Oh Zoe

13 | SORRY

Zoe and Bella stood worthlessly on the stained timber floor of their bedroom as they listened to Elliot lecture them about respect and pure stupidity.

"How old are you guys? You want mum to treat you like you're a teenager but you're still acting like children! You are utterly stupid. Pulling a stunt like that! This dinner meant a lot to Pete! He was trying to get her settled with our family and you both had to go and ruin it!"

Zoe looked at her bare feet with curled toes in shame. "I didn't want to do it. Bella made me! She said-"

"Hey!" Bella interrupted before her sister could rat her out. "I did not."

"Girls," Elliot growled. He sighed to calm himself before kneeling so he could look his sisters in the eye. "With everything that was going on, this was supposed to be a happy day for Pete. What you did was extremely inconsiderate."

Zoe fidgeted with her fingers while Bella played with her hair so neither would have to make eye contact.

"I'm not sorry," Bella said, almost proudly. "She deserved it. She's just like all the other girls."

Elliot's eyes widened in disbelief. He looked back and forth between his identical sisters. "You both think that?" Elliot suddenly looked immensely sad.

"Well, yeah." Zoe shrugged. "I read that they're really mean and only want the guys for like a month. They don't really like them, and I thought that Pete didn't deserve that." A tear slipped out of the corner of her eye before she could whip it away. Zoe was feeling really guilty about what she had done now.

"Oh, Zo, come here." Elliot opened his arms and Zoe stepped into the warm bear-hug. "Isobel isn't like that. Your right though, there are girls who lie about how they feel. But you guys didn't have the right to judge it and then carry out your own punishment. Pete's not little anymore, he can make his own decisions without his little sisters putting their two cense worth in."

"How do you know she isn't a horrible person to Pete?" Bella wasn't quite convinced.

"Trust me, love, I know. And you'll both know when your older too."

Zoe took her head out from where it had rested on Elliot's chest. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one you need to say sorry to, Zo."

The girls both nodded. Elliot directed them back to the lounge where Ava and Mari were sitting on either side of Pete on the couch.

"Bella and Zoe have something to say, Pete." Elliot said as he took his position leaning against the wall. He wanted the girls to sort the mess out themselves.

"Um, Pete?" Zoe looked around the room, confused as to where Isobel was.

"What?" Pete responded a little more sharply than he intended.

Bella saw that her sister was too nervous to speak so she took over explaining.

"We're really sorry for what we did to Isobel, Pete. We thought she was a–"

"You did that to her?" Pete stood abruptly.

"Pete," Ava put a hand on her brother's shoulder. "Calm down."

"Why would you do that?" He spat.

"W-w-w-w-e t-th-th-thought she-e-e w-was-" Zoe stuttered. She was finding it hard to fix her emotions.

"You know what, I don't care. She's already gone." Pete made his way to the front door.

Gone? Gone how?

"Wait!" Zoe grabbed her brothers hand to stop him from going any further and looked up at him desperately. "We're really sorry. I'm really sorry. I know it was mean. I'm sorry," Zoe said in an attempt to make her brother understand.

"That doesn't make what you did hurt any less, Zoe."

"It was just some hot sauce," Bella muttered.

"No, it wasn't! Isobel just dumped me in front of everyone because she can't handle senseless little girls like you!" Pete yelled and ripped his hand from Zoe's grip and continued to storm to the front door.

Just as Pete opened the old wooden door, Elliot came up behind him and slammed it shut again. "Just here them out Pete. This isn't all their fault."

Pete stared at his older brother, wondering what he could possibly mean. When Elliot wasn't planning on moving, Pete turned around reluctantly to find everyone from the lounge now in the hallway.

"Explain."

Zoe opened her mouth but Bella beat her to it. "We thought she was like the other girls you normally like so we wanted to get rid of her so she wouldn't hurt you," Bella said in one breath.

Pete gazed at his sisters questioningly. Then looked to Elliot for confirmation and he nodded. Pete dragged a hand down his face.

"I don't like it when they hurt you, Pete, so we thought we could stop it. But then Elliot said she was different so . . . Mm." Zoe said in a small voice.

Pete sighed. "Thank you for telling me you did it, but that doesn't make what you did right."

The twins nodded together.

"And I'm sorry that all my girlfriends have been, well, sluts." Pete laughed at the murderous look his mother gave him for such foul language.

Zoe coughed on the way over to hug her brother. "I-I-I," Zoe didn't get her words out before she was taken over by another coughing fit.

Zoe hugged Pete's waist tight and buried her head as her chest constricted.

"Zoe," a hand touched her shoulder. "Turn around, babe. I got your inhaler here for you."

Zoe turned and took her required puffs.

"Fourth," Mari muttered and left.