Secrets of Silver Lake [Book One]

4

I walked inside the house and could hear Jenna rushing after me. As I made my way upstairs and to my room, she called my name. Ignoring her, I took the dress off and started to change into my sweatpants and a t-shirt.

"Paige! Wait!" She was out of breath as she barged into my room.

"Sure, come on in," I said sarcastically.

"Paige, please! I'm sorry. It's not what you think."

I glared at her. "So, it's not that you had me wear a maid's uniform dress and then walk into the kitchen like I worked here?"

"Okay, so it is what you think. But, it wasn't intentional. I swear. You must have gone into the wrong room and found that uniform," she said.

I turned to face her. "I don't think so. Third door on the left, just like you said."

"The left?" she asked. "No, no. I said on the right. See? That's where the mistake was!"

I could have sworn she had told me it was the third door on the left, not the right.

She sighed. "You don't believe me. I understand. You just met me and even though we're sisters, you don't trust me...yet. I can only imagine the types of people you're used to being around, but if you'll please give me a chance, I can show you I didn't mean anything by it."

She stood up and walked towards my door, and I thought she was leaving. But instead she turned to look at me. "Coming?"

"Where?" I asked.

"Just come on. I have clothes here. I'll show you," she told me.

Reluctantly I followed her into the hall and down to the third door on our right. It was a smaller guest room that Jenna said was the bedroom she kept at that house and I didn't understand why she would need a bedroom here when her own house was across the way. She opened the closet and showed me her clothes hanging.

"See?" she asked. "This is what I was talking about. You're welcome to anything that's in here. And then maybe later you can come over to my house and look in my closet there. I'm sure you can find something, huh?"

Cautiously I made my way to the closet and looked inside. She was pulling out dresses and tops, rambling on about where she had bought each one of which designer label they were. I couldn't care any less about that stuff. All I wanted was something that would fit and was decent enough for Grandmother.

"Try this," she instructed, shoving a blue wrap dress at me.

I turned to look for the bathroom to change clothes in and she laughed.

"Just change right here. We're sisters, remember? It's no big deal," she teased.

I undressed and slipped on the dress. Jenna reached around my waist and tied the belt, standing back to admire her choice on me.

"I knew it!" she beamed. "Perfect fit!"

I looked at myself in the mirror. I had to admit the dress looked really pretty. It was definitely a step up from the same old clothes I was used to wearing.

"You still doubt me, don't you?" she asked. "You know, I could've corrected Father when he said you are twenty years old and not seventeen. But I didn't. I won't tell your secret."

Suddenly I felt bad for being so silent to her earlier. Maybe it was just a mistake on my part and I had heard her wrong. She seemed to sincerely want to help me.

"It's not that I doubted you," I said softly. "And I'm not so sure why my age is such a secret anyway."

She came to stand behind me so she could see both of our reflections in the mirror.