I keep staring at my phone screen, open to a Google page, carefully reading through the steps to exorcise Amanda.
Jesus, if you're real, please don't let me end up in Hell for traumatizing a little girl.
In my defense, I'm doing a service to humanity.I lift my gaze toward my father. "Okay, according to this site, 'Bible Today'—what kind of name is that, anyway?—it says the poor possessed person should be tied up. Apparently, the evil spirit controlling their body—these are the exact words—tends to get violent at the sight of holy water, a cross, or a Bible."
I look back at my dad, and we both turn simultaneously toward little Amanda, who’s smiling at us, completely clueless.
Dad smiles. "Alright Amanda, we're going to play a game. How about we pretend to be Indians? Does that sound fun?"
The little girl claps her hands and laughs.
Dad is pleased with this reaction. "Good. You'll be our prisoner, so we&rsqu
Skyler: S.O.S. emergency! Come to my house right now, I need you.That’s the message I just received. After spending the afternoon at Skyler’s with her family, I exchanged numbers with her, James, and with the chocolate bar, also known as Connor.I haven’t had lunch because Amanda ended up telling my mom that it was Dad and I who broke her favorite vase. So, she’s started ignoring us, even when it comes to cooking lunch or dinner. She refuses to cook for us at all, and given the incidents that have happened in the past when Dad or I tried to make anything that involved fire or appliances, we both refuse to even enter the kitchen, let alone make ourselves a sandwich.As soon as Mom leaves to hang out with her friends, Dad and I raid the pantry.I quickly put on my shoes and bolt down the stairs, rushing to get to the front door as fast as possible. I fling the door open, shout to my parents that I’m l
The volume of the music is really loud, so loud that I think I might go deaf as soon as I leave here.Jace and I came to the club, as we do every third Friday of the month. It has become a sort of tradition for us.Jace pulls me by the arm and we head to the bar.You can’t face a night like this without alcohol.Behind the bar is a girl with black hair, who immediately approaches us as soon as we sit on the stools.She smiles at us. “What can I get you?”My cousin shamelessly checks her out from head to toe, then winks at her and licks his upper lip. “You, if possible.”Stupid hormones. Jace acts like a girl with PMS who has her hormones on overdrive.The girl looks at him with disdain, then her gaze shifts to me. “What can I get you, beautiful?” With that, she opens a couple of buttons on her blouse to highlight her chest, and through all this, she’s looking at me and not Jace.
“Are you ready to see my new hair color?”I’m back at the Reid family house because Skyler asked me to come over right away, saying she needed to show me something super mega hyper important.This time I categorically refused to run to avoid falling into a manhole and ending up eaten by the clown instead of at the pond.As if that clown actually existed and could eat me. Aunt Mary’s cakes are scarier.Now we’re in the living room. James, Connor, and I are sitting on the couch while Skyler stands in front of us, with a yellow towel on her head.Connor sighs. “You keep dyeing your hair. Why are you making such a big deal about it now?”Sky points at me. “Because she’s a girl, and these things matter.”James looks at her confused. “So what are you and Connor doing here?”Skyler gasps theatrically, pretending to be shocked. “Oh, but you two aren’t g
“Sweetheart, put this in the car too,” my mother says to Dad.It’s been at least an hour that Mom keeps grabbing things to put in the car, as if we were moving to another continent.My mother is all excited; she loves the sea, while my father has the expression of someone who might as well just kill me, please.I chuckle watching them. “Mom, we’re only going to the beach for one day, not for a month.”She looks at me condescendingly while putting another bag in the car. “Yes, but what about the umbrella? And the deck chairs? And the towels? Let’s not forget the lunch, the drinks, the sunscreen so we don’t catch fire, the cards to pass the time, the flip-flops so our feet don’t burn, a spare swimsuit in case you lose a piece in the water, and I hope that doesn’t happen because it’s embarrassing. Then there’s also the straw hat for taking cute pictures, then you have to bring sung
“Woman, do you have any food?” I approach my mother, who immediately throws a towel in my face, along with some sand.I start rubbing my eyes, trying to get the sand off, and at some point, my dad shows up with a bucket full of water and dumps it on my face.My eyes burn even more since it was sea saltwater, so I start feeling around for my backpack, grab a bottle of water, and my towel to clean my eyes.I feel like they wanted to kill me, I swear. Now my eyes will be so red it’ll look like I just smoked a joint.I glare at the people who are supposed to be my parents, but right now they’re acting like two serial killers. “You know there’s another room for the baby in the house, so there’s no need to kill me to make space.”My dad makes a puppy-eyed face. “But I was just trying to save you; it’s your mother who’s the serial killer.”I blink a couple of times.But
I let my head drop onto the desk surface, now resigned to the idea of understanding anything.“I want to know who invented math,” I murmur, disheartened.I've been sitting in my room for at least two hours trying to do homework, but I don’t understand anything.Out of twelve expressions I've worked on, only two were correct.The most ironic thing is that on the last day of school, the teachers bid farewell to the students saying, “Have a good vacation and have fun. Make sure to do your homework.”It’s a unique contradiction.Or you get the teacher who, since June of the year before, couldn’t wait for the vacations to come back, and therefore says goodbye to everyone by saying, “See you in September, you little brats!”Well, my chemistry teacher was part of the second category and, thank God, he refused to give us any summer homework. His justification was, “Then I’ll have to check th
“So, Brianna, do you have a boyfriend?” It’s been about fifteen minutes since Mrs. Porter and I have been chatting.Or rather, she keeps asking me questions while I keep answering, hoping to escape as soon as possible.“Good, good, the boyfriend is with someone else!” I hope that by using my terrible jokes, Mrs. Porter will stop inviting me to her house.Now that I think about it… what is Mrs. Porter’s first name?I have no idea.It’s almost normal talking to her when she’s not rambling on about her husband.“Did you see Mike? What did I tell you? Boys today aren’t as faithful as they used to be.”Scratch that.Then she turns to me. “You know, Brianna? Before I met Mike, I was with a guy I thought was really the love of my life. And do you know what he did?”Someone please pull me out of this conversation.I shake my head in denial.
I'm comfortably lying on my bed, face down with my legs bent in the air, and I have no idea what to do.Today I was only supposed to work in the morning, and now I’m just bored.My parents have come in at least twice each, saying that instead of lying around doing nothing, I could do my homework. It goes without saying that I laughed every time.I decide to text Carly since, now that I think about it, it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other. Apparently, I’ve been too caught up with the Reid family.I try to video call her, but she doesn’t answer, and after about thirty seconds, I hang up. I try several more times, but she never picks up.How strange; Carly is usually glued to her phone.Then I check the time and realize it’s the middle of the afternoon, and it’s summer.Carly is probably sleeping.I look around for something to do, and my gaze lands on the computer.If this
December 24We called Jase, Skyler, and Connor to help us prepare tomorrow's lunch. We spent the afternoon cooking, and while everything is ready, we also made a lot of disasters.Skyler burned two oven mitts; James mixed up the salt with sugar in the cake batter, which we had to redo; I, to avoid letting the egg roll off the table, dropped the pack of 6 eggs I was holding, and I couldn't even save the one that was rolling away; Jase put the turkey in the oven but forgot to turn it on, realizing after an hour; and Connor decided to taste everything instead of cooking, which is why we discovered James's mistake before it was too late.Before the guys arrived, I took off my ring with James's agreement. We want to tell our families at tomorrow's lunch, when we are all together. As for the baby, we won’t say anything until the first trimester is over. We're willing to pay a criminal to kidnap our moms for three months to avoid the pre
December 23I touch the ring on my left ring finger, happy. Last night was one of the best moments of my life. I can't believe that James loves me so much that he wants to spend his entire life with me and my bad luck.We're starting our family, and today I plan to tell him I'm pregnant. This morning I went to buy a sombrero, just in case he wants to run away to Mexico. I've been feeling nauseous ever since I thought my period was coming, but I haven’t started running to the bathroom every morning yet. I just had to hide the nausea and dizziness and pretend everything was fine so I wouldn’t worry James or make him suspicious.I’ve hidden the test in the bathroom, among the pads. There’s no reason for him to open that drawer.Now, in my hands, I have a little box with the proof that I’m pregnant. I walk out of the bathroom and go to find James, who’s in our room. He’s lying on the bed, loo
22 DecemberJamesWhile Skyler is responsible for keeping Brianna away from home until evening without making her suspect anything, I prepare the surprise for my girl: a romantic dinner to give her my Christmas gift in advance.I’ve set up the small table in the living room and scattered candles and rose petals all over the room. I’ve already lit the candles, tempting fate. I hope the house doesn’t catch fire while I’m not looking.Comet has already eaten, so she’ll be in a food coma all evening and won’t try to steal our dinner.I go upstairs to grab the gift, but before reaching my nightstand, I stop in front of the mirror. I examine my figure carefully, making sure everything is in order. I want this night to be perfect. Once I’m satisfied that everything is good, I open the third drawer of my nightstand and retrieve the little box hidden under my underwear, sli
December 21"I saw a video where this guy was hiding gifts inside household items, wrapping them up and making it look like the gift was something else. Do you think we could do that too?" I glance away from my phone to look at James, who’s lying next to me on the couch."And what exactly would you want to do?""I don’t know, like, we could put the wine-tasting tickets on a ladder and wrap the ladder up."James looks at me, confused. "But we don’t even have a ladder.""Well, this is the perfect chance to buy one.""You should think of something else." He adjusts himself on the couch, folding his arms behind his head. His shirt lifts slightly, revealing a part of his stomach. I get distracted from my idea and stare at him, hoping his shirt will lift more."Brianna?""Yes?" I look up and meet his eyes."When I told you to think of something else, I meant the gifts." He smirks.
December 20I’m three weeks pregnant. This is the result of the blood tests I picked up this morning. There are no longer any doubts that a life is forming inside me.Since I found out, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about my future as a mother. I already see myself tumbling down the stairs with the baby in my arms. Or forgetting to pick him up from school, like a couple of times happened with my brother. Or forgetting that I’m a mother and freaking out when I find a child in my house.The last one, though, happened to my mom.One thing is certain: James will want to dress him up as a consequence.Even though his last name will be Reid, he still has the blood of the Lester family. This means that from the moment he steps into the outside world, his life will be a series of bad luck, crazy events, falling paintings, people seeing ghosts, restaurants banning him, alcoholic relatives or ones with onlin
December 19thWhen the alarm goes off, I feel nausea sweeping over me. And it’s not morning sickness, but anxiety from the blood test.Damn needles.“What time is it?” James mumbles from under the covers.“Seven twenty in the morning.”He slowly turns toward me. “Why are you waking up so early?”Oh nothing, just going to check if you got me pregnant.“Because I have a tyrannical mother who decided to go shopping early and will pick me up in twenty minutes.” I rub my face with my hands, trying to wake up. The only thing I want to do right now is go back to sleep.“And since when does your mom want to leave the house this early?”I look at James with one eyebrow raised. Why the hell does he need to ask so many questions so early in the morning? I’ll run out of answers soon. “The real question is: has she ever acted norma
December 18Once, as teenagers, Carly and I had a delay, so we took pregnancy tests. Actually, the delay was one day for her and two for me, and at the time, our cycles weren’t regular. But once you start having an active sex life, anxiety is always lurking around the corner. Those minutes of waiting were endless, and seeing the negative result was a relief. We were teenagers, too young for a pregnancy, and not independent.But now I’m an adult—although my parents would have something to say about that—I live with my partner, and I have a job. Yet, as I sit on the bathroom floor with a positive pregnancy test in my hands, I feel like a teenager: terribly scared. Why did I take the test this time? Because the delay was a week, and ironically, many of the symptoms of a period are the same as those of pregnancy.James is out with his brother and my cousin, and the only sound in the house is Cometa barking, looking f
16 | COMETDecember 16I park the car in the driveway and turn to the back seat, looking at my gift. A Golden Retriever puppy meets my gaze, wagging its tail.“Now let’s go surprise your owner, shall we?” I reach toward the puppy and gently scratch its muzzle. “But first, we need to finish getting you ready.” An adorable bark fills my ears. I grab a reindeer antler headband from the seat next to me and place it on the puppy. I check that the tag with her name and number is secure, then pick her up and step out of the car.I walk up to the front door and, instead of using the keys to get in, I ring the doorbell.“I’m coming!” I hear James’s footsteps approaching. As soon as he opens the door, his eyes lock on the animal in my arms, and he looks shocked.The puppy keeps wagging her tail, so I hand her over to James and exclaim, “Merry Christm
December 15thJeremy“Wow, so many elves!” Aisha looks excited.The room is filled with people dressed as elves. I’m not sure I still like elves, not after they ate my cereal and tried to dunk my toothbrush in the toilet.“There are so many people,” I say, watching the line of people in front of us. James and Brianna brought us to Santa’s house, and now we’re waiting in line to tell him what we want for Christmas.“Lots of kids want to see Santa,” Brianna says, running a hand through my hair.“Why are we waiting in line when we could just wait for him at home by the fireplace?” That way, we could eat chocolate chip cookies and drink milk together—hoping the elves don’t steal my cookies.“Because this way, he can hear what you want today and then bring it to you on Christmas by coming through the chimneys,&rdqu