl and bolts up the stairs.

"Who's screaming?" Mrs. Princeton walks in and sets her keys down on the island.

"Ethan." I reply in monotone.

"What did he do?" I laugh. She always knows when her son has done something wrong, because he reacts the same way every single time.

She then sees the problem.

"Oh, Evyn isn't going to be happy. ELLIOT! GET YOUR GLUTES DOWN HERE!" I stifle a giggle as he makes the walk of shame down the stairs.

"Hi, mom." He says.

"What did you do to your sister's gown?" She gets right to business.

"Well you see, I was pretending to be dancing with the girl I asked to the dance. Well, little miss Brandy over here, walked in and scared the beat out of my heart for what felt like a day and a half, resulting in me stepping on the hem of Evyn's dress, tripping and tearing it." He gives me a pointed look.

"Don't try to pin this on me. You were the one guilty as soon as you picked up the dress." I say crossing my arms.

"She's right, this is in no way, her fault. You better fix it. She'll be on her way from her hair appointment any minute now. So I suggest you start learning how to sew." Mrs. Princeton then walks out of the kitchen and into the private study. I turn back to see Ethan white as a sheet and pacing the floor.

"Stop that before you walk a hole into the tile." He looks at me with the same expression on his face as earlier.

"What do I do, Brandy? I will die today. How does that make you feel that your.." He looks toward the study and leans close to me, lowering his voice when he speaks again. "..secret boyfriend is going to be killed by your best friend?" He then leans back, picking up the pacing where he left off.

"It saves me the trouble of doing it later." I say in a sarcastic tone, that he can never read. His head snaps up and glares at me. "You won't die today. I'm planing on spending life with you, so you can't die." I walk up to him and place my right hand on his left cheek. He smiles a little bit and starts to lean in. The garage door opens, his eyes go wide and off he goes, up the stairs shrieking.

"God, that boy got his lungs from his momma. What did he do now?"

"Hi, Mr. Princeton. Elliot tore Evyn's dress. So how was your day?" He laughs at my casualness.

"It was good. How's my.." He looks around to see if anyone is listening. "..secret future daughter-in-law?" He whispers. I just blush and smile. He's known about Elliot and I since the beginning. Elliot asked him dating advice.

"Good." I whisper back. He gives me a bear hug and walks to the base of the staircase.

"Son, you can come down. It's just me." He looks at me and winks. He walks back over to me and whispers in my ear, "What he doesn't know is that Evyn is stopped at her aunts house around the corner getting jewelry for the dance." I laugh as soon as I see Elliot emerge from the stairs, and Mr. Princeton walks away.

"What were y'all talking about?" He eyes me suspiciously. I just smile and hug him. I go in for a kiss but he beats me to it. The world around me disappears and it's just Elliot and I. All noise fades, so I don't realize when there is a slamming of a door, or the gasp of an on-looker.

"What in the Sam Hill is this?" Elliot and I split, and look to see my best friend, his sister, Evyn, holding her dress up in our direction. Elliot can't react as he normally does because he's been caught. So he stands there, frozen, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. "Brandy? My brother? Really? You can do so much better. And you." She points directly at Elliot with a glare I am happy to not be on the other end of.

"I can explain-"

"Shut up. What did you do?" She walks slowly toward him.

"Just so I know what I'm up against, on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your anger? One being 'I'm so proud of you, here, take the keys to the car' and ten being, 'the police will never find the body?" He asks backing away from her to create distance that she is eliminating fast.

But she stops short and answers, "Twelve."

"Crap." Elliot makes a run for it but is no match for his twin sister, the track star. She grabs hold of him around the waist and puts on the brakes, only they do no justice. Elliot easily carries her behind him as if he's on the football field dragging a tire. "Mom! She's going to kill me! Help!" His shrieking reminded me of Oliver Oken's on Hannah Montana. I start laughing as the Princeton parentals enter the room.

"You will pay for this, Elliot. Say goodbye to your girlfriend, you won't see her in hell." Evyn seethes with anger. They wrestle a little more before the parents pull them apart, and I help guard Elliot.

"Evyn, you apologize for your words." Mrs. Princeton demands holding her daughter back from causing damage to her son.

"But mom-"

"Now, Evynelia." Evyn sighs and rolls her eyes.

"Fine, I'm sorry. I take the last half of my words back."

"Elliot, now you apologize for messing with your sister's dress."

"I'm really truly sorry." He states and he steps in front of me warily.

"Good. Now, Brandy, you know where the back up dress is? Get that out as well as your dress and go change, both of you. Elliot, you will be coming with me to learn how to sew this dress back together." Mrs. Princeton does not take funny business.

"Wait!" Evyn hollers before we all separate. "Care to explain what I walked in on? My twin brother sucking face with my best friend." She c****d her right hip out as she crossed her arms. I feel my face go such a dark shade of red, I hope I didn't look like a dark cherry. Elliot cleared his throat.

"Well, sister, you see, I've had feelings for Brandy since the moment we met her in the first grade. And well-"

"I knew all that. I read your journal, but that doesn't matter, I'm asking how long has this been going on?" I giggle as the Charlie Puth lyrics come to mind. "Don't Brandy." She knows me too well.

"Almost 8 months now." I answer softly stepping beside Elliot. He wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me close to reassure me.

"Well it was about freaking time! God, you people. Elliot, break her heart, and I'll break your nose. Brandy, break his heart and I'll break your leg. All right, let's get ready. We have four hours until we have to be there. LET'S GO PEOPLE." And with that as her closing statement, The Evyn Princeton, walks up the stairs dragging me behind her, and leaving her family members to share a look of 'What in the blazes just happened'

I will never understand my best friend completely, but I'm glad I'm not the only one.