Isolated

Chapter 38

Chapter 38

The departure of blonde from my hair was already doing some good.

That morning, as I got dressed and wrapped my now auburn hair in a bun, I realized something: I needed to stop being such a freaking girl. Don't worry, I'm not talking about getting rid of my vagina. I'm talking about not allowing my personal qualms run rampant in my head like they did last night. More was happening that demanded my attention.

Like coming up with our backgrounds and having them fit together.

By the time we started brainstorming, it was easy to get lost in mapping out how the four of us would be connected in our new lives. Last night, it was established that we should be family. More specifically, that Carter, Jackson, and Luke would be brothers. It was fairly believable, but just to be safe, Carter was going to dye his hair brown later.

And where do I come in? That was the question we started off with this morning. It was agreed I was too young to pass as a sibling, especially to Jackson and Carter. So how do I fit into the picture with the three brothers?

"You'll be 'Kyle's' girlfriend," Bill interjected, taking a sip of his coffee.

He was standing in front of where the rest of us were seated and conversing in the living room. Each of us had a notepad where we were writing down the details we agreed upon. However, upon hearing Bill's idea, I couldn't write that down yet. Despite my heartbeats spiking, I was stifling a chuckle at the cruel irony. If you couldn't guess, 'Kyle' was Luke.

"There is no other way she could be connected to us?" Jackson asked from where he was sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table. Hands propping him up with outstretched legs, he raised an annoyed eyebrow up to Bill.

"It's the most typical and easiest way to connect her to all of you," he shrugged.

It didn't matter that we couldn't come up with a better option. Jackson was not at all a happy trooper about that one. He didn't like Luke and that's all it would take to piss him off. Grudgingly, he sat up, swiped his notepad from the coffee table, and jotted it down.

Glancing over to Luke, he gave me an empty expression. However, I knew his mind was racing like mine. It was just perfect irony that in our new lives, we would be together in a relationship. There was no hiding that this was awkward as fuck.

I shook my head. Of course I would be his girlfriend, of course I would. Why wouldn't I be linked to him in that way? Obviously, the awkwardness that already existed wasn't enough, no sir. "This movie keeps writing itself," I mumbled. I scribbled down this new part of our history and story.

"If you need me, I'm getting to work. You also might want to start working on calling each other by your new names," Bill said, leaving us to continue piecing our new lives together.

He was lucky he escaped to his office when he did. I wanted to slap Bill for that suggestion. If my cheeks weren't flushed enough from a moment ago, they were now for a different reason. I did not need to hear my new name any more than what was necessary.

Bill came up with our names, not us (the bullshit reason being he didn't want us wasting time on coming up with a name when we needed to focus on other things). With the three 'brothers' sharing the same last name, it resulted in Luke's name being Kyle Doyle. Jackson's new identity: Fred Doyle. Carter as Trent Doyle. And what is Albany's new name and identity, you ask?

Peggy Haul. Peggy. I know—I fucking know!

All that name did was end my hate towards 'Morgan.' In fact, if I could have 'Morgan' or any other name, I would worship it, tattoo it on my body, maybe give myself to Satan! Anything to not be Peggy. Any-fucking-thing. Yet, there was nothing I could do. And now, I didn't even have the option to ignore it.