Making Circles - Vanessa Gilbert (recommended reading txt) 📗

Well our love story reads like a book of lies,

Good intentions, better alibis.

No happy endings, no straight lines

No moving on, but no goodbyes.

This bitter sweet rivalry will be the death of me,

We go round and round trying work it out,

and all I get is held, bent and bound;

Never far from right where we are.

You’d think that we’d get enough,

I know we’re gonna fuck it up,

We’re holding on, sinking down,

Here we go, round and around;

Making circles.
-Christian Kane

I stood by the white front door waiting for my mom and dad to hurry up. Today my whole family, well my mother’s side, is getting together. That means me watching the little ones with someone I don’t know and the parents standing around drinking wine or plain beer and talking about their children and their problems. I do not want to go (and I stretch and emphasize that do not part) but my mother on the other hand wanted to go and couldn’t wait. See the dad I was talking about isn’t actually my real dad, he’s my step dad. See my mom and my real dad got divorced when I was 3 and finally split when I was 5. Ever since they got the divorce all of our family members, except for my mom’s mom, my mom’s dad, and my mom’s brother, have said that she would never meet and marry another guy. Well she did and she wanted to rub that in their noises. I remember the last reunion we went to I was watching the little ones at the pool before we went in and I went to go get water I walked by where the “grownups” sat and heard one family member say, “Oh poor Luisa she’s over weight, she has a 15 year old daughter.” I growled very low in rage.
See I grew a very strong connection with my mother, I told her everything, so imagine my anger when a fellow family member went on about how she wasn’t going to find a guy. I remember anger enraging me and if it wasn’t for the fact that my grandma was busy I’d go over to that “family member” and beat the snoot out of her. See if I told my grandma why I was beating the snoot out of her she’d probably cheer me on but if she was busy then she wouldn’t want to hear it...Besides I had to let it drop, little kids were watching. I turned on my hills and walked by her. Just when I was almost away from her I heard her call, “Arien, could you get me a cupcake?” I answered with a polite yes. I got her a cupcake and just when I was close enough I “accidentally” dropped the cupcake on her. Ha eat that, I remember saying in my head as I watched her run to the bathroom.
Now mom was not only skinny but she has a very handsome eye doctor who could not only support me and her but help us get the horses that we wanted. I remember the first time mom laid eyes on Mark, dad, and I remember the exact thing she said when she got home to me that day. “Arien,” mom started to say, “I think we need to lose our weight and fast. I mean you’re going into high school and you don’t want to be fat.” No, no don’t want that, I remarked in my head. “Mom, this has nothing to do with that cute new eye doctor at the vision center in Wal-mart does it?” I asked her innocently. “Maybe,” she said. And with that me and my mother were in our garage also known as our work out station and began to work out. We worked out for 3 straight months.
We kept on our diet which was weight watchers and we kept exercising every day. Soon enough we both lost enough weight that mom was back in size 5 and I was in a size 6. Over my freshman year in high school mom and Mark began dating. Ten during my freshman summer (this summer) they got married. They also tore down our old house and built a new one. The new one is twice as big and has almost too many rooms. I have my own room and my own study room.
Yes a study room, the study room was of course for studding, singing, playing video games, watching TV, and hanging with friends. IN any case the house is amazing. We got a fence around the property, we built a barn and chicken coop, got ourselves a garden, and of course we got ourselves a dog that I always wanted. A rascal of a German shepherded called Cinnamon Bun. She is so cute, we recently got her from the dog pound and she was taking in from an abusive owner who luckily didn’t have the chance to abuse Cinnamon Bun but did abuse her mom.
In any case our life really turned up and it seems to stay that way. I mean I got a new dad who is so cool, I got the horses I always wanted, I got the life style at home that I dreamed of, and I have the best-before I could finish that thought mom came bustling down the stairs in her white leather boots, her white above the knee length, puffy dress, with her red shoulder blade hair up in a messy bun, and her face covered in makeup. Mom hit the bottom step when she called up to dad, “Honey Hurry up!”
“I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying!” Dad called back.
I smiled and laughed at them. They are an adorable couple. Whenever they argue it’s not an argument it’s a kissing battle. It’s cute but at the same time disgusting but then again it’s from my view, the “child”. The last argument they had was about children. Mark wants children and mom doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong mom loves children but after raising me alone she decided having one child was enough. I remember coming home from a friend’s house and seeing them on the couch.
Mark had his arms around mom in an unbreakable link and was kissing her face and neck. She squealed and laughed saying, “I’m not going to change my mind.” “Aw that’s cute but, no offense to you two, I’m losing my vision and my eyes burn.” I said. They both chucked and laughed hander when I ran up the stairs to my room yelling, “My eyes, and my eyes!” Mom turned her oval face at me and her green, yellow, red, and orange mixed eyes where bright with excitement. Mom is beautiful, she has perfect white teeth, high cheek bones that are sharp but at the same time dull and round. Mom walked over to me and joined me in my waiting then turned to me and asked, “Did you ask Carter about coming?”
I looked at mom and shook my head. “I told the family about him and they don’t believe me,” oh that’s a surprise, I thought sarcastically as mom talked, “so I decided why not rub both of our happiness in their faces,” she said.
I smiled; now that she brought it up I think I will go ask Carter. As soon as I turned for the door dad came down the stairs all dressed up. He had on brown leather boots, tight blue jeans, a button down plaid shirt, and he had on his white cowboy hat. His brown short hair covered by the hat and his hazel eyes held the same excitement as mom has.
“Okay let’s go,” he said.
Mom smiled and nodded and I sighed sadly, sad that I didn’t have time to go ask Carter. Dad looked at me curiosity burned in his eyes and masked his face.
“What’s wrong princess?” He asked me.
Dad, Mark, called me princess from day one. He told me he always wanted a daughter and when his last wife got pregnant with twins he hoped one was a girl but instead he got twin boys, Mike and Jason, who right now are living with his ex-wife. She wanted full custody clamming he was a horrible man and of course got it.
His boys never called or texted and never responded when he called, texted, or sent a letter. He tells me he misses them and I could see how my dad feels but then again he never tries to talk to me or anything at least Mark tried with his children. Even though he wanted a daughter he loved both of his sons. I looked over at my dad and sighed sadly again while saying, “I wanted to ask Carter if he wanted to join us.” Dad smiled and laughed.
“Who says I want him to come,” my dad joked.
I smiled and shook my head then headed outside. Before we built the house we had to fix the yard, the yard before was full of dead or dying flowers, dying grass, with weeds growing almost up to my knees.
The only living plant life besides weeds were the trees. We had trees growing all around the house we were amazed that during winter we didn’t have a tree snap from the weight of the snow and just fall into the house. Now most of the trees were gone, grass and flowers were growing, and we have livestock running around. As I walked across the porch towards my mom’s car I said, “Well he’s gotta come and meet the family sometime.”
Dad smiled knowing my real reason for him coming and laughed sharply, “So you can rub him in their faces.”
I smiled than as I reached to pen the car door I heard mom ask, “Is Apple in the barn?” Apple is my horse. See we all have our own horses, mom has Chip and Dale, dad has Mac and Cheese, and I have Apple and Pie.
Yes we all gave our two horses names that went together because they are life partners or in human terms husband and wife. In any case, funny enough I got my two horses from my mom and dad’s horses. See Chip and Dale got pregnant and gave birth to Apple then not to long after Mac and Cheese got pregnant and gave birth to Pie. When we got the horses (mom and dad’s) we didn’t know if we’d got the horses to do what we wanted but you know it worked.
Not only did we have horses that went together we have pigs, bunnies, cows, goats, and sheep. Mom’s pigs’ names are