When twins Callie and Lexi were kids, they wrote a list of all the boys they wished to kiss when they started high school. Flash forward a year later, Lexi packed her bags and moved with her father to Melbourne in the wake of their parents' umpteent...
Callie and Noah were due back ages ago. It had been almost five hours since they had left and the rain had finally let up and the sky was starting to turn a crimson pink.
Sara and I were long past our frisky time and had put a show back on as we waited for Callie to return.
"Maybe they came back when we didn't hear and they've been in Noah's room this whole time," Sara suggested.
Pressing my lips together, I replied, "That would be a bit soon."
Sara scoffed. "Because we waited a long time."
"This is different. This is Callie. She wouldn't just jump—"
"They don't have to be hooking up to be in his room, Lex. They might just be talking. Or making out. Or who knows..."
"Are you sure your brother likes her?"
Sara heaved a sigh. "It's all he talks about these days, begging me for ideas of how to win her over again."
"I don't know if Callie is ready for a relationship—"
"Callie wanted to be with Noah for so long. Maybe her and Flynn didn't work out but... maybe it was all leading to her and Noah finally getting together. Just leave them. Callie will show up when she's ready."
But when the stars began to come out in the sky through Sara's window, that pit of concern stirring in my stomach began to grow.
"I'm going to the bathroom," I announced to Sara.
The look in her eyes said she knew I was using the bathroom as an excuse. Nonetheless, she didn't stop me. So I crept out of her room and slowly made my way down the hallway to the bathroom, keeping an ear out for Callie's voice as I passed Noah's room.
But almost as if on cue, as I was walking past his door, it opened.
Noah stood there, eyebrows shooting up as he looked at me, head still craned closely to his door.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
I glanced around him into his room, finding it oddly empty. "Where's my sister?"
"No clue. Probably home."
"Probably?" I stopped in my tracks, turning to face him. "Did you two not go to the movies?" Had she walked home after she said she was going? Did they not—
"We did."
"Then... what? You got back here and she went home?"
"Something like that." He was avoiding eye contact as we spoke, seeming to get more angry by the second.
"Something like that?" I pressed, eyes narrowing.
"Look, I don't know where she went but she's pissed me off, okay? If you don't mind, I was leaving my room for a reason. Move it."
Noah shoved passed me and headed to the bathroom.
And while I stood there for a few breaths, watching him leave and slam the door behind him, eventually I turned on my heel and headed straight back to Sara's.
"Your brother is back but Callie isn't," I quickly blurted out.
"That's... odd. Did they even go—"
"He said they did but she pissed him off."
Sara's eyebrows knotted together as her brain evidently began to work overdrive. But without having to say anything further, she reached for her bag, grabbed her house keys, then suddenly started dragging me out of her room.
As we walked into the house, we immediately beelined for Callie's room. We were on such a mission, we barely noticed the three figures sitting on the couch.
But we came to a stop just in time.
Turning on our heels, we quickly walked over to Callie to get a better look, both hoping we had seen wrong.
But there she was, sitting on the couch as mum crouched down in front of her, applying a disinfectant ointment to her stump.
Callie had a towel draped around her and under her.
Her clothes were sopping wet.
Her her prosthetic was on the ground, a pool of water seeping from the drenched sleeve.
"What happened?" Sara asked first, sitting next to her best friend.
But Callie's eyes flickered between her and me in fear before she shook her head and turned to look at mum again.
Mum sighed and stopped in her motions of applying ointment to Callie's stump. "I think it just needs to be our family right now, Sara," mum said.
But Sara wasn't having it. She turned to Callie and said, "What happened?"
Callie's lip pouted out and she shook her head.
"Cal... I'm your bestie. I have your back no matter what. How on earth did you end up here like this after going to the movies with my brother and my brother is now being so blasé about you when he wouldn't stop acting like a star-struck puppy over the past few weeks whenever your name was mentioned?
"It's... it was nothing," she squeaked, but then the floodgates open and she began to cry.
Sara immediately wrapped her arms around Callie, pulling her close as mum continued to attend to Callie's wounds.
All the while dad sat by, not saying anything. He certainly wasn't present in the conversation. In fact, the look in his eyes almost suggested he was plotting murder... or even genocide. All I knew is he was really mad about something.
And Callie was a sobbing mess, scared to tell her best friend something who she would tell anything to.
Which meant I was furious.
But before I could even open my mouth, Sara already said the exact words I was about to utter, "So why do I need to kill my brother?"
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