Broken Life CH2

Standing in the middle of the door way, Alex dropped all of his things as soon as his eyes fell on me standing next to April. A huge smile spread across his face as his eyes swept over me. In all honesty Alex and I haven’t seen each other in about three years.

He never came home for the holidays, but he would call every now and then to at least check on me. I smiled back and left April’s side, jumping up into Alex’s waiting arms for a long overdue hug.

Alex had always taken care of me before mom passed, and I trusted him enough to know he wouldn’t do to me what Robert and Cameron did. But I still never told him what happened in fear that he wouldn’t believe me, of that he would get hurt trying to protect me if he did. This was my problem to bare.

Alex sat me back on my feet and placed his hand on my shoulder giving me a once over. “Man, my little baby Tori is all grown up.” He said with a smile. I blushed a little, “Well it has been a little more than 2 years since you’ve last seen me.” I retorted. “Very true Tori. So have you met my Pheobe yet?” he asked as he walked over to Pheobe who was now standing in the kitchen holding a diet coke.

“Um… Not really. Once I got here April rushed me to my room to set up.” I told him, leaving out how Pheobe didn’t even spare a second glance at me when I came in the room. “Oh well Tori this is Pheobe Turner. Pheobe this is my little sister Tori” Alex said as he walked back over with Pheobe.

“Nice to meet you.” I said with a small smile trying to be polite. “Like wise.” She said before walking back over to the table and picking up her magazine. “I’ll go see if Jaden is ready.” April said as she left down the guy’s hall towards Clay and Jaden’s room.

“So Tori how’s good old dad doing?” Alex asked as her plopped down on the couch next to Clay. “Robert? Oh well he’s doing fine I suppose, same as usual.” I said standing behind him and Clay while leaning against the couch.

“You know I never understood why you always called him Robert and never dad.” Alex said as he shook his head. I just stood there trying to think of something to say. Lucky for me April walked back into the room at the same moment.

“Jaden says to head out, and he’ll catch up with us after he showers and changes.” She announced. “Alright let’s head out then. Tori you can ride with April and Clay since I’m sure she has already decided that were shopping first before eating dinner.” Alex said as he got up from the couch and walked over to the closet grabbing his jacket and one other that he helped Pheobe into and his keys.

April grabbed my coat and tossed it to me before grabbing her own coat and pulling it on as she grabbed her keys off the counter. We were out of the dorm and in the cars in a matter of minutes. April drove a nice new steel color 2009 Nissan Cube, and Alex had upgraded his old pickup for a Black 2008 Ford Expedition.

We drove down the streets towards the mall, parking off to the side before getting out. A light breeze was blowing as we excited the cars and made our way into the mall. “Alright Tori, Pheobe, and I will go do some shopping, and you guys can just do whatever until Jaden shows up. I told him to meet us here.” April said as she linked arms with me and Pheobe.

We walked away from the guys and towards bed, bath, and beyond. “Okay Tori, what colors do you want for your side of the room?” she asked as we entered the store. I thought about it for a moment remembering that all of her stuff was black and lime green.

“Um… Well I don’t want our things to clash so why don’t we just stick to black and how about a sapphire blue, it will really match well with the green.” I said and watched as April just smiled a knowing smile and nodded her head in agreement.

We walked around the store a bit looking at a few different bedding sets. We finally settled on a black and blue set with floral embroidery detailing, and a cotton thread count of 200. Once we had the bedding April somehow talked me into clothes shopping, a new outfit for the first day of school as well as a new pair of pajamas I was lucky that was all she bought for me.

The first outfit she picked out was a pair of black skinny jeans, a dark blue long sleeve shirt and black vest for the top, and a pair of three inch heeled boots, and with those I really didn’t know how I was going to survive the first day of school.

My pajamas were a sapphire blue chiffon nightie with a sweetheart neckline and a bow detail in black, complete with a matching robe, thank goodness.

Finally April announced that we were finished shopping. Pheobe and April had twice as many bags as I did. As we were walking back towards Alex and Clay, a third person had joined them. His back was to me and all I could see was that he had messy black hair on the top of his head. His black shirt read ‘Zanolio’ on the back in red letters and he was wearing a pair of blue jeans.

Alex and Clay left his side the help April and Pheobe with their bags, I refused as I was only carrying two bags and could easily do it myself. The five of us walked back over to join the last member of our party.
It was April though that cleared her voice to speak. “Jaden this is Victoria Michaels, Alex’s sister. Tori this is Jaden Zanolio, my older brother.” As she said this Jaden turned around to face the rest of us, and I was met with a pair of deep chocolate brown eyes.

“Nice to finally meet the famous Victoria Michaels.” He said as he held out his hand to me. I looked at him confused for a moment by what he just said and then set one of my bags down to shake his hand. “Um… Nice to meet you too.” I said placing my hand in his and shaking once, I dropped his hand immediately as I felt a shock jolt my hand.

He smiled crookedly at me for a moment before reaching down and picking up the bag I head set down. “You don’t have to I can…” I began before he raised his hand to stop me, “I wouldn’t be a gentleman if I let you carry this yourself.” He said with a smile as we all turned and left the mall.