The Circle

One:

The all too familiar nauseous guilt that was becoming a regular occurrence to April McCabe was once again working its magic over her mind. Clinging to the crumpled letter once again, April slotted herself between the back of her wardrobe and the array of haphazardly strewn clothing whilst nervously using her mobile phone as a reading lamp. She knew full well that this in itself was a pointless exercise, especially since she had read the exact same words enough times to recite it to the Queen and her dead Mother if needs be, but every so often she felt the need to check it wasn't just a dream. As excitement crept up her spine and April's porcelain complexion glowed against the illumination of her mobile phone, the usual sense of a guilty conscience brought the young woman crashing back down to earth. It would never happen. At the grand age of seventeen even April McCabe knew when it came to things like this, emotions and loyalty always got the better of her.

*****

"She's in a world of her own if she thinks she'll be able to get away from that little lot," Alexander Field picked at the smudge of Bolognese sauce solidified on his checked red and white corduroy shirt, courtesy of that night's dinner. "There's no way Serena will let her go without a fight. You know what she's like - selfish cow. How she managed to bag a fiancée is so far beyond me, I'm in China."

Alexander Field sat in his usual spot in his aptly named 'underground lair'. Since Alexander's parents had purchased a 1920's three storey house with a built in underground cellar, he immediately claimed it as his own, transforming it into his personal domain. A bean bag on the concrete floor directly opposite the 42 inch HD TV was his normal whereabouts, especially as Alex found it difficult to tear himself away from his Playstation 3. Pausing regularly in conversation for effect, concentrating intermittently on shooting soldiers on 'Call of Duty', Alex continued on one of his infamous rants. 

"I'm putting it out there, April is the perfect sister if you think about it," Alex bellowed as he squirmed on top of the bean bag whilst dodging the enemy by the skin of his teeth. The surround-sound shaking with the impact of every bullet fired. "Slave-driven babysitter at the drop of a hat, what more could Serena want? Especially now she's marrying Gavin, April's barely got chance to breathe and have a pee!" 

"For once in my life I think I actually agree with you," Jinx Garcia replied as she sat on the adjacent bean bag and casually sparked up a Marlboro Light, blowing out the smoke noisily. "And yet despite you 'putting it out there', it's not going to change anything. Going to University is her dream - you know that as well as I do. If Serena ruins this for her, I swear to God she is going down." 

"Here here," Alex responded, still concentrating.  

Jinx and April had been stuck like glue for most of their memorable life and it hadn't been without its dramas. They had simultaneously shared traumas, laughs, arguments, not to mention the trouble they'd been in - mostly down to her own ideas Jinx admitted but still, through everything they were inseparable. One without the other was incomprehensible as they waded through life hand-in-hand, batting away their troubles and keeping each other afloat.

Jinx acknowledged that their closeness in recent years was also down to Clarinda Garcia's Motherly love. Jinx's Mother had taken April under her wing, but that just made the two more and more like sisters as far as she was concerned. April had been through a whole load of crap that Jinx Garcia couldn't even dream of understanding and even now, April was continuously picking the short straw. All April McCabe ever wanted in her disastrous little life was to go to University and study Forensic Science and now the so called 'protector' of her well-being was threatening to collapse her entirely. April's meddling and manipulative elder sister, Serena.