Setting the Record Straight

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

It was already half past three am when I got back home. I was able to get some sleep for a couple of more hours before I was awoken by the sound of activity down in the kitchen. I snuck in nice and quietly to prevent from making any noise, but light seeped through the crack under Chloe's door before and after my midnight drive. She'd been up late. As always. You had to hand it to my sister, she sure knew her way around self-torture.

I pulled on a new shirt and made my way down and when I got to the kitchen, Chloe was standing by the toaster with her back to me. She was still in her pajamas and her hair was sticking out in all directions. She was up at eight am on a Saturday. Typical. I took a box of cereal from the pantry, sat down and started eating. I may as well should've started since I was leaving for soccer practice in a while anyway. We didn't say a word to each other and I didn't mind. My eyes still felt heavy though I was pretty sure that including my last round of sleeping and the naps I took at Eli's car, I already had the complete prescribed eight hours (and maybe even more, actually). Then again, the prescription didn't exactly involve going out for a drive with a psycho and Edgar Allan Poe.

"Where were you last night?" Chloe asked, finally breaking the silence. She placed her toast on a plate and took a seat across me but she didn't bother to look up and kept herself busy with spreading some jam onto her bread.

"It's a long story," I replied. She raised an eyebrow and briefly looked up at me before going back to what she was doing. The dark circles under her eyes had already grown twice their usual size over night.

"Right," she said with some doubt before letting silence occupy the air between us once more. Chloe was someone who valued her pride very much. And from what I know, she has never had a boyfriend, a real one that really exists outside the books she's read and the world she sometimes has in her mind. Okay well, maybe she has had one or two but I don't recall her being the fawning and swooning over a guy type. She was independent that way, not needing some guy to tell her that she was smart or pretty or stuff like that. She did things for herself.

"Eli had this thing...," I found myself trying to explain.

"Okay that pretty much sums everything up," she said, allowing me not to finish. "Don't bother with giving me the graphics. I had a feeling he had something to do with it. I could hear his car's dying moans from my room." I told you The Survivor was death on wheels. I cracked a smile at that and so did she. She straightened back onto her seat and finally faced me. "Look, about Sarah.... I didn't -- I don't mean to sound bitchy and all that. I just worry for you, that's all. I know how much you like her and I know that you know she's still sort of with someone, and I don't want you to get disappointed."

"I know." She didn't need to explain herself. Half the time, Chloe was almost as psychotic as Eli was (in a sort of good way), but she always had her reasons. Chloe stifled a yawn as she said, "Good," and took a bite out of her toast. She opened her mouth, about to say something before closing it again. "I think," she hesitated and then looked down at her food. "I think you could tell her any day now. Just don't let it go on until homecoming or prom because -- I don't know. You're an ass, Chris. Have I ever told you that?"

"Lots of times, actually," I replied, a grin slowly starting to form on my face as I got up and left my bowl on the sink. Chloe narrowed her eyes at me as I walked past her and gave her hair a ruffle. "Go get some sleep."

She pouted and watched as I headed for the stairs. "Where are you going this time?" She asked.

"Soccer practice," I replied. "Just go to sleep, okay? You look like you really need it."

"I'll pretend that was intended for concern and not as an insult."

I stopped for a moment before reaching the top of the steps and stuck my head out to see her accusingly pointing a fork in my direction from the kitchen. "It is though. You just have a way of puting malice into my words."