Unexpected

Unexpected(Darlene Helminen) SLAM!
The bang of the door didn’t even make me flinch. It could only be my brother’s annoying friend Drew, rattling the windows to announce his presence. I swear every little thing he did was directed towards trying to irritate me. I was so used to this by now, though, that I just tuned it out. I knew exactly what was about to happen. I could picture him coming up behind me in his faded jeans and t-shirt. Drew’s skinny, but toned (I hate to admit) frame, with the perfectly spaced freckles across the nose and joking brown eyes, would saunter into the kitchen with some stupid joke about how I look. He would shake the mop of brown hair out of his eyes, then head to the fridge to help himself to a Mountain Dew and an apple. Next, he would plop down at the table across from me and distract me from my homework, crunching the apple and taking big slurping gulps of Dew with his feet up on the chair next to him. After which he would pick up the newspaper I had brought in, and scan through it, waiting for my brother to come in grinning stupidly from talking to his girlfriend on the phone.

I waited a beat for Drew’s work boots to hit the linoleum of the kitchen floor behind me. They did, but not in their usual way. Today they didn’t sound as heavy, and they didn’t go right past to the fridge, but stopped near me.

“WARNING,” my mind screamed to me. My fingers froze on the keyboard of my Mac. There had to be some trick up his sleeve.
I watched out of the corner of my eye as Drew sat down in the chair next to me. He put his elbows up on the table with his chin in his hands. I tried to ignore him, tried to go back to my essay, but this change totally derailed my train of thought. I figured that as soon as I looked up at him, he would make some crack about my appearance. Today I had a short, summery dress on which “perfectly exposed my tanned arms and legs,” (according to my best friend), and my long blonde hair done up all curly and pulled back with bobby pins. I liked to try out all kinds of different clothes, but I had never gone for such a girly look before.

To my surprise, he silently continued to stare at me. I could feel it, yet I pretended to be deep in thought, typing on my computer. The words on the screen were gibberish. When was the last time Drew made even the slightest change in his routine?

When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I shut my computer and turned to look at him.
“What are you staring at?” I demanded, expecting some smart response.
“A pretty face,” he said simply. There was no joke hiding behind his words, or in his eyes.
How quickly things can change between a girl and a boy.