Life is Liz (LiL, #1)

Chapter 21: The Breakfast Club

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The first thing I did after letting Ryan into our house, freshly dressed in black leggings and a v-neck, hair up into a messy bun, was to power up the coffee machine. I yawned as I checked my phone for any new messages. "Where's your family?" I glanced up from the screen to see him leaning against the kitchen counter, arms crossed over his chest.

"To be honest I don't really know," I turned around and filled two mugs with freshly brewed coffee.

"Okay. How can I help you then?"

"You can," I started, handing him the coffee. "Go with me to the living room and relax on the couch."

"I don't need to rest," he said as I poured some milk into my mug.

"Fine," I took my cup of coffee out of his grip and made my way to the living room. "But I do." I sensed him following behind me as I marched through the house. "They won't be here until later and if we prepare everything now it would be cold by the time they arrive. Besides," I said, plopping down on the couch. "I need some peace and quiet before they get here." I sipped at my coffee as I watched him settle down next to me.

"So, I'll meet your sister then?"

I almost choked on my coffee. "What?!" I shrieked, losing the grip on my facade for a second at the mentioning of Tori. His question wasn't at all something I was expecting nor something I wanted to think about. After yesterday the things my sister said to me had dulled down a bit inside of me, but they were still present and they still hurt.

And with the words of Tori came those from Jeremy. And all of them together, they were too much at once. Every word they threw at me felt like bits and pieces from the ceiling fell down on me. One small piece was something I could just brush off my shoulders, but the amount of negativity that came with every syllable was comparable to the whole ceiling just crashing down on me, caging me in, making it hard to breathe or to fight, to free myself.

He studied me with observant eyes. "Your sister. You said she arrived on Saturday and that you-"

I cut him off. "Yeah, no," I blurted out. "I mean I'm not sure where she is right now and when she'll come back, but yeah there's a chance you'll meet her today," I got out, still unsteady.

He nodded slowly, but was still unconvinced. "Is your sister like you?"

I sucked in a short breath. People tended to compare me to Tori a lot. Why can't she be like her sister? She could learn a thing or two from her big sister. ...

Basically my family put my sister as the standard daughter, grandchild, etc. and everybody else needed to be like the oldest, otherwise there was something immensely wrong with them and they needed to change and weren't allowed to have their own opinion. That was me by the way.

I shook my head. "No," I admitted. "Basically Tori and I are polar opposites. Not appearance wise neither on first impression circumstances. I can't really explain... It's just I know that Tori and I are completely different, but when you first meet us you will think that both of us are nice, innocent, goody two-shoes. But don't trust appearances, okay? They are deceiving."

He didn't answer me, instead he asked another question. "So, I take it you're not really close?"

I shook my head. "No, we rarely spend time together and that's not because she goes to college and only visits ever so often. Basically it's just because we don't have the same... taste, when it comes to the question on how to have fun. So we practically don't do anything together anymore."

"But you want to?"

A sigh left my lips. "Yeah, actually I do. I want to have some alone time with her just like old times, you know. I mean Tori and I, we were never best friend's or anything, but we had a comfortable relationship." Now our relationship only seemed exhausting. "And occasionally there were times we'd spent some freetime together like go to the movies or do other stuff, you know. Admittedly it got worse when she went to college."