The Story With No Name (Prequel)

(4)

                John walked down the stairs towards the kitchen, the sun was starting to rise but he couldn’t hear his sister in the bathroom so he assumed that she was going to take longer than normal. He took a banana from the kitchen and peeled it whilst walking to the front room. He saw his sister sitting down on the floor with her legs crossed, her bag packed and sat next to her, there was a banana sat on the table and the TV wasn’t on.

                John sighed inwardly, Lizzie always had the TV on, even if she wasn’t watching it, she just liked the background noise. She looked up at John but then quickly looked away again and traced the patterns of the carpet with her index finger.

                He sat furthest away from the banana on the table and watched her, slowly eating his banana he brought from the kitchen. He knew what she was doing but he wanted to drag out her torture a bit longer. Lizzie peered through her hair at her brother to see if he had taken the banana she left on the table but when they locked gazes, she looked away again.

                “So have you put the bugs in your bag?” John asked keeping his face straight.

                “No,” Lizzie replied before looking up at her brother. She bit the inside of her cheeks to stop her from smiling, she knew that expression on his face, it was her favourite since it always made her laugh at how pathetic he looked.

                “You should,” John replied evenly. If Lizzie wasn’t looking directly at him then she would have assumed that he was still annoyed with her from yesterday, but she could see John’s left side of his mouth twitching slightly whilst the right half remained in a straight line; it was his poker face and it was so awful even a moron could read his thoughts.

                “Why should I?” Lizzie narrowed her eyes at him, knowing she was a lot better at concealing her real feelings than her brother. “I don’t forgive dad and I don’t like to be accused of forgiving him by my own brother,” John’s slight twinkle in his eyes was replaced by hurt.

                “You know I didn’t mean any of that. I was just angry,” John looked away from her and at the clock, watching it tick with each passing second. “I was just thinking and you were talking and you were interrupting my thoughts and you know I hate it when people do that because-” Lizzie threw the banana that was on the table at his head making him groan and stop midsentence.

                “Stop rambling,” Lizzie laughed. “I’m kidding you idiot!”

                “Did you really need to throw the banana?” John asked, nursing the red spot.

                “I didn’t want to get up,” Lizzie shrugged. “Besides, you rejected the banana I got for you.”

                “You’ll get over it,” he rolled his eyes. “But seriously, take the bugs.” Lizzie knitted her brows together in confusion. “We can’t stop what he’s going to do so we might as well take the things he gives us. I think he would love us to reject it so he could punish us for being ungrateful and besides, I want to hear Macy-Lea scream.”

                “I’m going to record it when she reaches in her bag,” she leaned forwards, eyes twinkling in excitement. “Go where the smokers usually have lunch, she’s going to walk through there because she wants to try and ‘woo’ Liam.”

***

                Lizzie and Penny sat on a bench in silence, watching everyone pass by them. They both tried to remain as casual as possible but they kept shifting in their seats and tapping their feet against the floor, becoming more and more impatient with each passing second. Lizzie almost cried in relief when she saw an exceptionally tall girl walking with three other friends.