A Little Hope

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Why was I not invited?" Denise asked for the fifth time since we stepped out of the school.

The week passed by a lot faster than I wanted it to and now we were already on our way to the college grounds where Gavin and Trevor will be waiting for us.

It turned out that this weekend was supposed to be the road trip weekend and I reluctantly agreed for Gavin to invite his friends to come along.

Matt had to turn down the invitation because of some family dinner that his parents had organized.

Denise was not invited, clearly to her annoyance. Especially since Eddie was at Max's other side with his own bag of clothes slung over his one shoulder.

"Denise, you are not invited because you irritate me and if we ended up playing Truth or Dare again, I might dare you to jump off a cliff." I snapped, finally having had enough of her.

"You're just jealous because Gavin prefers me over you." She huffed.

Max and I shared a glance before shrugging and focusing on the nearing college again.

"Where are you going anyway?" She asked after a moment.

"We're going somewhere you are not." I said calmly.

"I wasn't asking you!" Denise turned her attention towards Max. "Max, where are you going?"

"I'm going to the college grounds so we can get on the road."

Eddie snorted at Max's calm response but bit his laughter back as soon as it started.

"You know what I mean." Denise remarked and nudged Max's shoulder.

"Denise, sometimes I think you're only friends with me so you can be around my brother."

Max's blunt words made Denise go pale in the face and trip over a rock.

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!"

Her exclamation made all of us flinch and send her a puzzled look.

Sighing, I decided on just telling the girl what she clearly wanted to know.

"Denise, we are going down to visit my parents and even though I didn't want you around, Max really wanted to invite you along. The problem is that my parents only have room to take in five more people because some of my family will be there as well."

Denise's tense form immediately relaxed and she shrugged.

"In that case, have fun this weekend and you better tell me all the juicy details when you get back."

We barely had time to respond before she was walking back the way we came.

"You do realize the only reason I didn't invite her was because I'm sick of watching her throw herself at my brother?" Max asked once she was out of hearing range.

I smiled at her brightly and wrapped my hand around the backpack strap on my shoulder.

"I know. My parents have a three level house with four guest rooms, each having a double bed. That is without mentioning my own bedroom in the house. Also, the only family that were coming through for my brother's birthday was Uncle Tim and Aunt Alga. Uncle Tim let my parents know this morning that there was an emergency at the hospital that he should take care of and Aunt Alga left town with Lucas this morning. There is absolutely no reason for Denise not to come, other than us not wanting her there." I said casually with my eyes focused on Gavin.

He was already leaning against his SUV, once again dressed like he just stepped out of a meeting and his hair in perfect condition. His arms were crossed in front of him while he spoke to a woman that was fluttering her eyelashes enough to cause the wind direction to change.