He was back. He was sitting in her living room talking to his best friend, who just had to be her brother. She could hear his laugh. The sound she had learned to despise. Why was he here? Was he back to torture her? Was he back to say he was sorry for all the times he was mean to her? Ha, like that would ever happen. His family moved to Orlando shortly after her family moved to Cincinnati. Knowing him, he would come all this way just to torture her anyway he could. She heard the voice, it sounded a little deeper, but there were obvious reasons for that. The last time she saw him was when he was 12. The voice was talking to her.

“You Just gonna stand there or are you going to come and say hi to me?”

Salem stared at the figure from which the voice was coming from. The figure looked different from the one she had left that warm summer day. This figure had silver hoops hanging from both ears and left eyebrow. He had on more jewelry than she did. She walked toward the figure, whose arms were out stretched expectant of a hug. She walked past the figure and sat down in the chair.

“Well it’s nice to see you too” the voice said a little disappointed.

Salem sat in the chair staring coldly at the figure.

“Well you’ve gotten taller since the last time I saw you”

“Normally people grow between the ages of 6 and 16.” Salem replied.

“It’s been ten years hasn’t it?” the voice said with a little shock.

“Yup life goes on. So what have you been up to Fatone?” Salem rarely called him by his first name, only when she was mad at him was his first name used.

“Not much. I’m in this music group and we’ve gotten pretty popular in Europe.”

“Yeah well the French think Jerry Lewis is a genius...”

“Ha ha very funny, Isabella”

“If you ever refer to me by my middle name again, I will hit you so hard every one of your Italian ancestors will feel it!” Salem could feel the anger rush through her body.

“Why so sensitive about the name?”

“Thats none of your business now is it, Joseph?” Salem asking rhetorically

“Man you don’t see someone for 10 years and when you come and visit that act like Mr. Freeze”

“That’s Ms. Freeze to you Superman”

“Hey Joey, wanna go play some basketball” Ryan asked feeling the tension in the room becoming thicker by the minute.

“You beat me every time, but I’ll play anyway”

“OK I’ll go get a ball” Ryan said leaving the room.

“So you’re a Sophomore in High School huh?”

“Yeah just like the majority of 16 year olds.”

“So you taking any extra classes like Art or Drama?”

“I’m taking Dramatic Arts, why?”

“I’m just trying to talk to you. What’s up with you today?”

“I was perfectly happy until you showed up. Just because you’re here doesn’t mean I’m going to have a party. Just because you and a couple of guys made it big in Europe doesn’t mean you get the star treatment here”

“Whoa, ok, I get your point and for your information, I wasn’t expecting the star treatment.”

Silence took over the room. Ryan walked into the room with a basketball in his hands.

“So you ready to get your butt kicked Fatone?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah let’s go MacClancy” Joey said following his friend out the door.