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CHAPTER FOUR THE WORST PART

BETH DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH HERSELF. She sat on her bed, flushed after a phone call with Kaelyn. The girl was hanging out with Peter Parker now, which was insane to her considering they didn't even kind of run in the same circles. Kaelyn was probably going to break his heart without even trying; it was ridiculous, really. Still, Beth couldn't help but be jealous of the girl. She deserved love too, at least, she hoped she did. She could hear the crush in her best friend's voice when she talked about Peter and Beth knew her voice shone the same way when she spoke about Liz -- but the difference was that Kaelyn actually had a chance.

"Beth, honey!" her mom called again, reminding Beth why she had hung up with her best friend in the first place. She sighed and tucked her phone in her pocket before heading out into her home.

Her room with it's sage green walls and sandy gold accents were a sharp contrast to the white and dark wood theme of the house. Her mother was a wealthy Indonesian woman with a taste for the finer things in life and her father was an architect with too many miscellaneous degrees under his belt since there was nothing he loved more than learning. Well, except maybe his wife. He loved her the most -- so he designed her a perfect home where they adopted two children for a perfect nuclear family. She loved her parents, but her home lacked personality compared to her cluttered room. Her room felt like hers whereas the rest of the house felt like a place she just stayed in from time to time.

"What's up?" Beth asked with a quirked eyebrow as she entered the kitchen where her mother was washing the dishes leftover from their dinner. Her father sat at the island, his hands wringing together against the white marbled counter. She noted the dampened mood the second she walked in. Keeping her place leaning against the archway, she crossed her arms. "Is something wrong?"

The woman turned off the sink as she placed the last dish on the rack, turning to face her daughter with her hands braced against the counter at her side. "Ah, no, not really. Your father and I wanted to talk to you about something. Um, it's kind of uncharted territory for us, so we thought we would tell you what brought this on and then you can tell us what you think. Sound fair?"

It was rare that Beth felt on edge around her parents, but the hairs on the back of her neck stood pin straight as she brought her long black hair over her shoulder so she could twist it comfortingly. She nodded, not really knowing what to say.

"Your mother and I have been talking about... things with Will and his private school," her father began to explain and Beth instantly relaxed. So this wasn't about her. She could breathe again. "It's getting expensive and there haven't been any incident reports since his first semester there so... we were looking into maybe having him come home and enroll in Midtown."

"Seriously?" Beth exclaimed, looking at both of her parents' expressions to make sure neither of them were messing with her. William Tju was the signature problem child in the Tju household and even though Beth loved him, her relationship with him was complicated. She was fairly sure he had been in love with Kaelyn since they were six, but that was the least of his worries considering the trouble he managed to get himself into. Still, he was her brother and if Beth was being honest, she missed him. He had been adopted only about a year after Beth was, but he was two years older so he had always felt like the big brother she never got to have. Especially since she didn't remember much of her life before him. She couldn't have been older than three when she was brought into the Tju household.

Her mother smiled, "Yes, seriously. We've been talking to him and we think it would be beneficial for both of you to have him back home."

"And it means we won't have to drive you to school anymore," her father teased with a smile on his face, "So, you want us to make the call?"

"Oh, my God, yes!" Beth said with a small laugh, "I thought you guys were planning on having him graduate before coming home?"

The woman by the counter shrugged, "Things change. Besides, what kind of parents are we if we force some over-priced stuffy school to help our son? I'm sure he's nothing we can't handle, it's Will."

Beth smiled as she ran over to hug her dad before moving over to hug her mom. She knew Will coming home would probably mean less privacy considering they would be going to the same school and he would probably bring his own onslaught of problems back from private school with him, but she didn't mind. She just wanted her brother back. She had always been a little jealous of Kaelyn for always having Caden at her back, but now she got to have her brother, too.

As she ran back to her room, her phone itched to call Kaelyn. However, when she did, it only rang about three times before going to voicemail. Beth sighed, not wanting to push it any further. Kaelyn would always make time for her so she knew if the girl wasn't answering it would mean she was dealing with something important. The girl didn't know what to do except plug in her headphones and fall back onto her bed with a flourish. Well she wanted to talk to someone about this -- she couldn't just sit on the news that one of her favorite people was coming back to town. Beth's fingers itched to grab her phone and just text someone, anyone. Ugh, she hated this. She shot off a text to Kaelyn, telling her to call her when she gets the chance, but that wasn't enough.

Her brain shot to the memory of Liz writing her phone number on Beth's math notes and the girl shot up, getting up and walking over to where her backpack was discarded against her desk. She sorted through it before she found her math notebook and rifled through it until she found the page she needed. With a smile she bit her lip and typed the phone number into her messages. Okay, now what the Hell was she supposed to say?

After a momententary struggle she settled on something easy and cute as she sent Liz a quick, Hi! It's beth :)

Okay, hard part was over. Scratch that, the hard part was definitely going to be waiting for a response. Part of her was amazed she had actually texted Liz first. Laying back down on her bed she groaned as her phone remained silent. Yup, the waiting was definitely the worst part.

i keep forgetting this story exists is that bad it feels bad anyway here's a small chapter because it's been a month and a half and i feel bad for never updating