Princess to the Rescue

11 || toxic

11 || TOXIC

The days that followed passed by in a blur. I went for rehearsals for the play and visited Mom during my usual shift. Most of my lessons were back on track
because Mom was recovering very quickly and did not really need as much help as before. The doctors said that they could discharge her from the hospital in about two weeks or so.

Tristan had found a way to sneak me into his town without anyone else noticing. When I was at his house I told his mother what she wanted to hear – how my father was doing, how I was doing, the things that I had done that day, etc. Sabrina joined in our conversations frequently, while Tristan left to work some more.

Strangely enough, my visits did not once coincide with Theo's coming home, and when I had raised that question to Sabrina, she had just shaken her head and told me that it was something she did not want to talk about.

Theo was a sensitive topic. Every time I tried to bring him up and find out more about him, no one seemed eager to provide any information. What had happened to him? What had he done? For some reason which I could not bring myself to explain, I was drawn towards the mysterious sibling – the one whose name could instantly flip the mood of the house. I had to know more about him, because I had promised his mother that I would take care of him, even though he may be older than me.

"Good job for today, everyone. See you on Wednesday!" Mr Klarke said, clapping his hands together.

"See you," Reed, who was playing Aladdin, smiled at me. He was just a year older than me, with dark brown curly hair and sky blue eyes. Surprisingly, though, this was his first play that he was performing in. He had previously acted in a number of television shows as well, and was a pretty good actor.

I grinned back and him and went outside of the rehearsal studio. My family's SUV was already waiting on the road along the pathway. When I entered the car, I greeted Lancelot cheerily, turning to face him. However, instead of Lancelot's turquoise eyes, I met brown ones.

I gave a startled jump when I recognised who it was sitting beside me. "Ian? Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

Ian smirked, clearly smug at the fact that he had managed to scare me. "I went off early today. I'm going to meet Erin later on."

"Huh," I said. "Have you asked her out yet?"

Ian started the car. He ducked his head away from me a little too late – I had already seen the blush forming on his cheeks. I wiggled an eyebrow at him suggestively. "Have you?"

Ian cleared his throat. "Um... well," he kept his eyes ahead on the road. "Uh..." I knew that he was purposely stalling for time, hoping that by some miracle one of our phones would suddenly start ringing and he would be able to avoid the question.

"How was your rehearsal?" His blatant attempt to change the topic made me want to burst out laughing. It was quite fun to put my brother on the spot sometimes.

However, as much as I wanted to talk about his relationship with the pretty brunette, I knew that he clearly did not want to. So, being the understanding, sweet and kind sister I was, I decided to go with the flow. "It was alright. We are still kind of getting to know each other, but everyone is really nice."

Ian nodded. "That's good. I'll drive you home now, alright?"

"Oh! Uh, could you drop me off at your office? Tristan's still working there, isn't he?" I replied quickly. It had become part of my daily routine to go to Ian's office building – without him knowing – and waiting for Tristan to finish his shift before going over to his house to visit his mother. I had been doing this for the past week. Lancelot already knew this, but I had forgotten that Ian did not.