Celine
You know that feeling when somebody is being entirely pessimistic and stubborn? Like when they refuse to go along with what you plan and turn it all upside down and wreck it? You know what I'm talking about-- it's a really annoying feeling that makes you get all worked up inside for almost absolutely no reason. It kind of tightens your chest and you feel like you're about to explode.
That's the feeling Ilona is giving me right now. She is being a complete pain-- whining about the plans I'm making. It's not like she has anything better to do either. She probably just wants to stay cooped up in her bedroom dissolving her eyes in some book. It's driving me crazy.
I told her she needs to get a life, and she insisted she has one. I could swear she doesn't. All she does all day is sit around reading, or running around outdoors as if she's trying to do some wildlife experiment. It's sickening, because she still wants to act like a child when she is almost fourteen.
"Ilona," I told her yesterday when I marched into her room. She was tucked under her cover at three o'clock in the afternoon reading something by Louisa May Alcott, "get out of your bed, it's three thirty."
She didn't say anything. She just replied with a "hmm?" Then I started to get frustrated a bit, and tore the covers from her. She can really be stubborn these days. The words must have had her hypnotized, because she didn't even take her eyes from the book for one second.
"Ilona!" I screeched at her, "get out of your bed! We have to go out-- now!"
She slowly closed her book, as if trying to read as much words as she could as the book closed it's pages on her.
"What?" she asked, finally looking at me for the first time.
"I said, we need to go!" I hissed at her. She had really annoyed me by not getting up, and she was still in her pajamas.
"Go where?" she asked stretching her arms over her head lazily.
"Out! They're waiting for us!"
"Who's waiting?" she asked, finally getting off the bed.
"The girls. Now hurry up and get dressed."
I walked over to her closet and flung the door open. I tore a dress off a hanger and threw it towards her. She threw it over my head, back into the closet. I turned around to face her, with my hand on my hip.
"Such attitude," she said, turning to her dresser, "when do you ever see me wear a dress?"
"Never," I shot back at her, taking another dress out of the closet, "but that's going to change today."
"I'm not wearing a dress," she said firmly and walked out of the room.
I'm pretty sure if things were left up to her we would always hang out in her bedroom over tiny cups of tea and cookies, probably discussing an ancient book.
"I'm ready," she announced from behind me much sooner than I expected her, "where are we going now?"
"Out," I said, "there's someone I want you to meet."
Ilona
After being dragged mercilessly from store to store and forced out of my perfectly comfortable tracksuit, into a suffocatingly tight pair of jeans and an overly fancy top, I was led by the arm through various back streets until we came to the park. Celine fumbled in her overpriced purse for a tiny mirror and checked her hair as I struggled to make the clothes cling slightly less.
"Chill Lo," she said, smearing chapstick over her lips, "I'm sure you're gonna like my surprise."
I sighed. "Cell, I don't like surprises, especially not yours. So, please let's just hurry and get the over with... please."
"You'll be thanking me later. You'll regret ever acting like this." I wasn't so sure. All I really wanted to do was spend the day doing something other than getting ready for surprises. She folded her mirror shut and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear.
"Ready?"
"Yes," I lied impatiently.
"Let's go," she grabbed my arm and pulled me through the gates of the park. She constantly giggled as she led me down various paths. I could tell that she was dragging me to the hidden garden-- my favorite place in the park.
"Close your eyes," she said, placing her hands over my eyes, "no peeking." I couldn't peek even if I had wanted to. She grabbed my left hand with her free hand and took me a few steps forward.
"Is that all?" I asked sarcastically, "just a few steps?"
"Shush, open your eyes," she said. I don't know what I was expecting from Celine. Maybe some new type of plant growing there, because I'm geeky like that and take an interest in it. Maybe I was expecting her to have planned something a little bit better than what I was looking at.
A guy.
With a stupid grin on his face. I started to get annoyed, because I was hoping that Celine had more sense than to drag me all the way to the mall and to the hidden gardens for a guy. She should have known better than to do that; all I would do is complain to her later on about it. So there we stood, me probably looking like I had just seen a ghost and Celine grinning stupidly besides me.
"Ilona," she said cheerily, with an exaggerated toss of her hair, "this is Jason. Jason, this is Ilona."
"Nice to meet you Ilona," he said extending his hand. His voice probably would have melted any other girl's heart. Not me. It aggravated me. I could tell he was trying to make himself sound attractive.
"Nice to meet you too," I said, timidly shaking his hand. He tightened his grip and gave me a firm shake. I tried not to gag.
"So, uh, you live around here?" he asked looking at me from head to toe.
"Yeah, we do," Celine interrupted, "we live... over by the docks, you know?"
"Oh the docks," he sounded like he didn't really know what docks we were talking about, "I go there often... maybe you girls could come hangout with me sometime. That'd be cool."
I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth to protest, but Celine quickly jabbed me in the side.
"Oh we'd love to," she said enthusiastically, "right Ilona, we can totally meet up with him sometime. We'd have a blast!"
"Uh... yeah," I said, trying to sound excited, "that would be great..."
"Oh great," Jason said, "I'll see you around then, okay?"
"Definitely. Give me a call if you want to meet up," Celine chirped.
"I will," he said winking at her, "see you around... bye Ilona."
As soon as I was sure he was far away enough to be out of earshot I turned to Celine.
"What was that about?"
"What part?"
"The whole thing. You dragging me out here to meet that," I said.
"That is a human, Lo," she said, "and you'll be thanking me for this later."
"Thanking you for what? You dragging me out here to meet some guy who's like... sixteen or something?"
"He's not just 'some guy', Lo, he's Jason, and for your brains he's seventeen."
"So you mean you dragged me out here to meet a seventeen year old guy? Cell, have you lost your mind?" I huffed and folded my arms like a little child, "Besides, what's with the winking and 'I'll see you around'? That's just pathetic--"
"He's not just a guy Ilona!" she nearly shouted at me, "Stop saying I dragged you out here. You walked yourself. Besides, he's not a total stranger. He's your sister's friend's brother," she sighed heavily, "thanks for ruining everything."
"I ruined it?" I laughed sarcastically, "Celine, I don't even get what it is with you... why are you so bent on wanting to go out with an older guy or something? Just let it go for all it's worth--"
"Lo..." she groaned, pulling at the roots of her hair, "you're missing my point."
"Maybe because you don't have one?" I shot back at her. Sure I was being rude, but I didn't care. Either she wasn't feeling well or she had gone crazy.
"Wow, you can really be self-centered sometimes. You're the only one who didn't know about this. Your sister knows, his sister knows. I know, he knows."
"You're not making sense Celine," I said slowly, "what is it that I don't know about this?"
"That this isn't all about me after all," she said through clenched teeth, "he wanted to meet up with... you."
I could have sworn that those were the worst words I had heard all year.
