The Leap [✔]

Chapter Two

Fake a smile

a laugh

pretending to be

everything I'm not that is

until a certain

blue eyed boy

swoops me off my feet

with a charming smile.

***

 All day long Mom has been rushing around, agonizing over every detail of the house to make sure there is not a speck of dirt. I don't know why she cares so much when everyone will be outside anyway.

The backyard is decorated in lights, some hanging from the trees, some pitched into the ground. There is a stained wooden deck on the lawn, which looks like a stage but has been set up for tables and chairs. It looks fancy, most of the credit going to my brothers and Dad.

"Where's Daniel?" Dad asks again, wiping his forehead of sweat.

"Picking up his guest, remember?" I say, not bothering to tell him he's asked twice already.

Daniel left a few hours ago, going to pick up his mysterious guest that no one knows anything about, nor will Daniel give any hint to whom he or she is. Aidan and Ben have a twenty dollar bet going on whether if it is a girlfriend or not. My guess is that it's a girl, but not a girlfriend. 

My brothers are not players, our mom taught them to have more respect than that. They don't have sex with a girl and dump her before the sun comes up.

The summer air is warm, humid. I sit out in the chair on the deck, watching my brothers lug extra tables and chairs from the shed.

"Why aren't you helping? Too good for that or what?" Quinn asks and I shrug as he slams down the chair he is carrying beside me. 

"I'm lazy, remember asshole?" I snap back. Quinn glares at the name, but before he can get a word in, Jude comes onto the deck, placing down a table. He narrows his eyes at the two of us.

"Quinn, Dad wants you to go inside and help Mom," he says, coming to stand beside Quinn. Quinn gives me one last glare and sprints towards the house, just as Mom comes out the back door, calling for Quinn.

I chuckle, shaking my head.

"What's up?" Jude asks and sits down in the chair Quinn just put there, stretching out his legs. After the accident at the first of the summer, I've become distant, not talking for the first week after the accident, barely coming out of my room. Jude and Aidan came and made me get out of bed, forcing me down the stairs to eat and then outside for fresh air.

The sirens, the screaming, and the cries of my family are still fresh in my head as I lay awake in bed, staring at the ceiling. It is almost one in the afternoon, and I still haven't moved from my bed. My mom has tried to get me to come out of my room, though I had refused.

Its been a month after the accident, and today is a bad day. It had been a sleepless night, and my face is tight from the tears that had been shed.

"Em? Open the door," Jude shouts from outside the locked door, rattling it. I ignore him and wait for him to give up and leave, like most of them do. I hear Jude say something to someone, and then it goes quiet until there is a small click and my door pops open, revealing my two older brothers Aidan and Jude.