The rest of the school week passed in a jiffy. No drama, no story to tell. The school was boring. I missed my old school with my old friends...not my old life though. I definitely did not miss that damned orphanage centre.
I rarely hung out with the Peter's squad. I preferred to be alone most of the time although there were days I would stumble upon one of them in the hallway during lunch, mostly Peter, then I would have no other excuse but to hang out with them. They smoked a lot, every morning before school and in the afternoon, but who was I to judge?
Mrs. Baker finally took me shopping on Saturday morning while she dropped Tyler at a friend's house and Timothy remained at home sleeping his lazy ass off. We barely even talked. The car rides to school were always awkward and once we got to school, we were total strangers.
Tyler was less shy now, he was so sweet and very kind. He always tried to include me in whatever he was doing.
After the long day of shopping for clothes I never thought I would wear, and a day at the salon, getting my nails and hair done unwillingly, by the way. Mrs. Baker was way more excited than I was.
"You should call me Sara," she always said but I never got past calling her Mrs. Baker.
Mrs. Baker took Tyler and I back home as she went back to work. We got in the house, as Tyler helped me carry all the heavy shopping bags full of clothes.
"Oh, you're back." We found Timothy on his way up the stairs, holding two glasses of orange juice.
"You don't look too excited to see us," I mocked at his tone. "Not even a helping hand with the bags," I frowned.
"Girl power, right?" He smirked, "Hey little bro." He smiled at Tyler.
"Sup. Riley and I are going to play in my room so you and your 'friend' can continue with whatever you are doing," Tyler gave him an all knowing smirk.
"Friend?" I asked.
"He is holding two glasses can't you see? He has someone in his room. Oh, wait, there she is," Tyler said pointing upstairs where a girl I had once seen at school was coming down the stairs.
Oh, so Timothy brought a girl home, I wondered if this happened so often.
The girl was pretty, she looked like Timothy's type. I think she was in the swimming team. I just didn't know her name, I never really cared anyway...until today since she was here.
"I thought I heard voices." She finally stopped next to Timothy and she took one of the drinks he was holding.
Then I remembered. I wasn't supposed to be here. She wasn't supposed to know that I lived with Timothy.
"Uhm...who is she?" Her eyes finally landed on me, eyeing me up and down.
Timothy turned to me, dumbfounded, not knowing what to say. "Ah, she is...uhm..." He really was speachless, he was begging me for help with his eyes.
"I'm here to play with Tyler," I quickly said as I nudged Tyler to follow me up the stairs. "Nice to meet you." I passed by Timothy, pushing him over to the side to show how annoyed I was at him for putting me in such a situation.
"She looks familiar..." I heard her say behind us as Tyler and I made our way to his room.
Tyler and I finally got our free time to play. Tyler was a funny kid, he was pretty clever too. We solved some puzzles, tried his Lego pieces and finally, I helped him with his homework although I was skeptical of my answers since I wasn't the brightest kid out there.
All the while I couldn't stop thinking of what Red had told me, that Timothy was a world-renowned player. I couldn't help but feel a little stab in the heart, for whatever stupid reason I couldn't figure out.
I later on got out of Tyler's room to get some food to eat from the kitchen and saw Timothy in the living room, watching TV. He didn't see me as I went to the kitchen but as I was about to enter, I heard a knock and decided to go open for whoever was at the door.
I opened the door to find a different girl I knew from school standing outside. I knew her name because I had heard Dre talk about her once and how much he was crushing on her. Her name was Paige, pretty girl with curly brownish hair and beautiful hazel eyes with a slim figure and tan skin tone.
"Are you here for Timothy too because he is kind of busy with-" I was interrupted by Timothy who came out of nowhere to stop me from talking.
"Hey Paige! Come on in," he said too enthusiastically as he made way for her to come in "This is Riley, she is my half sister-ish. It's very complicated," he all but pulled me closer to him as he said that and I stood there, surprised.
What happened to, 'we are strangers'?
"If you don't mind, I have to talk to her really quick so you can wait for me in the living room."
"Okay..." Paige was lost too as to what was going on as Timothy pulled me to the kitchen and the moment we got there he literally pushed me against the wall, as he put his hands over the wall to both my sides, hindering me from escaping.
I had never been this close to him and it took my breath away just to be so close to his fruity scent and his beautiful face. He stared down at me in his forest green eyes, and I instantly got lost in them.
"Listen, I need your help." He finally talked, and I got a hint of his cool breath as I broke out of my trance.
"What's going in here? How many girls did you bring here today? Also, half sister? What's up with that?" I fired him with questions.
"Shh," he placed his finger over my mouth unconsciously before realizing it and retreating. "I don't want her to hear it. I will explain everything to you later, okay but right now please play along. Don't tell her that there was a girl before her, okay. I will explain everything when she goes away, I promise, please."
This was the first time Timothy had ever asked anything of me and he was really begging me.
"Oh, are you sure she is the last one coming today?" I mocked.
"She is the last one, trust me. Make sure Tyler doesn't come down stairs too, he is too talkative, please," he finally moved away from me, creating distance as he gave me time to answer.
"Okay, but you have to explain soon and you owe me."
He smiled as he hugged me really quickly and unconsciously again, "Thank you."
"You are such a player," I shook my head at him as he went out to the living room and he turned around to wink before disappearing.
Okay...
I finally took a long breath.
It got a bit heated in here for a second.
***
It was as if Timothy knew exactly what time his mom was coming back because the moment Paige left, Sara also arrived back from work.
"How was your day?" I asked Sara as she got in the kitchen and I gave her a plate of food. Mrs. Baker and I were getting along pretty well.
"Hectic, as always. I had this patient and she was-" she was about to continue before Tyler appeared in the room, excited to see her.
"What's up mom." He went over to hug her.
"What's up mom? Since when do you say that?" She loved while hugging him back.
"Since Tim always says that," Tyler said and almost scarily and coincidentally Timothy got in the Kitchen at that moment.
"What's up mom?" He passed by her, to go grab an apple from the fridge.
What?
"See, I told you," Tyler laughed.
"Told you what?" Timothy asked.
"That you have no manners," Sara said. "And Tyler is copying off you," she said.
"I have manners. I greet strangers. I always greet our neighbor old lady Maria," he defended himself.
"I think you are rude sometimes," I commented and he turned to glare at me.
"Look who's talking?" He smirked, "Riley, you always have these never ending sarcastic comebacks. Riley is mean," he turned to tell everyone.
"No," Sara and Tyler answered in unison and I smiled as I turned back to look at Timothy.
"She is only mean to me then," Timothy said. "Mom, Riley and I are gonna take a walk outside," he announced and I knew that he wanted to explain what happened earlier today.
"Oh, really, can I come with?" Tyler said.
"Next time Ty, we need to talk about important school stuff," Timothy lied.
"You are lying but it's whatever, I will stay with mom anyway," Ty said.
"You can go," Sara said, eyeing us suspiciously as we got out to go.
***
We had just gone a few steps away from the house when we started talking.
"So, what I heard about you is true huh?" I started as we walked side by side beside the road.
"What did you hear about me?" He turned to me surprised.
"That you are a player."
"Where did you hear that from?"
"From Red."
"Is Red that girl in your gothic squad of friends? Weird... Why do you hang out with those guys?" he asked.
"Nothing is wrong with my new friends besides who are to judge, you hang out with the bullies, and you are a player too so you are no saint Baker," I shot back at him.
"That's kind of true but the thing is your squad is well known for starting trouble, doing drugs and other nasty things," he said.
"I guess I will have to find out myself," I said adamantly although it had me wondering, if they were really good company. "So...what's with you and all these girls? You just can't keep to one girl or what?"
He chuckled, "It's not like that, it's kind of stupid honestly but I need help, and I think you can help me with this," He smiled at me, "So...I made a bet with my friends that I would date two of the popular and pretty girls in the same week, without them finding out, then break up with them after a week."
I stopped to see if he was serious before I started laughing. "Really?" I continued laughing. "And you agreed to play? That's stupid."
"I know, I know, but I can't escape now that's why I need your help. I can't deal with both Paige and Hailey so I need help. I need to know what they both like, what makes them happy and all that, also I need help when I go out so that mom and Tyler cannot find out, mostly Tyler because I don't wanna set a bad example for him and mom cause she hates it when I bring random girls home."
Oh, so the other girl's name was Hailey.
"So, you want me to be your accomplice in playing girls? That's breaking the girl code."
"Girl code?" He laughed, "Does that even exist? Besides you don't even know these girls. You will probably find them mean."
"What's in it for me?" I stopped to ask him and he stopped too, turning to me.
"Well...I can help you with your school work, I know you are struggling with that...and if you ever need to sneak out too, I will be there to cover for you." He raised his hands in a 'as-simple-as-all-that' way.
"Mmmh..." I considered it, "I guess that's a good deal." I smiled. "So, the school situation, what do we do?"
"We just stick to the half sister thing, if anyone asks, so we don't have to pretend like we don't know each other anymore," Timothy said freely.
"This half sister thing is so unbelievable. I mean I'm mixed; half black and white and you are a wholesome white guy, it's not gonna work," I stated.
"It works, we can just say, you are from my dad's side so my dad had a baby with another woman before he met my mother," he stated.
"I guess...where is your father anyway?" I finally asked the question I had been meaning to ask and I saw his shoulders getting tense at first before relaxing.
"Uhm...he's dead"
"Oh."