Chapter 11: Too Close for Comfort
We both sat there in silence. Of course they were back! School was back in session tomorrow. I was being so stupid. I let Jake cloud my mind. I screwed up. He left his jacket downstairs and now Ms. Baker was going to see it. Then she would kill me. She would probably take Jake’s scholarship away so he can’t tell anyone about me.
“Rikki?” The voice was getting closer. Jake and I still hadn’t moved. The record was still playing its music. Steps were just outside of my door when we snapped out of our shock.
I stood up and dragged Jake to the window. “Climb down. I’ll bring your coat out to the barn in a few minutes. Wait there for me.” He swung his leg out of the window and the knob on the door was turning.
“Go.” I hissed at him. But it was too late. The door opened while Jake was still visible.
“What is going on here?” It was only Elle. That made this a little better, not much, but still better.
“Uhhh… Jake is sneaking out.” I didn’t know what else to say. It looked bad. And lies would just make it worse.
“Yeah I see that. But why?” She stepped through the door and closed it behind her. Jake was still straddling the window sill.
“Jake just come back in. And is it really you business, Elle? You haven’t talked to me for weeks.”
“Because of him. Because this was bound to happen. Aunt Jane will find him up here in a few minutes. Then all three of us are dead. You and I will be sent of to some boarding school that we will probably hate. Jake will be kicked out. And all of this is because you couldn’t follow one simple rule.”
“I can’t believe you just said that. That ‘one simple rule’ is that I’m not allowed to leave this house. Ms. Baker is forcing me to become a hermit. While you get to have friends and fun. You don’t get to judge me. Not anymore.”
Elle took another step towards me. Her face showed just how angry she was. If this was a cartoon, there would have been smoke coming out of her ears. She really doesn’t like being yelled at, but then again who does? And who cares?
A lot of girls can’t throw a decent punch but not us. John had taught us how to fight. It was one of the advantages of it just being the three of us out in the middle of nowhere. But now it meant this was about to get very violent.
Elle’s right hand flew through the air and made contact with the side of my face. I knew she could punch but she just bitch slapped me. I can’t believe she just did that.
“You’ll pay for that Elle!” I threw a right hook at her but she moved faster than me. It didn’t matter though. I was expecting to be faster than me. Before she could go for me again, I dropped to the floor and kicked her feet out.
She fell with a thud to the floor. She stared at me for a few seconds before rising up. “Oh. It’s on, Rikki.” She took off her shoes and pulled her hair back.
“Rikki! Izzy! Stop it! You’re sisters, don’t do this.” Jake whisper yelled. We stopped and looked at him. Once he had our attention, he continued. “If you really want to fight, then find do it. But not now. And please go to a gym or somewhere where you can get protection stuff. Right now, though, I need to get out of here and get my coat before Ms. Baker finds me. So can we please figure that out first?”
Elle and I looked at each other. I stuck my hand out. “Truce. For now at least?” I looked at her pleadingly. She hesitated but extended her hand. Turning back to Jake, I said, “Let’s just go with the original plan. You leave and I’ll meet you in a few minutes.”
Jake nodded his head and opened the window. “Wait,” Elle said “It won’t work. Aunt Jane wants to talk to you about something. She sent me up here to get you. I can take the jacket with me when I go back over to the school in a little bit. She’ll never know.”
“Thank you, Elle. You are literally saving my life right now.”
“Whatever. Just go talk to Aunt Jane. And I’ll call you when I’m outside your dorm Jake.”
“Thanks Izzy.”
We watched as Jake lowered himself out of the window and onto the vines. He climbed down to the ground. He looked back up at us and gave a quick wave. Then ran off into the cold night. And I set off to find out what Ms. Baker wanted.
Elle’s (Izzy) POV
Rikki left to go downstairs. I looked around her room. It hadn’t changed much since school had started. The only difference was that dad’s records player was out now, along with all of his music.
But that was it. I walked over to Rikki’s bed and sat down. Her nightstand was cluttered with stuff. There was a history book and a bunch of papers. But they weren’t what had caught my attention. It was a picture frame. It had horses running around the frame. Inside was the picture we took before John left for Mexico back in May.
That life seems so far away. It was so much simpler. It was more innocent. But now it’s only in our memories.
*Flashback* May
The sun was shining as I sat on the fence watching Rikki and Trigger. I would never tell her but I was jealous of how easy she made it look. I have tried it and I could barely sit there. But there was Rikki jumping of stuff that was 3 feet tall.
My phone was vibrating and I glanced down. It was mom. It was so pathetic that we call each other rather than just walk over. But I guess it is a bit of a pain but still.
“Hey, Mom. What’s up?”
“Can you tell Rikki to finish up soon? I need you two to come up here soon. John’s leaving tomorrow and I want to get a family photo.”
“Okay I’ll tell her. Bye.” I snapped the phone shut. “Rikki! Can you come here?”
She slowed Trigger and walked over to me. “Yeah, Elle?”
“Mom wants us up at the house. She wants us to take a family photo before John leaves.”
She walked Trigger around the ring my dad had built for her for a little while. I jumped off the fence and walked with her. We were talking about the family vacation our parents were planning this summer. We were going to go to the Grand Canyon. Eventually, she hopped off and took Trigger back into the barn. I called our mom to tell her we were going to be up in a few minutes.
We started walking back to the house and John was walking down to us. We met up in the middle. “Hey, John.” We said in unison. It was a twin thing. We do it a lot.
“Hey weeds!” Rikki and I shared a look. We both knew he was joking but it didn’t matter. That nickname was really annoying. He gave it to us a few years ago. He said neither of us could beat him and we were just annoying like weeds. He was kidding but when he saw how much we hated it he kept using it.
Rikki and I jumped on John and got him to the ground. Unfortunately, it had rained the night before and there was mud everywhere. All three of us landed in a mud puddle. John rolled so Rikki and I were in the mud more than him. He got up and sprinted away.
We chased him for a few minutes but he was too fast for us to catch him. But that wasn’t going to stop us. Mom on the other hand would stop us and she did.
“What is going on?!?” We stopped running and looked over ourselves. We were all covered in mud. We looked like we had taken mud baths. “Go clean up and meet us at the barn so we can take a picture.”
We immediately obeyed and went to clean up. We were laughing about it. We hadn’t had that much fun in a while.
*End flashback*
I wiped the tears away. It was the last good memory I had with John. I wish we could go back to that but we can’t. But I’m starting to really like this place. I can’t let Rikki mess it up. I can’t let her get caught so we both get shipped away, again. I put the picture back and went downstairs.
I quickly said goodbye to Aunt Jane and Rikki. I grabbed mine and Jake’s coats and stepped out into the cold.
After a quick walk to Jake’s dorm, I called him to tell him to meet me outside. He came out in pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. “Jake, we need to talk.”
He looked at me and I handed him his coat. I wasn’t looking forward to this but I didn’t have much of a choice.
“What about?”
“Well, I was talking with Rikki after you left and she asked me to pass a message on to you.” I looked up at him and saw anticipation in his eyes. I feel really bad now, but I can’t turn back. It’s too late. “She wants you to stay away. She said it was too risky for you to come.”
“What? Izzy please tell me you are joking.”
“I’m not Jake. I’m sorry.” I got up and walked away. I couldn’t look back at him. I hate lying, especially when it hurt someone. Too late now.
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Okay. So I have a few things to say/ask.
I am so sorry for being MIA lately. It was the first week of summer and I was relaxing but I’m back for the next two weeks and I will do my best to upload often.
I’m also sorry it’s really short.
What did you think? I want hear from you. Did you like Elle/Izzy’s POV?
Is there any confusion? If there is, can you tell me so I can try to fix it?
Thank you for reading!
-Siobhan