An Unexpected Love, Amber Riel [i have read the book .txt] 📗

The Message

A 25-year-old man was on his way to work, driving in his old, black truck.  He had kind of long, brown hair, and the most beautiful blue eyes.  He had gotten up at five in the morning.  He had gotten ready and was now driving along an old dirt road, which leads him down by a dock.  His job was to drive a bunch of boxes filled with fish to different grocery stores.  He didn't go to college because of the fact that he didn’t have the money, but he was actually pretty smart.  He wasn’t a genius, but he wasn’t dumb either.

 

          He pulled up to a dark red, old brick building and parked.  He climbed out of his old truck.  He grabbed a toothpick and stuck it into his mouth.  He closed the door and started walking toward the building.

          “HEY, BRANDON!” a voice called from behind him.

          Brandon turned around to see who it was.  “Oh, hey, Zeke,” he said as a skinny, but muscular lady’s man, 24-year-old, milk chocolate man walk up to him.

          They gave each other a high five.  Zeke and Brandon knew each other since they were little.  They acted like brothers and were glad to get the same job, which they didn’t get to hang out while they were working, but once they were done they would have a guy’s night, especially on Fridays.  They would go to different bars and try to pick up women.

          “Oh man, you should have been there last night,” Zeke told Brandon.  “I was at the bar and I met this chick…. She was ooooh fine and let me tell you…. Dude, you would have liked her friend too…. Her friend was just as fine.”

          “Yea, sorry I wasn’t there, but I went to visit Laura again.”

          “Oh yea.  Sorry to hear about that.  How’s she doing?”

          “Well, she’s acting like everything’s okay, but you can tell that it must be hurting her.  She can’t be a normal kid and I think that bothers her.”

          “Well, tell me if she gets better…. She’s a tough kid.”

          “That’s true.”  Brandon smiled.  “Come on, man.  We need to get to work.”

          “That’s true…. Let’s go check in.”  Zeke looked at his watch and then to the dark, cloudy sky.  “I think that we’re in for rain,” he said as him and Brandon made their way to the building.

 

          Three high school girls were trying on their cap and gowns for graduation.  They were going to graduate three days later and they were excited.  The oldest girl was nineteen and she had short, light brown hair with blue-green eyes.  The second oldest was eighteen and she had dark brown hair with dark brown eyes.  The youngest of the three girls was seventeen and she had long, blonde hair with blue eyes.

          “Wow.  I can’t believe that in three days, we’re going to be graduating,” the eighteen-year-old said.

          “Cassie, how do I look?” the nineteen-year-old asked the eighteen-year-old.

          “You look good, Jennie,” Cassie answered.

          “Are the gowns supposed to go a little above the ankle?” the youngest girl asked.

          “It should.”

          “Yea,” Jennie agreed.  “It’s supposed to, Melinda.”

          “Oh.  Okay,” Melinda smiled.  “Good.”

          “I’m going to go change.”  Cassie walked out of the room.

 

          The girls were in the living room of Cassie’s house.  It was small with a couch and a love seat.  The couch had an odd design of brown and red where the love seat was a dark blue.  The furniture didn’t exactly match and even the hunter green walls stood out.  There was a long black coffee table in the middle of the room with a glass top.  A brown entertainment center sat close the opposite side of the couch.

          Cassie’s parents went out and her brothers were at a sleepover.  The girls turned on the radio.  They decided to do some karaoke and have a little fun.

          “Okay.  Who’s going to go first?” Cassie asked.

          “You,” Melinda and Jennie agreed.

          “We enjoy laughing at you as you act out the song,” Melinda joked.

          Cassie dropped her mouth, smiling.  “I thought that you two were laughing with me…. Not at me.”

          “Just go,” Jennie laughed.

          While Cassie was looking for a song that she wanted to sing, the phone had started ringing.  “I’ll get it.”  Cassie stood up and walked into the computer room.  She picked up the phone.  “Hello.”  She waited for the person to answer.  “Oh hey, mom.”  She paused.  “Okay.”  She laughed at something her mom had told her.  “Yea we’re fine.”  She laughed again.  “Don’t worry about us…. If someone tries to break in, then Melinda will beat them up with a chair…. Okay.  Bye….”  She sighed.  Her mom loved to talk.  “Okay, mom.  Bye…. Bye.”  She finally hung up and walked back into the living room.  She sat back on the floor and started going through the compact disks again.  “That was my mom.  She said that her and my dad are going to be back later.  She also wanted to make sure that we were alright.”

          “Okay.”

          Cassie picked up a compact disk and already had the song picked out.  “Be prepare,” she warned them.

          “We better move,” Melinda told Jennie.

          “Good idea,” Jennie agreed.

          Cassie sang as she acted out Nickelback’s How You Remind Me.

 

          Brandon walked into the house, he slid his keys on a little table, which was a few inches away from the door.  He closed the door behind him.  He was disappointed because even though he was at work all day, he didn’t work at all.  He walked into the living room and sat down on the chair.  His Doberman, a pretty big dog had jumped on his lap.

          The black with big brown paws dog was trying to get Brandon into roughhousing with him.

          Brandon tried to push the animal on the other side of the room.  “Not now, Buck.  I don’t want to play.  I’m sorry, boy.  I just had a bad day at work.  That’s all.”

          Buck laid his head in between his two front paws.  He was disappointed, but soon forgot about it, when he started scratching the bottom of his feet with his teeth.

          Brandon stood up and walked into the kitchen.  He made his way to the phone.  He pushed a button and the answering machine came on.  He listened to the messages and deleted the ones that the marketers had left.  “Delete…. Delete…. Delete…. De-” He paused.  “This is from my boss.”

          “Hey, Brandon, it’s Ramond Turman, look I have to talk to you on Monday…. It’s very important and I can’t tell you over the phone,” the message said.

          Brandon didn’t like the sound of his boss’s voice.  The man didn’t sound angry but he didn’t sound happy.  He had sounded as if he were upset or something.  Brandon didn’t know whether or not he should delete the message.  He thought about what it might be, but he couldn’t figure out what.  It was really bugging him.  He didn’t want to wait ‘til Monday to get bad news.  He walked back into the living room and sat down.

 

          The girls had tired themselves out singing karaoke.  They were all sitting on the couch, watching Bedtime Stories.  They were all calm, especially because Cassie’s parents were home and were in their room trying to sleep.  The girls decided to put in the movie.  They loved it and they all loved Adam Sandler.  They actually had decided to have an Adam Sandler marathon anyways. 

Graduation

          Brandon made his way into his boss’s office.  He knocked on the door, waiting for someone to answer.  It was Monday and his heart was racing, pounding like crazy.  He knew that something bad was going to happen, but he hoped that he was wrong.

          “Come in,” he heard his boss’s voice through the door.

          He took a deep breath.  “Here I go.”

 

          Brandon walked into the room and closed the door behind him.  A tall, dark brown hair, forty-six year old, white man sat behind a desk in the small office.  There were two book shelves, one on each side of the desk.  There was a long window behind the desk, which revealed that they were on the first floor of the building.

          “Sit down, Brandon,” Ramond told him.  He looked disappointed.  He didn’t want to say what he had to tell Brandon.  It was horrible news.

          “Okay.”  Brandon sat in one of the chairs which sat in front of the desk.  “What’s going on, Ramond?”

          “Look, Brandon…. I’m about to do something that I don’t want to do, but I have to…. What I’m about to tell you…. It’s nothing personal or against you…. Actually, I’m going to be telling everyone this soon, but you’re first….”

          Brandon was dying inside.  He needed to know what was going on.  He waited for Ramond to get to the point.  Ramond was a good guy, but had this thing about rattling on and on before he made his point.

          “I’m…. I’m….” Ramond didn’t want to finish his sentence but he had to.  “I’m laying you off.”  He didn’t want to have to tell him, but he knew that he had to.  He thought that Brandon was one of his best workers but with the horrible times being that business wasn’t doing so good he had to.

          Brandon was shocked.  He didn’t know how to react.  When he was over the shock, he felt his heart rate slow down.  “But I need this job…. I promised my brother that I was going to help him out…. For my six year old niece.  You have to find something for me to do.”

          “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing for you.  I would like to help you, but I can’t.  I’m sorry, Brandon.”

          Brandon stood up.  He looked at Ramond.  “Okay…. Thanks anyways.”  He left the room.

 

          Cassie picked up her black gown.  She couldn’t believe that she was going to be graduating and going out into the real world.  She would be going to college the following year.  She had to smile at the thought.  She looked at her silver and gold watch with two golden hearts and four golden lines on each side.  It read 2:00 clock.  She didn’t have to start getting ready ‘til 5 because she had to be there at 7.  “Good.  I still have time,” she told herself.  “I think that I should call Melinda and Jennie.”

          She walked out of her room and into the computer room.  She picked up the phone and walked back to her room.  She dialed a number as she walked into the room.  She placed the phone next to her ear and gently kicked the door closed.  The phone rang as she sat on her bed.

          “Hello,” Jennie’s voice spoke over the phone.

          “What’s up?”

          “Oh.  Nothing much.