Temptation [A Young Writer's Prize Submission]

Cain

Chapter Two

I hadn't lived with the Isaac family very long. Up until a few months ago, I'd been living with the Minnows, who had been my guardians since I started puberty. Due to several transgressions – and I can't take credit for all of them – they'd decided not to put up with me any longer.

Greenwich Fostering Agency – which has legal obligation to sponsor me until I'm eighteen – had no immediate response to the Minnows' abrupt decision. I was an issue for three whole days before Thomas Isaac showed up at their door and offered to take me in. Greenwich was all too happy to rush the fostering procedure and get me off their doorstep.

Personally, I'd have preferred to live with Cain, but life clearly had other plans for me. Currently, I lived in what Debra called a hotel, but which I knew was just a glamorised bed and breakfast.

Isaac Inn was a fire hazard – an old Tudor building just out of town, and hidden from the road by thick, withering hedges. Traffic was few and far between, making this place ideal for anyone trying to escape the city.

My room had once been intended as a private living room for the Isaac family – which explained why it was double the size of a standard bedroom. Unfinished electric outlets littered the walls, which had been partially decorated with abhorrent gold fleur-de-lis wallpaper. A bed had been haphazardly pushed into the corner of the room, next to a window showing a delightfully dull view of fields and trees.

Loitering awkwardly in various parts of the room were other bare essentials needed by a teenage girl. Most items appeared to be relics from Susana's pre-pubescent days. There was a pink wardrobe barely bigger than me; a lilac dresser with a small, three-legged stool, and a medium-sized mirror with a grass-green frame – sparkly daisy stickers half peeled off.

I tried not to look too closely at my reflection as I adjusted my push-up bra for the fifth time. My mind would go into panic overdrive if I compared the spectre-like girl in the mirror to the god-like boy coming for me soon.

I'd long given up wondering what interest Cain had in having me for a friend. As Thomas said, he came from the kind of family that ate gold in their breakfast omelettes – I helped scramble eggs for the hotel guests. Cain's looks could land him on the cover of any magazine; I barely filled out the black top I pulled over my head.

But, having poisonous thoughts wouldn't make me any more attractive to Cain. I just had to take his continued attention for what it was: a freaking miracle!

Distantly, I heard the sound of a doorbell. Seconds later, Debra's voice rang through the house, screaming: "Mercy! He's here!"

I cringed, knowing that Cain could probably hear her from outside. I adjusted my shirt one last time, double-checked that my jeans were fastened, and stuffed my feet into boots.

Having flown down three flights of stairs, Debra's disapproving stare stopped me short at the bottom. Had I been wrong? Was she not happy about Cain?

Then my foster mother peered closely at my t-shirt and scanned the rest of my outfit.

"Yes, this is what I'm wearing," I rolled my eyes, disgruntled.

She raised an eyebrow: "If you say so."

I shrugged on a jacket – probably Susana's – that had been left on the banister. "It's not a date, Debra."

Her response was the same: "If you say so." She shook her head wearily, as if she was personally affected by my fashion choice.

"It doesn't matter," I retorted, brushing past her to open the front door. Cain wouldn't care what I wore.

Cain was also dressed casually, I noted with relief. He wore the same jeans as before, the ones that hung low on his hips in that appealing way. His black shirt was different – new. All but the top two buttons were fastened, so I could spy a little of his chest.