All Grown Up

by Grubor, Sadie

  "Oh."

  "That’s it? Just, ‘oh’?" She looked furious with me.

  "Well…I mean, we haven’t been talking or hanging out really at all. I guess I should’ve expected it to happen." She was looking at me like I was an idiot. "What? It’s not all his fault, Mina, and you know it."

  "Chloe Michele Fisher! It’s not a matter of fault. It’s the fact that he went behind your back instead of breaking it off with you first!" She was right.

  "That Asshole!"

  "That’s more like it, Fisher!" She nodded her head once in approval. "Now, what are we going to do about it?"

  We sat down and decided that I would simply call him because seeing his face would make me punch him. It was a little irrational, seeing as we should have broken it off a while ago, but I was pissed. So I called and ended it with Lucas. I told him off, explaining that he was an asshole for going behind my back.

  After hanging up, Mina picked up her phone and looked at me while she was doing it. "You know what this means right?"

  In unison, we exclaimed, "Fuck Men Night!"

  "Roni, it's Mina," she spoke into her phone and told Roni what happened with Lucas. "So you know what that means this weekend."

  "YEP!" She laughed. "Meet us at my house tomorrow afternoon so we can get ready." With that, she hung up.

  Chapter Eight

  Fuck Men

  Chloe

  I woke up Thursday morning around nine at Christy and Randy’s place to the sound of Michele crying and Christy clanging around the kitchen. I stretched and groggily headed into the kitchen.

  "Morning." Christy hadn’t seen me and she jumped.

  "Sheesh, Chloe, I didn’t hear you coming" she half giggled. Michele was crying in her arms and Christy was trying to get a bottle warmed up for her.

  "You need some help?" I reached for Michele and started walking her around patting her bottom.

  "Thanks, Chloe. Randy had to get to work early this morning and I didn’t want to wake you after you stayed so long for us yesterday with Michele." She smiled as she finished getting the bottle ready and walked over, taking Michele to feed her.

  "It was no big deal. You know I absolutely love watching her." I yawned out.

  "Do you want something to eat?" Christy asked without looking up.

  "Nah. I have to meet Mina and Roni in a couple of hours, so I better get going." The thought of Lucas and our break up started to really sink back in and my voice was reflecting that.

  "You okay?" I nodded to answer Christy’s question but I told her about what happened last night. "Oh, Chloe, you should’ve called me. We could have come home earlier and…"

  I cut her off. "Christy, I would never have done that. Yeah, it hurts a little, but it’s not like it was the love of my life crushing me. Lucas was a great friend and we cared about each other. Well, at least he used to care about me. I guess that’s what hurts the most. He didn’t care to talk to me before….UGH! I don’t even want to talk about it anymore." I side smiled at her. "It will all be dealt with Saturday." I smirked.

  "Ahhh…." Christy caught on. She had taken part in many of our ‘man hating nights’ after different break ups. "It’s one of those nights." She laughed. "Well, just remember that I’m not far away. If you need me, call me."

  I got up and hugged her tightly, kissed Michele on the head and headed home.

  I was taking my last step onto Mina’s balcony from the tree house when I overheard Roni’s voice. "So that fucker was making out with Heidi?! Eww!"

  "Quit discussing my personal life without me, tramps!" I shouted as I walked into Mina’s room.

  Mina spun around on her bed smiling. "It’s about time you got over here!" I rolled my eyes.

  "Mina, I’m early. You told Roni afternoon and it’s only a little past eleven." I sat down at her computer desk and started messing around with the new monitors we had gotten for her.

  "Step away from the computer, super geek." Roni came over to pull me away by my arm. "We have plans to make for tomorrow night." You could hear the eagerness in her voice. Roni loved these nights.

  I yanked my arm away. "I have a lot of work to do in order to get this all working correctly. Cut me some slack, Roni." I resumed looking over Mina’s computer configurations. "Besides, you guys always plan all this out and I just show up. It’s the way we roll." I smiled widely at them, knowing that they would just shake their heads and laugh.

  "Leave Gates over there to do her thing" Mina chimed in. "Besides, I can’t wait for those touch screens to be set up with the new program she designed for me." She grinned at me widely before her and Roni sat together on the bed to discuss Friday night.

  I spent Thursday night at home with Dad, Judith and Roni. They had complained that they never saw us and that we needed to spend time together before Roni left for college. Roni and I had agreed with them.

  After dinner Roni and I sat in our room doing our own thing. Roni was reading over some car magazines and I was on my computer working on Mina’s fashion program that I promised to have done by the end of the summer. Mina was going into fashion design and merchandising, so the program that I was putting together gave her the ability to design electronically. She would be able to enter measurements, textiles, textures, shapes and anything else she needed for her virtual creations. I knew that Mina was going to be famous. It was inevitable. Looking at Roni, you would think that she was destined to be the hottest model and/or actress. However, Roni was an enigma. She knew she was attractive but she was ridiculously smart. Mechanics were her thing. She could rebuild an engine. Hell, she could build a car from scratch if she wanted to. She also loved the shock that came across people’s faces when they became aware of just how smart she was when it came to cars and mechanics. She was going to major in Mechanical Engineering and I would love to be there the first time her professors and fellow students got to soak in her looks before hearing her ramble out the mechanical aspects of some piece of machinery. Just the thought made me smile.

  "What are you smiling about? Did you hack the national treasurer?" Roni giggled.

  "Har-har-har. I was just thinking about the first time you enter a mechanics class full of testosterone and then blow their minds with your intellect." I smirked and she smiled huge. We discussed her dorm arrangements and college a little as we both got ready for bed.

  Most of Friday was spent gathering things that Mina thought we would need for tonight. Roni was in charge of music, I was in charge of food and drinks and Mina, well, Mina was in charge of everything else.

  Mina was already at the beach when Roni and I arrived. She had wood already piled in a fire pit and four tiki torches set up. I shook my head. "Jesus Christ," Roni sighed out in disbelief. "You would think that by now I would be used to her, but sometimes she still just…"

  "Freaks you out?" I smirked at Roni.

  "Yeah!" She laughed.

  "She could take over the world, I’m telling you." I grabbed the blankets and the cooler heading towards Mina.

  As soon as my toes touched the sand, I felt the night begin. It was time for frustration, anger and hurt to be released. These nights were always held in honor of bad break-ups, but they were so much more than that. It was a night where we could let it all out, completely release our stress and just let go; it was empowering. Girl bonding at its finest.

  "Finally!" Mina shouted as she ran up and grabbed the cooler from me. "What took so long? I was gonna start without you."

  "Well, since I’m the one who got cheated on, I would like to thank you for waiting on me." I laid on as much sarcasm as I could and chuckled.

  We were all sitting around on blankets, our legs crossed, listening to a random playlist that Roni had put together while eating some sandwiches that Elaine had made for us. It was almost time to start the ‘ritual’ of the evening. Mina started digging through the cooler for a drink when she blurted out "Chloe, I love you so much!"

  I looked up at her smiling. I knew she had found the vodka. "W
hat did she get?" Roni questioned, trying to peek over Mina’s shoulder. Mina sat back with three different bottles; blueberry, watermelon, and raspberry vodka. They were our personal favorites: watermelon was Mina’s, raspberry was Roni’s, and blueberry was mine. Roni smiled at me appreciatively.

  Mina grabbed the traditional cups (pilsner cups that have rainbow light up effects at the bottom), filled them with ice and our preferred vodka. After passing the drinks out, we gave our toast.

  "Here’s to the men we love. Here’s to the men who love us. Here’s to the men that we love that don’t love us; FUCK THE MEN LET’S DRINK TO US!" We said in unison, laughing. Ah, thank you Willa Ford.

  Man bashing ensued. We trash talked past boyfriends, joked about guys and ragged on men in general. We laughed, we joked, we got pissed off, we screamed. It is so liberating and ridiculous. They say laughter is the key part of healing, so we laughed and laughed.

  "Okay, okay…" Mina broke up our hysterics. "It’s dedication time!" She smiled and pulled out her IPod as I grabbed mine. "Okay, Roni, you first." Dedication time was where we each took turns choosing songs that described our mood for the evening.

  "Alright, first song is…drum roll please…" Roni stood up and we followed suit, making a drum roll sound as we did so. "Loser by Saving Jane!" she plugged her IPod into the radio and started it. We laughed and started dancing around wildly, loudly singing the words to each other.

  Once the song ended, Mina picked her first. "Okay, my first song, Don’t Bother by Shakira." I saw a gleam in Mina’s eye and knew this one was going out to Oliver. She plugged in and hit play, as we started moving to the beat, singing the lyrics.

  "Okay, my first song for the night…" I smiled since it was one of my favorites. "You Oughta Know by Alanis Morrisette." Roni smiled. We started singing, once again, to the gritty lyrics, getting louder and louder while our inner angry rock stars’ made their debut. The song ended and we collapsed to the ground. Pouring another drink, we each sat in silence for a moment, lazily sipping.

  Mina spoke up first. "Okay, song two…" She stood and we followed. "Smile by Adele" she hit play and we started up again. Roni’s second choice was Caught out There by Kelis and mine was I Can Do Better by Avril Lavigne.

  By the time we got to the end of our ‘Fuck the Men’ night we were extremely drunk, loud and barely able to walk. It was perfect, just what we needed. I sat up to take one last drink and play the ‘last song’. It was tradition that the last song was always ‘A Toast to Men’ by Willa Ford. The song started and we let our drunkenness take over, singing and laughing loudly to the anthem of the night.

  Leo

  "I can’t believe we are already driving back to Tillamook, dude." Max grumbled from the passenger seat of the truck.

  "Look, Mom is giving us the leather couches from the basement, along with some other stuff like the flat screen television for the new place. So suck it up." I shot back at him. He straightened up.

  "I guess it’s worth it but, still, couldn’t we do it another weekend?"

  "You have practice starting up again. This is the best time to do it." I rolled my eyes at him. He was whining worse than a girl.

  "Fine." Max huffed and then sighed. "What’s up with you and that Eve girl? I haven’t seen her for a while." Max had his head thrown back onto the seat with his right foot up on the dash of the rented truck.

  "Nothing." I shrugged.

  "Yeah. So, did you drop her or did she drop you?" He smirked.

  "It just wasn’t working out between us. We were just too different." I shrugged again.

  "In other words, you got tired of another girl and moved on…again," he chuckled.

  "Fuck you. I don’t see you settling down, my man-whore of a friend." I shot back.

  "Dude, I don’t make them my girlfriend knowing that I am going to get tired of them and have to go through all that, ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ bullshit," he laughed, "you are a glutton for punishment, man."

  "So, what? I shouldn’t even attempt? I should just tell them that I want them to fuck me and then leave?" I cocked my eyebrow at him.

  "That is so not…okay, well, I have done that, but that’s not what I am saying. I don’t make any promise I can’t keep, dude. I tell them up front that I don’t want anything serious and that it is just hanging out for fun. If they can’t handle that then that is their choice. I don’t lie to anyone." He was being smug now.

  "I don’t lie to them." I spit at him.

  "Dude, you lie to yourself!" I was going to counter him but he stopped me. "Can you pull over somewhere soon so I can eat? I am starving."

  We finally arrived to my parent’s house late Friday afternoon. After loading up the truck with the furniture, we sat down to eat some sandwiches that my mom had made for us.

  "Mom, where’s Mina? I haven’t seen or heard her since I’ve been here." I leaned over my plate and took a large bite.

  "Oh, the girls went down to the beach." She had a small smile on her face when she said it.

  "Is there a beach par…fire there tonight?" Max asked with his mouth full. I slapped his arm and my mom chuckled at us.

  "I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so." She started cleaning up the kitchen.

  "So, they are just on the beach while it’s getting dark? Shouldn’t they be heading back by now?" I questioned.

  "Leo," Mom turned and gave me a stern look, "leave your sister alone. She is going to be eighteen and it’s only the beach. Kenneth has the officers patrol down there all the time, even with your parties." Damn, Mom knew about the parties. I should’ve suspected as much, she’s too fucking smart.

  "Alright, alright." I hunched my shoulders forward in defeat. Max raised an eyebrow at me as my mom walked out of the room. I turned to him. "Don’t you worry, I’m checking that shit out as soon as we can get away without my mom being suspicious." I grinned.

  Max chuckled. "Dude, you are hilarious! I think that you are going to sleep between Mina and her husband when she goes on her honeymoon!" He laughed so loud, I had to cover my ear.

  After cleaning up from eating and coming up with the excuse that I was taking Max over to his house for a little while to hang out, we borrowed my dad’s car and headed to the beach.

  We pulled up to the parking area and parked beside Mina’s car. Stepping out of the car, we could hear the music and the fire from where we stood. Max and I started heading toward them but were stopped by a voice.

  "I would stay here if I were you." Max and I turned to see Christy sitting on the hood of Chloe’s truck.

  "What?" Max asked her as we walked over to her.

  "I said, I would stay away if I were you." She smiled.

  "Why is that?" I asked her looking back to the fire. I noticed that it was just the three of them singing and dancing.

  "Well this is a ‘girl’s’ night, so to say. It’s sort of a tradition after a break-up or a really bad time in one of our lives." Christy’s eyes stayed on the girls while she spoke.

  "So, why are you up here and not down there?" Max asked.

  "I only came over to check and make sure they were okay. I have to get back to Michele and Randy. I’ll be back to check on them again before I go to bed. There is a chance of rain and I don’t want them to attempt to drive after all the drinking that goes down." She jumped off the truck and was about to turn to go when I stopped her.

  "Christy, is Mina okay? I mean you said that these nights are because of…" she stopped me.

  "No, no, it’s not Mina. Chloe and Lucas broke up. He cheated on her. This night is for her." She seemed to be searching my face for something but I wasn’t sure what. How could he cheat on her? He’s a dumbass.

  "Oh." This was the most intelligent thing I could conjure up at the moment.

  "I would stay away. They tend to get pretty brutal towards men on these nights." She laughed as if she was remembering when she was down there.

  "Christy," it was Max that stopped her this time, "we’ll keep an
eye on them, okay? If need be, I’ll crash down here with them to make sure nothing happens, or I’ll take them back to Leo’s parents."

  "Thanks, Max." Christy waved and left.

  Max and I both sat down on the edge of the sand and watched the girls dance, laugh and sing. They were clearly drunk, but also hilarious to watch. I looked over to see Max with a strange look on his face. I followed his gaze, trailing it back to Roni and every move she made.

  "Ahem," I cleared my throat and laughed.

  "What?" he snapped out at me.

  "Oh, nothing, Mr. I Don’t Make Them Girlfriends." I chuckled. It had become very clear what the look on his face was after he watched Veronica.

  "You don’t know what you are talking about." He said with a little too much conviction.

  "Are you trying to convince me or yourself of that?" I laughed again.

  "Shut the fuck up, dude! She is just hot…that’s all." He shrugged.

  "Yeah, yeah, yeah." I shook my head. "You know, it’s not a bad thing, Max, to actually be with one person and not a bunch of different girls." I kept my eyes on the girls who were winding down but still laughing.

  Max was silent for a moment before he said anything. "You should take your own advice, dear Leo." I laughed lightly.

  Then it went silent. The laughing stopped and so did the music. Max and I walked slowly toward the fire, they had all curled up and fell asleep.

  "Hmmm…do we take them back or leave them here?" Max looked at me.

  "I’m honestly not sure what to do." I looked at him then back to the girls.

  "Well, I’m thinking that we should probably get them to your house," Max spoke as he knelt down to Roni and lifted her up.

  "Okay…then let’s…" just then I heard a low rumble and looked to the sky to see that dark clouds had rolled in over the water. “I guess we should get moving, just in case that hits soon." I turned to see Max carrying Roni back toward my car.

  I started packing up their stuff as Max walked back. He put out the fire and picked up Chloe. The moment he had her in his arms, I felt that damn twinge in my stomach again. I pushed it aside and picked Mina up, carrying her to her car. We went back, grabbed all of their things and drove the cars back to the house.