AVRIL'S CASE -BOOK 2

Chapter Three

Both Cassie and Avril pushed themselves higher on the swing, competing for who could go the highest. Cassie went really high up in the air, but Avril-being very competitive, went even higher up to the point that Cassie surrendered. Cassie brought her leg down on the ground to stop her swing from moving and Avril did the same, till they were both sat still on the swing.

"Hey, wanna have a sleepover at my place over the weekend?" Avril pouted "being an only child can get boring," she sulked.

"Yeah, sure I'd love that," Cassie beamed "and don't feel bad,"she rubbed Avril's shoulders soothingly " sometimes I wish I was an only child, my brother, Caleb is a pest." She rolled her eyes.

"An incredibly cute pest," Avril wiggled her eyebrows and squealed.

"Eww, Avril no, my brother is disgusting. There's nothing cute about him." Cassie shuddered, as she stuck her tongue out, in the pretense of throwing up the idea of her brother being even remotely cute.

"He's definitely cute," Avril countered"Maybe you would have had a crush on my brother if you had met him," she smiled sadly. "I had one, but he's gone now," She explained her contradictory statement softly, as she stifled a tear from rolling out of her eyes by pushing her head back. "He's gone," She whispered with her head still pulled back.

"I'm sorry," Cassie consoled and placed a soothing hand on Avril's shoulder. "How did he die, was he hit, or did he fall ill or something else?" rather than answering, Avril just smiled weakly as she looked at the sky.

"Let's go, Cassie, it's about to rain," Avril said, avoiding Cassie's question, and then she jumped down from the swing. 

The strange thing to Cassie was that, when she looked up, all she could see was an extremely clear sky, but she didn't press Avril on the issue further, assuming she did not want to talk about it, for it might have been hard for her to think of her brothers passing, let alone talk about.

"You seem pretty old to be eight or less," Cassie eyed Joseph from head to toe, as she narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously and placed her right hand under her chin.

"What does that even mean?" He furrowed his eyebrows at her, as he permitted himself to take the seat opposite her, which caused him to receive an extremely disapproving look from Phoebe.

"Avril told me that her brother was dead, and she herself died eight years ago, the only possible way you could be her brother would be if you were born after Avril's death," She explained.

"Nice," he smiled, impressed. "Well I don't know why my baby sister told you what she did, but I'm very much alive darling," he stood up and turned around slowly, before sitting back down.

"And why are you looking for Cassie?" Phoebe asked arrogantly.

"That's between me and your friend here, gorgeous," he winked at Phoebe.

"She's my best friend, whatever you tell me, I'll end up telling her, so spill," Cassie folded her arms across her chest and pursed her lips, as she impatiently waited for an utterance from him. "And besides, I don't buy that story of you being Avril's brother, Avril told me everything, she wouldn't have lied to me like that."

Joseph erupted in uncontrollable laughter, commanding the attention of people sitting nearby, as he clutched his belly, which in turn, caused him to rumple his perfectly ironed white shirt, a bit. Both Cassie and Phoebe automatically had their arms crossed over their shirt, with annoyed expressions on their faces, as they waited for his--to them, irritating guffawing to end "It's cute that you think my sister told you everything," he said, as soon as he had regained his composure and then his face turned serious "Avril only ever told a tiny fragment of the story, the rest was always a mystery to be solved." He said. He got up and pulled out a card from his pocket "Take it, I know you'll call me eventually," he smiled knowingly. Cassie turned around to look at Phoebe, who shook her head adamantly forbidding her from collecting his number. Cassie looked back at an expectant Joseph and then she slowly lifted her hands up to collect Joseph's card. Joseph wore a triumphant smile before driving off.