Storm 》Clifford A.U

017;

      SOMETIMES DARYA AND I jumped fences while playing manhunt. Sometimes we got scared when we were out too late and we heard a sound, so we slipped behind bushes and the occasional tree(house). Once we even snuck into someone else's pool as a stupid, stupid joke that we laughed about for weeks afterwards.

     Now, I could add breaking into a dorm onto our list of "ways we've broken the law via trespassing". I was all up for doing stupid things with my sister but this time it was for my sister and the reason behind it wasn't a welcome one in the slightest.

     "Hello? Anyone in here?" I say at a moderate voice level after knocking, checking to make sure Ivy wasn't inside of the room Michael and I were about to break into. "Okay, we're all good." I mutter, drawing a pre-loaded bobby pin from my bag, pulling it open with my teeth, and jamming it into the side of the door.

     "I don't even want to know why breaking and entering is common knowledge for you." Michael says, eyebrow arched and a concerned expression gracing his features.

     Wordlessly smirking, I wiggle the bobby pin around for a few more seconds until the door finally creaks open.

     All at once, I'm hit by the overwhelming scent of her. A smell that had become foreign to me in the past few weeks, since visiting her room at home --the only other place where her scent would remain-- was avoided entirely once it started hurting too much.

     Michael and I both step into the too small room and I shut the door behind us, breath hitching in my throat. I notice that the closet door is ajar, and full to the brim with Darya's clothes taking up a majority of the space. That the twinkly lights Ivy has in her art room are in here too, but the walls are lacking any and all trace of Darya's boyfriend. In this room, it was like he never really existed. Or, at least, he didn't exist to the public eye. There were still pictures up, but they were more posters of several artists and bands with the occasional drawing or Polaroid, nothing like the slew of personal images in Ivy's art room.

     The dresser on Darya's side has a cup of coffee sitting on top of it with a rim of electric blue lipstick around it, and it hurts me to think about just how long that cup has been sitting there.

     "What are we supposed to be looking for, exactly?" He says, crossing over to Ivy's side first. When I slowly trail off that I don't really have much of an idea, he nods and takes matters into his own hands and lifts up her mattress. Apparently Michael isn't the only one who likes hiding things underneath the bedding, since Ivy had her own personal hiding spot down there, too. "Uh, okay so there's quite a few more drawings down here and most of them are kind of morbid self portrait's or something and there's a few more of Darya. That's how she expresses herself, cool, whatever. The weird thing is that there's a bunch of envelopes, like letters she's never sent out." Michael mutters, grabbing the bundle and tossing it over to me with one hand, and letting the bed drop down with the other.

     I catch them and my hazel eyes scan across the lettering, finding that each of them are marked with the letter A. "There's a good fifteen envelopes here but they're all sealed. We have to see what's inside." I start, dropping the envelopes into my purse and moving on to search Darya's side of the room.

     "Al, hey, we've invaded her privacy enough. Don't you think opening those might be going a little too far?" He says slowly, teeth nearly gritting in concern as he rests a hand on my shoulder.

     "No, Michael it's not. We can steam open the letters, read and reseal them, put them back, and then she'll never know, okay? These letters are clearly for Darya's boyfriend, and we have to see what the fuck is going on!" I screech, shaking his hand off of me. I was angry at him for questioning me, for keeping things from me, for thinking that I could possibly go 'too far' given the circumstances.