Louis' normally interesting talk about his college soccer team and all the excruciating drills they ran through every day was a buzz in Leana's ears as she shoveled down the hot bites of her stew, hissing with pain at each spoonful but not willing to slow down and let it cool on the basis of perhaps being late to be at least half-an-hour early for the first showing.
"Slow down, Leana," her mother said with a laugh.
"The movie will be there when you finish," her father told her.
Louis snorted, scooping up a spoonful of stew. "I don't see what the big deal with all these Star Wars movies is, anyway. It's like one is released every day now."
"Every year," Leana corrected heatedly. "And Star Wars is the best movie franchise ever."
Louis rolled his eyes. "Right."
Leana took a deep breath. Arguing with Louis always brought out the worst in her, and she didn't want to be in a bad mood when she went to the theater. "I happen to like Star Wars," she returned, keeping her voice steady. She took a spoonful of her stew, giving her another moment to think. "It's amazing."
"It's boring," Louis retorted with a shrug.
"That's only if you don't have the brain capacity to understand it," Leana shot back, her composure slipping too quickly for her to snatch it.
"Hey!" her father interjected. "Louis, Leana, you each have your own very valuable opinions, and each of you will meet people in life who differ from you. So learn to have respect. Not everyone is going to like Star Wars, Leana, and Louis, just because you're in college doesn't mean you know more than your sister."
Louis and Leana shot glares at each other before returning to their stew.
Leana didn't like fighting with Louis. It made her angry, both with him and with herself, and the fights never ended well. But did fights ever go well, anywhere? She and Louis had a lot in common. They were both athletes, and both of them played soccer. Surprisingly, that was what most of their fights were about: soccer and the other athletic activities they did.
Leana shoveled down the rest of her stew and glanced over at the time. A 7:30 showing meant leaving now, at 6:30, in order to get to the theater, allow Lumina and Ben to stand in the ridiculously long concession line for the required popcorn and drinks while she and Lucas discussed the ludicrously high prices for snacks and the irritation they were currently feeling towards the other half of their friend group, and grab excellent seats, four in a row. The clock had just turned six. She had time, in actuality.
But because Leana didn't like to wait, she hopped up and began to clean the kitchen, doing what she determined was "her share" before darting into her room to grab the treasured ticket and her blue hoodie. Yanking it on over her head, she ran towards the door and yanked it open.
"Be careful!" her mother called.
"I will!" Leana yelled, stepping outside and closing the door. With a barely controlled pace, she headed to the elevator and palmed the down button, jumping anxiously from foot to foot as she watched the numbers above the elevator tick down to her floor. She'd run down the stairs, but somewhere in the stairwell a group of dirty looking college-aged guys hung out. They liked to change floors randomly, to surprise people who thought they'd had the guys figured out, and they were just so weird that Leana, for once, would rather take the elevator than risk running into them.
A ding from her phone caused her to pull it from her pocket and check her messages. Lucas had sent a smiley face and a thumbs up on their group chat.
You ready?
Leana grinned and tapped out hurriedly, Waiting for elevator.
Another ding, this time from Lumina.
I'm at the shop already.
Leana frowned. It wasn't often Lumina beat her to their customary meeting place at the coffee shop. But before she could ask, her question was answered.
Rose is in a bad mood and it was a WYWWYW dinner night, so I grabbed and ran.
Leana nodded. Lumina hated fighting even more than she did, and her older sister Rose was a lot worse than Louis was. Louis and Leana got along usually; Lumina and Rose did not.
I applaud you, Lu. You get that acornym right every time. That text was from Ben.
You spelled acronym wrong, Lumina pointed out.
Oops. *acronym. Better?
You know spelling errors cause me anxiety.
Yeah but, like, why?
The elevator doors slid open and Leana stepped inside, noting the other two occupants, a middle aged man and a young woman. The woman was on her phone, flipping through whatever social media accounts were popular – Leana wouldn't know, she hated social media.
Doors closing, the elevator slipped through the various floors, opening to let on more people as it headed down to the lobby. Leana began to bounce on the balls of her feet, excitement coursing through her.
The elevator let her off into the lobby and she sprinted outside, forced to slow down by the crowds of people on the sidewalks of New York. Jogging and pushing her way through the dense crowd, she managed to reach the coffee shop before Lucas or Ben showed up.
Lumina was sitting on the bench right inside the door, arms crossed over her chest, an uneaten cheese stick sitting in the space beside her. A stormy look was on her face, making Leana hesitate a second before crossing to sit beside her.
"Rose needs to learn that just because she's older, doesn't mean she gets to kick me out of my own room," Lumina growled, leaning forward tensely.
Leana nodded. Lumina's family made her very glad Louis was her only sibling.
"I don't care what boyfriend dumped her or which one she dumped," Lumina continued. "Or what so-called friend insulted her in public; it's my room too! And I have homework to do, something I know she's not doing when she tells me to leave for 'peace and quiet.' She's ranting to her friend, something she can do someplace else."
"Yeah, we know she's a jerk," Leana said.
"And because my mom's still away and Papa's overworked, she gets away with it," Lumina said, her voice rising. Then she sat back and lowered her head. "Sorry. I need to relax."
Leana patted her on the back. "Any word from Ben or Lucas?"
"Lucas is almost here, Ben's going to be late."
Leana groaned. "Ben's always late."
"Well, Ben is the only one with an actual pet," Lumina countered. "He has to feed Topper before he comes."
"Yeah, feeding the dog I get," Leana said. "Serving the dog a five-course meal, I don't."
Lumina shrugged. "So what if Ben likes to pamper his dog? You like to run, Lucas works on machines, and I read encyclopedias. We've all got our hobbies."
The door swung open and Lucas stepped inside, hands deep inside his green sweatshirt pocket. "Hey," he greeted. "Ben still feeding Topper?"
The girls nodded.
"Hmm." Lucas slid onto the bench next to them. "So, who's excited?"
"Everyone," Leana sat, her leg jiggling up and down as she began to get impatient.
"Good," Lucas said. "Because I'm excited, too."
"And Ben's late," Leana voiced.
Lumina groaned. "We know."
Lucas raised his eyebrows at the cheese stick. "What-You-Want-When-You-Want night?"
Lumina nodded.
Ben slammed through the door and the other three jumped to their feet, Lumina grabbing her cheese stick and tossing it at him. Ben caught it and turned as they stampeded past him.
"Let's go!" Leana called, the crisp evening air making her want to run. Lumina, Ben and Lucas, for once, were right behind her. Nothing stopped them from seeing a Star Wars movie.
The four wove through the crowd, Leana in the lead as always. Running up to the subway terminal, she pulled a token out of her pocket and pounded down the stairs, shoving the coin into the turnstile slot and shoving through.
But just as the bars started to move up and around, the ground beneath Leana's feet pitched, throwing her forward. The bars continued to move beneath her and she fell forwards, head first. Instead of striking the ground, however, a dark hole opened up and swallowed her.
/**/
Things are starting to happen, guys! So, what do you think of the four teens so far? Are you enjoying the story?
I apologize for not updating this on Sunday. I just got busy and was unable to post.
Thanks for reading; remember to comment and vote!
Skylar Wittenborn