Welcome To The Circus (COMPLETE)

I could buy your whole life

My jeans are far tighter than when I first got here, but that's okay, it means I have enough to eat, which is a luxury I could never take for granted.

Laci raises an eyebrow at me, observing as I put on my shoes, "Going somewhere?"

I sigh, "You're still here?" I manage to keep a straight face, but she brushes my comment off anyway, it's almost impossible to offend her.
"Are you gonna answer the question?" I hold her gaze steadily, she showed up at six in the morning, asking for my chemistry notes, since that clearly couldn't wait, and ended up staying, it's now eleven.

"Well," Nothing gets past her, I can't lie, but she is unawares of yesterdays charades with Tiger, involving a certain Evan Kelly. God knows where Tiger is right now, I've become accustomed to not asking in the first place. But I did manage to get out of paying ten dollars for the bet by convincing her that Evan was kidding in his text (which he obviously was). But I digress, I can't tell Laci that I'm going to meet him now, so I blurt the first thing that comes to mind. "I'm going to visit Levi actually, so I guess I'll see you later." I wipe my hands down my shirt, signaling that I don't want to be pressed on this. Unfortunately, since this is Laci, she can't take a hint, that or she wants to catch me out in a lie, she jumps up excitedly.

"Do you think I could come?"

"Don't you have something better to do?"

"Nope."

"But it's Levi..." I say pointedly, starting to follow her train of thought.

"Exactly, let's go." Before I can protest or invent an excuse, she's out the door.

When we enter the lobby of the boy's dormitories, we aren't greeted with too many strange looks, although not aloud, it's not uncommon for girls to loiter downstairs during daylight, usually waiting for, well, you could guess who. The atmosphere is pleasant, and as we enter, a group of boys bound down the giant marble staircase, which isn't great for the acoustics, they point to me, "Check it out man, she's Levi's sister I think." I nod to them politely, even though I've never seen them before, it's a little worrying they can tell who I am by face, I hope Levi hasn't been parading around embarrassing pictures of me. There's a tinkering coming from the common room, the kind of a piano, which I'm sure they have in there, a black grand piano if I'm not mistaken. I listen carefully, and I can just make out the melody, it's a Bach, "The Art of Fugue." I think, it's imprinted into my brain from Levi practicing over and over, he was self taught, so it took far longer to learn than normal, just more torture for me. At least it's not scales, those were drilled cruelly in my brain when Mum taught them to him when he was maybe eight, he would bash those keys day and night, but I suppose it's worth it, because now he's as good as any trained pianist. As much as I hate to admit it, he is talented, whereas the thing I'm best at is surviving, no matter how inconvenient it is. I follow the music and enter the room, and I am correct, Levi is sitting at the piano, for god sake, he doesn't even have any sheet music, if you needed any proof that my eardrums suffered as a child...

"Morning." I say as I sit on the stool beside him, he ignores me, so I press a couple of the high keys to throw him off, nothing. "Earth to Levi?" I flick his cheek, and finally he notices me,
"Oh, hey Margie."
"I've come to visit temporarily, until I can find a new plan."
He rolls his eyes at me, not bothering to ask details, "Sure, is that Laci?" he's distracted by her entrance in the room, she must have been waiting outside.

"Yeah, just go with it."
"Fine by me." Levi smiles across at her, and she smiles back bashfully, before making her way over. I get up off the seat and walk circles around the piano, trying to find a way out of this, not that I don't want to see my brother, just that I've got somewhere to be.