C3 Chapter 3

“Oh fuck.” I say as soon as I park my car in our driveway, and see my mum’s black Bentley in front of the garage.

Jason looks at it. “Shit. Shouldn’t she be home later tonight? Oh God, we did not prepare for this.”

Don’t get us wrong; we love our mum…to a certain extent. It’s just that sometimes she tries too hard because she knows she doesn’t spend as much time with us as she should, and she tries to make up for that by being way too intrusive and buying us designer clothes and whatnot.

Well, that’s not that bad, but no money and no presents could ever make up for the time lost. We basically grew up with Rosa as our mother and our father. She’s 2 in 1, that’s why my mother was offended when I asked Rosa to go to the Parent-Teacher meeting instead of her in tenth grade.

“I’m not mentally prepared for this.” Jason sighs as we get out of the car.

I press the button on the key to lock it, but I contemplate whether I should climb back in and just to for a ride until my mother falls asleep. Oh well, too late now, because she’s just opened the door and is looking at the two of us with a big smile on her face.

“My babies!” she exclaims, and my ears hurt already.

She hugs us both at once, and I nearly choke on her strong perfume.

“I’ve brought preseeents.” She sings and doesn’t even wait for us to take off our shoes before she waltzes down the hallway towards the living room.

Jason and I exchange glances, and we follow her towards the living room. There couch is filled with bags from different brands, like Zanotti, Moschino, Armani, Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Michael Kors, Hermès, Chanel, Gucci, D&G, and of course, her personal favorite, Alexander Wang.

“You forgot Louis Vuitton!” I sarcastically exclaim, and cross my arms. I know I’m being really ungrateful right now, because who wouldn’t want a mom who goes shopping and gets all the brand new stuff each month? But to be fair, I just want a normal mom, who I can gossip about boys with, and do all that normal stuff I don’t even know about.

“Yeah…shit. Well, Alexander has this new fall line coming out soon, and he said he’ll send over a bag for you.”

I nod, not really impressed. Yes, I like having nice bags and nice shoes, but this is too much. Especially because she’s trying to make up for the lost time. That’s bribing; sort of.

“Jason, yours are the bags on the left side. Nicole, the rest are for you. Oh, and this one.” She says, picking a Saint Laurent bag out of the bunch. “This one is for Jasper.”

I raise my brows, because I was never aware of the fact that my mother knew my boyfriend’s name. One time he came over for dinner and she happened to be home, she called him Jake.

She calls Rosa to help us with the bags upstairs, and then she tells me that she’ll get her closet organizer to come over and help us put everything in place.

Jason shakes his head when she’s not looking, but takes the bags anyway and follows me upstairs. I drop the bags I could carry on my bed, and then sit down next to them. If I’m being honest, I’m a bit excited about the Zanotti boxes, because I absolutely love their sneakers, even though they’re way too expensive to be fair. I’d never pay for a pair with my own money. 900 dollars for a pair of shoes? No thank you. I’d rather stick to Vans.

But the craziest thing by far is the Hermès bags. They’re terribly expensive and don’t even look that different from a normal handbag. Once, when I was out shopping with my mother, I asked her why she wouldn’t just buy me a bag from Forever 21 or Hollister, because they’re a thousand times cheaper, and she yelled at me about designer brands and stuff like that. I never questioned her again.

Rosa helps me arrange the new stuff in my walk-in closet, before she asks me about school, but my mother interrupts us by walking into the room.

“Rosa? Shouldn’t you be starting on dinner soon?” she asks and Rosa nods, excusing herself before she walks out.

“Stop being rude to her, she’s here to help.” I say and walk over to my desk, where I place my bag.

“So how was your first day of being a senior?” she asks, sitting down at the edge of my bed. She looks uncomfortable, and sort of forced.

“Do you really care? Or are you trying to be a good mother?”

She sighs. “I care Nicole.”

“Fine. It was shit, okay? I don’t want to thing about my final exams and the fact that I have to study for the next nine months, or the fact that some people attending are plain annoying. That good enough for you?”

“Who’s annoying? Are you having problems with someone?” she asks, and I roll my eyes. Well she got me there.

“It’s this guy I can’t stand since the ninth grade. You don’t know him.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Maybe I know his parents. Try me.”

“Niall Harrison.” I shrug. “I don’t think you know him. I think he lives in Newham.”

I kind of hate the way her nose scrunches. I know she knows that Newham is one of the poorest boroughs in London, and that the poverty rate there is one of the highest in the country, but there’s no need for her to make that disgusted face.

“Harrison? That-isn’t that a family with three kids?”

I shrug. “Why do you know that?”

“Doesn’t matter. Just be nice to him, okay?”

I’m surprised to hear those words coming out of her mouth. Since when does my mother care about who I’m nice to?

“Anything else?” she pushes, and I sit down at my desk, as far away from her as possible.

“No, not really mom. Thanks for the presents, but I think I’ll start on my homework now.” I lie. We didn’t get any homework today (thank God), but I still have to buy that book Mr. Andrews assigned us, because I’m not planning on being on the verge of failing in any subject this year. I almost failed Economics last year, and I don’t want to be that stressed again.

I look at her, wondering whether she caught on my attempt to make her leave, but of course, she hasn’t.

“I think I’m going to go to the mall and buy a book I have to read in English.” I say and stand up from the desk and walk towards the bathroom to take a shower. Whether she stays or goes, I’m taking a shower either way.

Once I come out of the shower, I walk into my closet and pick out a random white Ramones shirt, my favorite black ripped skinny jeans, a pair of crocodile leather Zanotti sneakers, and a black bomber jacket to go with my bag.

I call Jake up, because there’s no way I’m going to go alone, and when he picks up and tells me that he’s already dressed, I smile. That’s one of the reasons I love him; he’s always there for me when I need him.

“Where are you going? Are you leaving me here alone?” Jason whispers when he sees me walking out of my room.

“I’m going to the mall. You want anything?”

“Uh?! To get out of the house, sure?” he obviously says. “Give me one minute to put on a shirt.”

I wait for him to get dressed, and then we’re down the stairs and out the door. Our mother doesn’t even bother to ask when we’ll be back, because she’s too busy phoning her personal stylist to come over tomorrow.

I climb into my car and let out a relieved sigh as soon as the door closes. Jason connects his phone to the car’s Bluetooth and starts blasting his techno music, so I turn on the engine and pull out of the driveway.

Jake is waiting for me in front of his house and gets inside with a giant smile. “You have no idea how much a shopping therapy session is going to help right now.”

“What happened now?” Jason asks, looking at him through the rearview mirror.

“So I told Chris that Louis might be gay, and that’s all he talks about now. I kind of wish I hadn’t.”

“Wait. Louis as in Louis Jeffries?” Jason asks. “He’s gay?”

“Might be.” Jake and I answer at the same time.

“We don’t know for sure.” I add.

Jake rolls his eyes. “Bitch, he knew your bag was Hermès. I didn’t know your bag was Hermès.”

“Oh will you stop with the bag already? Let’s just drop the subject. We can’t judge him based on what he knows and how he acts. If he’ll say he’s gay, then he’s gay.” I say and stop the car at a stop before I step on the gas once again.

Westfield London mall is about ten minutes from my house, but twenty minutes from Jake’s house, due to the traffic in London. It would be way easier to just get there by foot, but lazy idiots surround me and I like driving way too much.

I park in the underground parking lot and don’t bother paying for a ticket, so we head towards the elevators.

“So where are we shopping today?” Jake asks me excitedly.

I forgot to mention that by ‘shopping therapy’, Jake doesn’t mean that he’ll shop. He means that I’ll shop and he’ll criticize absolutely everything I get to he’ll feel better about himself, and then bully me into buying him some comfort food from the food court once we’re done.

“Well, first of all, I’m going to buy that book Mr. Andrews told us about. That’s the reason we’re here actually.” I tell him and he almost trips over himself in shock.

“We’re here for a book?” he gasps, placing a hand over his heart. Then he looks at my brother. “Jason, do you hear your sister? Or am I going insane?”

“No, she’s really saying this. I don’t know, I just wanted to get out of the house.” He shrugs and follows me out of the elevator.

Of course though; before we get to the bookstore on the second floor, we go through Calvin Klein, Gucci, H&M, Miss Sixty, Top Shop, and Nike.

Jake and Jason struggle to handle my bags as well as their own bags, and I guess a little ‘shopping therapy’, as Jake puts it, never hurts.

We enter the bookstore one and a half hour later than we were supposed to, but everything is better now.

“Excuse me, where can I find Great Expectations?” I ask a lady behind the desk who looks up from her computer.

“Right over there, in the English Literature section under Dickens.”

I nod and thank her, before I walk over there and spot the book right away.

“Now that we’re here, I actually have to get this book about this bird-“ Jason says.

“To Kill a Mockingbird.” Jake says and points him to the book. “Boring as fuck.”

Jason takes it and turns his head, before he does a double take.

“Nicki.” He says and I turn my head to look at him.

“What?”

“Look.”

Jake and I follow his line of vision, just to see Niall and his sister entering the store.

“What are they doing here?” I ask Jake. “This is my turf.”

“Easy there mama bear.” Jake laughs.

“Don’t they live in Newham?” I continue, trying not to stare in order to not accidentally kill them with my looks and go to jail young.

“They do, but Jesus, let a man shop.”

I bite my lip. “The bookstore though? Honestly.”

Jason turns away from them and tries to hide himself, but it’s a bit too late, because Leah spots him and nudges Niall to look at us.

Our eyes meet, and then his fall on the bags I’m currently carrying, and his eyes roll to the back of his head.

Now, I’m not usually a religious person, but I pray to God that he gets stuck like that some day.

And what a good day that will be.