The Wrong Sister

The New House

The picture is the general floor plan of the second floor... it's tough to explain.

The new house was odd. It was gorgeous, but very strange. The bottomed floor was a pretty standard open plan house, but the upstairs was like one very long room. My sisters and I would be sharing the very long room. Of course that would only be when we were at the house. My eldest sister was living with her boyfriend. My other sister and I were both in university.

Chloe and I looked at each other.

"You take the section by the stairs. If mom comes upstairs I want some warning." Chloe said.

"That's fine with me, I go to bed later than you anyway and want to be as close as possible to the fridge" I said laughing.

"No chips after 10pm!" Chloe demanded.

"Fine then no jumping on me while I'm still asleep!" I retaliated.

"I'm just trying to love you, Artemis. Why don't you want my love, Artemis?" She feigned sadness.

"Fine," I dragged out, "you can jump on me."

"Yay!" She exclaimed tackling me to her bed pushing her cheek against mine.

I laughed pushing her off me, "we have so much unpacking to do. Come on."

The whole family had been wanting to move into a more secluded area for a long time. My parents finally did it. They like to pretend they just got sick of living in a city, but I know they only actually did it because of my little situation. We were now living on a plot in a nature reserve on the outskirts of a little town.

Other than my parents I would probably be the one staying here the most since Chloe's university was in a province on the other side of the country. My mom wouldn't let me go far though. I was the youngest and she refused to let go of me.

After Chloe unpacked her room she went to explore the property while I finished helping my parents unpack the rest.

She came back just as we finished moving her grand piano.

"It's so beautiful here! You guys have to go explore." Chloe exclaimed drinking water.

I nodded to her, "I will, but it's almost dinner time and we have literally no food. I saw a pizza place in town I'll go fetch us some takeaways."

After ordering the pizzas I drove the 30 minutes to the restaurant.

"Hi I'm here to collect" I said to the man behind the counter. He looked to be about 18 years old and very very irritated.

"They're still busy," he grumbled, "you can go do whatever for like 15 minutes. They should be done after that."

"Thanks, but I'll just stay here," I shrugged, "I don't have anything else to do".

We stood in silence for a while. Him brooding and grumbling to himself and me awkwardly shifting my weight between my feet.

"So what's your name?" I asked tired of the silence.

"Riley."

"You know you're the first Riley I've ever met?" I questioned. "I've read about a million characters in books named Riley, but I've never met one."

He looked interested, "and are these characters interesting at all?"

I paused, "Well they are usually the female love interest to be honest"

"So... am I your inevitable love interest? Is this what you're telling me?" He asked laughing.

"If only you were a woman" I sighed forlornly.

"You're cool. Why have I never met you before?" He asked laughing.

"My family just moved here. You are the first person I've met in this town."

"Oh damn I'm sorry if I gave you a bad impression of us. I was really irritated."

"It's fine, so what made you so irritated?" I asked.

"My brother's friend is making me work here as a punishment."

"What did you do?"

"I skipped school"

"Ooooooooh. What a rebel. Bet you're the bad boy of your school" I teased.

"No!" He denied blushing.

"Yeah sure" I laughed at him.

"So why is your brother's friend punishing you and not your parents? He sounds rather bossy. He shouldn't be the one controlling your life"

"Well I kinda only listen to him my parents went on an extended vacation and my brother is to easy to push around" He said slowly, "anyway here's your pizza.".

"Thanks, goodnight, Riley. Go to school."

He laughed, "Okay, goodnight."