Most of this you've already read and the changes are minor, but I thought this might be nice for the over-all view. Off course there's some new text, but it's not a lot. I hope you'll like it anyway!
1.
“Beautiful girls, all over the world, I could be chasing, but my time would be wasted…” *Click*
“Ugh, I really need to change that tune, it’s getting old.” It was eight in the morning and my alarm-clock (unfortunately) woke me from a peaceful sleep.
I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling for five more minutes and decided it was time to get up and get ready for school.
First I threw open the curtains and opened the window. It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect for just a top and a light jacket.
I’d just opened my closet when I heard the *Ding* of my cell phone, Alice. “Wear the tie-die top, k?” We’d tie-died that weekend and promised to wear the tops we’d made on the same day, today apparently.
“Lynn, you up?!” Ouch, too loud for this time of day.
“No Liam, I’m shouting in my sleep!” Maybe just a little mean, but he deserved it.
“Okay, good. I’m out, you got everything covered?” Finally he lowered his voice, I was getting a headache from his shouting.
“Yeah, I’m good. Have fun at school today!” I made my voice sound a little maternal and Liam definitely didn’t like that.
“You’re not my mom.” I went downstairs to face him.
“No, and you’re not my dad.” I saw a flash of regret in his eyes and I immediately started to apologize for that remark, but Liam cut me off.
“Have fun at school too… Bye.” He turned and went out the door.
“Bye.” I managed to get out just before Liam closed the door behind him.
Liam was my brother and I loved him, but ever since the accident, we just couldn’t get along as well as we used to. Maybe that was because I reminded him of mom, just like he reminded me of dad. As you may have guessed by now; my parents died a few years ago and I was living with my brother. As crazy as that may seem, it was totally legal seeing Liam had been eighteen –and by that, an adult- when it happened. Well that, and I didn’t want to go into foster-care and live with strangers. And something told me that, even though it was hard to take care of me, Liam didn’t want me to leave either. Anyway, we may not get along all that well, but we were family, so we had to look out for each other. I knew that was what Liam always tried to do, but sometimes I hated him for it. And by “it” I mean acting like my father.
Enough with the heavy stuff and back to breakfast. I was running late and I didn’t really feel like making bread, so I grabbed a banana, my bag and my leather jacket and left the house.
I’d promised to pick up Alice on my way to school, that meant I needed to leave a few minutes early and that I had to find my extra helmet. The last of which was hell on heels, but I simply had to wear my black, laced heels. Oh, I forgot to tell you; I rode a motorcycle to school. You’d think, between the leather jacket I had on, the rock-band I was in (don’t worry that’ll come later), the motorcycle I rode and the heels with laces I wore, that I’d be a total bad-ass biker chick. Well, I wasn’t. I actually was really shy and quiet, just not with how I looked. That was just the only way -I wasn’t too scared of- to show who I was. Anyway, I digress again, apparently I’m pretty good at that.
So, I found the helmet, after spending too much time trying to find it, and I was on my way to Alice’s.
There was a lot of traffic, like you’d expect at eight thirty in the morning, and I was happy to be on my motor. It was a lot faster that way, because with my motor I could still fit between two cars stuck in traffic. And, naturally, I used this benefit a lot. The drive to Alice’s didn’t take that long, just about fifteen minutes, but that wasn’t why I‘d left my house a few minutes early. Alice was the kind of girl that could still be late after getting up three hours early. One problem with that; we couldn’t be late this morning, due to a written exam we had during our Spanish class first period. So Alice had to be ready on time, meaning; she had to be ready in five minutes.
“Alice!” I decided to try and speed her up by yelling at her. I didn’t know if it was a smart decision, but Alice didn’t leave me with much of a choice.
“Yes?!” Judging by the sound of her voice, she was nowhere near ready, but didn’t want me to know that.
“Alice, I love you, but you got five minutes before I leave!” I meant it and made that clear, the “I love you” part was just to make it sound less harsh.
“Okay, mom, thank you!” Nope, no way she was going to be ready in five minutes. She wouldn’t have been so irritated if she could make it. Damn it.
“She won’t be ready in time.” That voice made me jump a little, not the voice itself, but the fact I didn’t see the person coming. That wasn’t really possible, since my head rested on my steering-wheel and my eyes were closed, but you get the point.
“Good morning to you too, Casey.” I replied with a hint of sarcasm in my voice. Casey was my brother’s best friend and Alice’s older brother (thought you should know).
“Good morning. You already knew she wouldn’t be, didn’t you?”
“I had a feeling, yes.” I paused for a second and stared at Alice’s window, trying to see how far along she was with her morning-ritual. “God, how long can it take someone to put on a top and jeans?!” I was getting my frustration out, but realized too late to whom I was talking.
It got me a smile. “Want to hear a secret?” It was pretty hard to tell if I’d actually want to know it.
“Sure” I said slow- and carefully.
Another smile. “It only takes my sister seconds to do that. The thing that takes her so long, is deciding what shoes she’s going to wear.” I smiled this time.
“Hey! Lynn?” Alice had heard it. And calling my name meant she wanted me to do something. So I hit Casey in the stomach with my helmet.
“Hey!” This came from Casey, directed to me.
“Thank you!” Alice.
“Happy to do it!” I shouted back to Alice. “But you could be right about that.” I whispered back to Casey. Alice owned so many shoes, heels to be precise, that it looked like she never wore the same pair twice.
Casey shook his head and quickly recovered. “Anyway… don’t you have any manners at all?”
“Huh?!” That question had caught me off guard.
“Screaming before nine am, I could have still been asleep!” When I saw his smile reappear, I knew he was joking.
“Well, I happen to know for a fact that’s very unlikely. With you having an appointment at nine, at the Starbucks, with Liam, my older brother.”
“I keep forgetting you and Liam are siblings.” That was true; this wasn’t the first time he’d forgotten that. “Not my fault though, you guys just don’t look alike.”
“Well, that’s funny, because you and Alice don’t look alike at all either, but I never forget you are siblings. Maybe you just don’t want to remember your best friend’s sister is also your sister’s best friend.”
“Wow, psychologist much? But maybe you’re right, or maybe I’m just forgetful. Besides, with me and Alice it’s easy to see when we’re with our parents, but with you a…” I must have shown something, because right the second Casey looked at me, he stopped talking. “Uhm, never mind.” He tried to smile, but it wasn’t easy for him to. He really felt sorry for bringing up parents. I felt down, but returned the smile nevertheless.
I checked my watch again. “Liz! One minute!” A grunt came from her window.
“She won’t make it.” Casey accepted the change in subject as very welcome.
“No, probably not.”
“Didn’t you guys have a test?” Alice must have told him about that.
“Yup”
“Sucks”
“Yup”
“How’s the band?” Back to small talk it was.
“Same”
“Could we move on to multiple syllables please?” I laughed quietly and softly hit him again with my helmet. He overreacted with the sound he made, making it sound like I was really beating him up.
“Save some for me!” Alice shouted, still from her room.
“Well then hurry, ‘cause soon there’ll be nothing left!” I looked at Casey as he was making a gesture as if to fend me off. And we both laughed.
“This will take you forever.” Casey said when we both stopped laughing.
I shrugged. Then realized it was almost nine. “Don’t you have somewhere to go?”
“Well, I think Liam won’t mind if I’m late because I watched his little sister.” I shot him a glare, I didn’t particularly like to be seen as Liam’s little sister.
“Be careful who you call little, I’m seventeen.”
“Excusez-moi mademoiselle.” He said and made a bow. I just shook my head and turned towards the front door of the house, where I could see movement.
“Huh, maybe she’ll even make it.”
“That would be a first.” He looked skeptical, which was understandable in this situation.
“First time for everything I guess.” Even though this particular first time would be a downright miracle.
“Hmm, just wait until she comes out, I’m sure Alice figures out a way to make you arrive at school too late.” How would she do that? Force me to wait longer? Sabotage my ride?
But sure enough, there was Alice, standing in the doorway. Her brown, shoulder-length hair a mess, complete with her blonde highlight vertically on top of her head, her make-up in her hair and yes, even food between her teeth. I let my forehead fall onto my steering-wheel and was pretty sure the whole neighborhood heard a lot of bad words, so to say. But that wasn’t all. To make the whole thing even worse; Casey was literally rolling on the floor laughing.
“What? It isn’t so bad, right?” I doubted Alice had even looked into a mirror after she got up; it was so bad.
“Oh my God, Alice! Do you own a mirror? It’s really bad, it’s a catastrophe!” She shot me a glare and shifted her gaze toward Casey, who was still laughing hysterically.
“Well, we don’t have any time to make it better now, do we? And you,” she pointed at Casey, “stop laughing for crying out loud!” She was getting real angry now.
“Five minutes, I’m not taking you to school like that.” I’d just have to drive faster, a lot faster.
“I’m not sure that’s fixable in just five minutes.” Casey had stopped laughing and decided he should join the conversation. This made Alice look even worse; she could seriously shoot fire with her eyes now.
“Casey, shut up! Liz, go inside now! If you’re not back in exactly five minutes, I’m seriously leaving without you.” This time I wasn’t even going to try making it sound less harsh.
“Okay!” Now it actually was obvious those two were related; they said this in the exact same way, at the exact same time. I had to suppress the urge to laugh, somehow it just didn’t seem appropriate right now.
Sure enough, Alice went into the house again and I was left alone with Casey, again. I got off of my motor and sat down on the sidewalk, next to where Casey now sat.
“Doesn’t this make you go crazy?” Casey was the one who broke the silence.
“What? Waiting for Alice? If that made me go crazy, I’d be totally insane by now, but you’re right, it is really annoying.” It was usual for Alice to be late and most of the time I didn’t think too much of it anymore, but now, it was really getting on my nerves. It wasn’t like I wanted to do that written exam so badly, but being late meant you got an F. I’d had those before, but I still didn’t like getting them.
“So why do you keep putting up with it?” Was this actually a serious conversation? I mean, I knew Casey could be serious, but he just never was when I was around. Well, there’s a first time for everything, I guess.
“She’s my friend.” It was as simple as that. This was something I’d only put up with for friends, simply because I knew a real friend would do the same for me if the roles were reversed.
“I admire your loyalty.” Did he actually mean that, or was he joking again? I didn’t know and probably wouldn’t find out if he was joking or not.
“Hello guys, I am now totally ready to go!” Alice came walking through the front door again, only now she didn’t look like a total mess. Something told me she walked out looking like a mess five minutes ago, just so I’d give her some extra time.
“See? I was right; it wasn’t fixable in five minutes.” This time I simply had to laugh at what Casey said. Alice, unsurprisingly, didn’t find it funny at all and opened her mouth to probably shout at her brother, but I cut her off.
“Well, maybe you should get over here and get on the motor, because we don’t have much time left.” She closed her mouth and walked towards us, but I didn’t like the look on her face.
“Maybe you should get on there too and stop flirting with my brother.” Excuse me? Flirting with her brother? It was a freaking miracle we weren’t fighting! Okay, calm down. She’s just angry at us and doesn’t know what she’s saying, forget about it. My head, and the rest of me, was fighting the urge to say something. Instead I got on the motor and started the engine. Alice got on and we drove off. Casey said something in the lines of bye, but I was too angry to hear it properly.
The way to school was pretty quiet, so were we. I still hadn’t quite forgiven Alice for what she’d said. At the time we arrived at school everything had cooled down a bit. Only, unfortunately for us, the school bell had rung a minute ago. We hoped we could still get to the lesson without having to get a note. All we had to do was get past the janitor’s office and we seemed to make it, but just before we’d passed, a voice said: “Where are you two girls going?” Damn it, we got caught. The voice belonged to one of the older janitors, Bertha, a small woman with short blonde hair and a very strict policy. Not someone you’d want to get busted by.
“We, uhm, are just trying to get to class.” Alice said with a huge, and fake, smile on her face.
Bertha started smiling, only it wasn’t exactly a warm, or genuine smile. It was the kind of smile that said: I know I’ve got you cornered right now.
“Well, I’m sorry to inform you that the lessons have already started.” Alice and I both knew that was a lie; she wasn’t sorry. She liked to catch students red-handed and give them detention, or at the very least a note. “Therefore,” Bertha continued, “I’m going to have to give you a note.” Alice and I took a quick look at each other and realized there was no getting out of this. Bertha looked as pleased as I’d ever seen her, while she said: “Name, year and lesson you were supposed to be in, please.” The “please” really was just a waste of energy; we didn’t care for it and she didn’t like to say it, but I guess it was just a standard.
“Caitlynn Rosette, junior, Spanish 101 from Señora Meras.” The pleased look Bertha’d had on her face just now had suddenly changed into a narrow-eyed fierceness that startled me.
“You too?” Bertha demanded, while looking at Alice.
“Y-yes.” I’ve only heard Alice stutter two times and both of those times she was really scared. I couldn’t blame her for being scared; Bertha was naturally scary, but this was a new record.
“Then the two of you are very lucky today; Misses Meras called in sick this morning.” Bertha obviously hated she couldn’t give us a note, but I was thrilled. No exam, no note and no Spanish! What more could a girl ask for?
Looking at the giant (and real) smile on Alice’s face, I knew she was just as happy as I was.
“Now, what are you still standing around here for? Go!” Bertha clearly wanted us gone. I really couldn’t think of a reason why someone like her would get a job involving kids, or in this case; teens. Well, Bertha was crazy, not like that was anything new. Anyway, I should ban her from my thoughts and start thinking about what I was going to do with my two hours of free time.
“I need to get something from my locker. Will you walk with me?” I didn’t think Alice actually needed to get something from her locker, but rather that she just wanted to get away from Bertha.
“Off course.” We went to the basement a.k.a. the place where the lockers were.
“Hey, do you know if Jennifer and Red have class right now?” So that was why Alice wanted to go here; she didn’t want Bertha to hear us planning. Also, Red was a nickname we’d given a girl of our year. Her real name was Brianna, but she hated that name. If we didn’t call her by her nickname, we called her Brian, somehow she thought that was better. Red was what you call a-typical; she had dark-reddish hair and always wore a sweatshirt with some kind of food on it (mostly cartoon cupcakes and stuff like that). As you may have guessed by now, we called her Red because of her hair, a feature of hers that really stood out. Jennifer was also a redhead, we always referred to her as a jade-eyed Hayley Williams and if you don’t know who that is; she is the best female singer ever! Well, together with P!nk, in my opinion at least. Now, back to the story.
“Uhm, let me think…” I went through every memory I had, concerning Jen and Red’s timetables. “I think they have English right now. From Mister Grey, if I’m not mistaking.” I was fairly certain they were in that class at the moment, but it wouldn’t be the first time I got something like that wrong.
“No, I think you’re right. They’ve been complaining about that guy non-stop over the weekend.” Alice would know that, she had been working on a geography-project with them, using twitter to communicate. Guess they were too lazy to just pick up the phone and call, whatever.
“So, what are we going to do for the next two hours?” No need to ask that question really and judging by the look Alice gave me; she was thinking the exact same thing. “Starbucks it is, then.” Starbucks was kind of our usual hangout, every time a teacher was ill - or there was no lesson for another reason - we went there to relax. Something that also helped, was the fact that the Starbucks was at walking distance from Middleton High (our school). Unfortunately, that meant a lot of our fellow-students came there as well. We didn’t like any of them very much, apart from people we considered our friends.
Today was no exception. As soon as Alice and I set foot in the Starbucks, I saw Missy and her posse. Missy was the worst of the worst; the queen bee. Every guy wanted to date her and every girl wanted to be her. There were very few people who saw through that. Only my friends and I seemed to think she was just another rich girl, not the goddess everyone took her for.
My brother was one of the people who didn’t think much of her. Missy mistakenly took that as a challenge; she tried everything to get Liam’s attention. As did many girls, but Missy always took it just one step further, just like she was doing now. Liam and Casey were sitting at a table by the window and Missy was standing right beside it with Brit and Mia or, as we liked to call them: The clothing. We named them that because of a metaphor: Missy was the doll and Brit and Mia were her clothing. They didn’t really do anything for her, except cover who Missy really was. Anyway, enough about them, back to the situation.
Alice and I were standing in line to order and Liam and Casey were sitting at a table about eight feet away, Missy, Brit and Mia next to it.
“So, the usual?” Alice’s voice broke me from my thoughts.
“Uh, yeah, sure.” I could just manage to get out.
“What’s wrong?” She stopped and looked at the table. “Oh, come on! They’re here right now? Can’t someone just kick them out?” Typically Alice, a lot of talk, but she would never act on it.
“Let’s just get our coffee and forget about it. Okay?” I really didn’t feel like making a scene in a Starbucks and I hoped Alice felt the same way.
“No.” She started walking towards the table and even though I tried to stop her, she just kept walking.
“Hey!” Casey’s smile was as much confused as it was happy. I guess it was pretty annoying to have three girls around, not interested in you, but in your friend.
“Hey girls, I was just telling Liam we were having a party this weekend.” That was all Missy said, not: ‘Do you want to come?’ or something. This was purely to get up in our grill.
“Well,” Alice started, “I was just telling Lynn I would never come to a party thrown by you.” The expression on Alice’s face made me shiver and it made Missy take a step back. Pure evil, as Ari (a not too bright friend of ours) would say, only she would make a funny face to go with it.
“Okay, I think you should calm down and just leave the adults alone.” Missy was already eighteen, due to a year she had to do twice, because her grades weren’t good enough.
“So you’re going to leave with your child-sized brain?” Way to go, Alice! I wish I would’ve come up with that one, it sounded really cool.
“At least I don’t shop at the children’s department.” That was just plain mean! There was nothing wrong with Alice’s clothes.
“At least we’re not fake!” This was getting out of hand; everyone in the entire place was staring at us. Missy looked awfully calm, this couldn’t be good.
“Well, I don’t know. This looks like a fake.” She came up to me and grabbed the pendant of my necklace. “What do you think, Brit? 99 cent shop?” Brit started nodding, but stopped as soon as she saw that I grabbed Missy’s wrist. The arrogant look Missy wore just a second ago, had vanished and changed into fear.
“Don’t you EVER touch my necklace again or I will make sure your face will get the same color as your purse. Got it?” Missy’s head turned towards her purse, as if to check the color of it. Her purse was a dark red, the same color as for example blood. Missy’s head shot up again.
“G-got it.” I let go of her wrist and as soon as I did, Missy recovered. “Brit, Mia, I think someone is in over her head.” I knew Missy recovered fast, but this I did not see coming. “Maybe some guys of the football team need to teach her a lesson.” The guys of the football team were pretty much under Missy’s control, so this was no empty threat; this was for real. I was a little scared, but I wasn’t about to let Missy know that.
“Maybe you should consider that they aren’t here right now. Right now it’s just you and your pretend-friends -that’ll probably run when given the chance- and me and my best friend.” Missy swallowed and I knew I’d struck a nerve, but she wasn’t going to back off this easily.
“Ladies, ladies, let’s stop with the trash talk. Maybe it’s better if you go.” Casey told Missy. Missy started to protest, but Casey was just a little faster. “We -Liam and I- invited our sisters to come chat with us, but you’re welcome to join if you want.” Missy absolutely didn’t like to be told to go, but there was nothing she could do to make me and Alice leave.
“No thank you, I’ve got a friend I should visit.” And with that Missy, Brit and Mia left.
When the door closed behind the three girls, I realized Alice, Casey and Liam were all staring at me. Alice with an open mouth and Casey with wide eyes, both looking totally shocked. Liam, however, was staring very differently. His face showed more anger than shock.
“What were you thinking? That threatening her would keep her away? Or maybe that her touching your necklace would kill us all?” Yes, it was definitely anger in Liam’s expression.
I couldn’t say a word. He was right. I overreacted and this wouldn’t help at all, if anything, it would get me in trouble. Missy could tell the principal and I would get suspended. This was a very, very dumb action of mine.
“What are you talking about? That was awesome!” This snapped me right back to reality. Casey’s expression had changed from total shock to a more impressed one.
“What?!” Me, Liam and Alice let out in disbelieve at the exact same time.
“The way you made Missy go from the toughest bitch in town to a puppy running away with its tail between its legs.” My face must have shown total confusion, because Casey added hastily: “Wait, you don’t actually think it was wrong to stand up to her, right?” Well, if you put it like that… No, it was wrong to threaten her. Standing up to her, okay, but threaten? Maybe that was going a bit too far.
“Well yeah, but standing up to someone isn’t the same as threatening.” Like Alice had read my mind, she protested her brother’s words.
“You’re picking Liam’s side now? Anyway, that’s not important. What’s your opinion, Lynn?” For the second time today, all of their faces turned my way. This was not the attention I wanted.
“Alice is right. Standing up to someone is a good thing, but this was going too far. I should’ve known that.” While I said this, I just stared at the ground. I was not the kind of person that could disagree with someone and say it to his (or her) face.
“Just forget about it. We’ll see what happens, nothing we can do about it now.” Liam had apparently calmed down and was even trying to make me feel better. This was why we used to get along so well. We were more than just brother and sister, we used to be great friends.
“Thanks, Liam.” I managed a warm smile and got one in return.
“Hey, do you guys want to join us?” I think Casey was trying to keep the conversation light, but he didn’t quite manage it.
“Sure. Alice, you okay with it?”
“Yeah, but maybe we should get a coffee first.” Right, we didn’t get our coffees yet.
“Lead the way.”
Thankfully the line was a lot shorter by now. That could have something to do with the fact that it was already nine thirty, but I couldn’t be sure. This made that we only had to wait for two minutes, after which we sat back down.
“So, what happened to that Spanish test, you skipped?” Casey was starting up the conversation once more.
“Meras called in sick this morning. Lucky us.” I said.
“Meras?” I thought Alice told Casey about our Spanish teacher, but I guess she didn’t.
“Our Spanish teacher.” Alice told her brother with a tone in her voice that basically called him an idiot. She had mastered that tone; she used it all the time.
“Oh, give him a break. It’s not really that important to know the name of our Spanish teacher.” I said.
“Since when are you sticking up for him?” Alice said it, but both Liam and Casey were thinking the same thing, judging by the way they looked at me.
“I did, didn’t I?” All three of them nodded. “Well, since today I guess… but he kind off did the same for me with Missy.”
“Yes, why did you do that?” Liam asked Casey. He apparently thought this was a strange thing, just like I, and probably Alice as well, did too.
“Because I wanted to get rid of Missy just as much as Lynn and this was the best way I could think of to do that.” That sounded like a good reason.
“Or maybe it’s because you like her. I mean, you were flirting with her this morning.”
“What?!” Me and Casey replied simultaneously. We took a quick look at each other and immediately shifted our gazes back to Alice.
“I see what you mean, they make a perfect couple.” Liam was kidding, he had to be.
“No way! You’re kidding me, right?” I really hoped the answer to my question would be yes, but Liam’s face was unreadable.
“Well… you are pretty cute together.” Would he stop joking already?
“Seriously, you’re trying to hook up your sister and your best friend?” That definitely changed Liam’s expression.
“Hey, I don’t want to date you, but is the idea of dating me that repelling?” Casey wore an offended expression while asking me this.
“You yelled ‘what’ as loud as I did, so don’t start with me.” I didn’t really want to answer the question he gave me, because both yes and no would be wrong.
“Okay, as long as you’re not going to threaten me.” Those jokes Casey made every time things got serious were getting really annoying. As I’m sure my face showed.
“Awhh, they even fight like an old married couple.” Thank you Alice, that was what was missing; even more irritation.
“Can we move on to a different subject, please?” I think what I said made even more of an impact on Liam than I thought.
“So, the weather is great, don’t you think?”
“Really, Casey? The weather?”I said. You’d think that a guy studying film and special effects would be a little more creative, but I guess not.
“You think of something then!” Okay, maybe I was a bit too hard on Casey, or maybe he overreacted. Guess we’ll never know.
“Sure,” I said with the most confident tone I could manage, “how’s your study going? You’re still doing film and special effects, right?” Casey looked confused, probably because he didn’t expect me to continue the conversation with him.
“Yes and everything is going great, thank you.” Adapting apparently wasn’t hard for Casey; he sounded completely relaxed now. Alice, however, didn’t look too happy. Actually she looked pretty angry. So angry, that I didn’t even want to ask her what was wrong. Only Liam didn’t feel the same way.
“What are you so angry about?” He asked.
“What do you think? MY best friend would rather talk to my brother than me! Can’t they just save the flirting for when I’m not around? Besides, we agreed we wouldn’t date each other’s brother!” Really? That’s what she was so angry about?
“Alice, are you insane? No, really, I want to know. Because I’m only talking to Casey because he started a conversation, something you didn’t do. Furthermore, would you stop saying I’m flirting with him? It’s not true and you know it! Finally, even if you could call this flirting, it doesn’t mean we’re dating! I promise you that there is nothing going on between me and Casey and there never will be, okay?” Alice kept trying to interrupt me, but I didn’t give her the chance.
Alice stayed quiet for a couple of seconds and I could see she regretted her words. “Okay, sorry, I’m not in a great mood.” Yeah, I’ve noticed.
“What’s going on?” I asked. If Alice wasn’t in a good mood, there was something wrong. Normally I’d say she and Casey had a fight, but since they seemed to get along pretty well (for them), that couldn’t be it.
“I’d rather not talk about it.” She said with pain in her eyes. That she didn’t want to talk about it wasn’t entirely true; we told each other everything. My guess would be that she didn’t want to talk about it in this company. Alice and Casey were a typical brother and sister; fighting a lot and trying to annoy one another, but they had each other’s backs if necessary.
“It’s mom and dad, isn’t it?” Casey carefully asked Alice. This is what I meant; Casey really did care about his little sister, even though he didn’t always show it.
“She didn’t want to talk about it.” I told Casey. If Alice said she didn’t want to talk about it, she meant it (one way or another).
“Yes, it’s mom and dad.” That surprised me; I didn’t think Alice would actually answer her brother’s question.
“What about them?” Liam gently asked Liz.
“They’re never around.” Alice wasn’t telling everything. I knew they were away most of the time, because they both had a full-time job. Her dad was a cop and her mother a lawyer, but Alice had gotten used to that by now. This couldn’t be the real reason she was so upset.
“And?” My curiosity had gotten the hand over my willpower.
“Did I ever tell you how much I hate the fact that you see right through me?” Alice was dodging the question.
“More than once. Don’t want to talk about it?” I decided that, if Alice didn’t want to talk about this anymore, I was going to let it go.
“It’s just… difficult.” I didn’t expect Alice to precisely tell all of us what was wrong and I guess I was right. But then she continued: “Mom and dad weren’t sleeping in the same bed tonight, but they kept insisting there was nothing to be worried about.” It was obvious to all of us Alice was having a hard time with this.
“It’ll be okay.” Casey told his little sister and he laid his hand on her shoulder. Alice smiled, but it wasn’t all okay just yet.
“Not to break up the warm family-moment, but I think we have to go.” Liam broke the silence that had just started. With ‘we’ he meant him and Casey, as we all knew.
“Yeah, I guess. Are you going to be okay?” Casey asked Liz.
“Duh, I have the best friend in the entire world with me.” Alice winked.
“No, Liam’s coming with me.” Casey could be really funny, as he was now. So, naturally, we all laughed as Liam and Casey left.
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Well, that was it, thanks for reading!
By the way; if any of you want everything I've written so far in a Word document, leave me a message!
BYE
Xx
