Chapter Seventy Four
I followed Trace's advice and called my sister when I got home last night. I told her that I was a being a little hard on her and accepted her apology. She sounded genuinely surprised that I was calling to forgive her but I think it went well.
She invited me to go out with her today. Turns out that she never went with dad back to California. Mom dropped her off an hour from here, she's got her own house with a chick she met online.
I'm on my way to meet her at the mall right now. I think spending some time with my sister could be fun, we used to do a bunch of wild stuff when we got together. Maybe we could go back to that and I could actually enjoy her presence.
I pull into the parking lot and she sends me a text to let me know she see's me. A few minutes later, she's in front of my car smiling.
"Hey Emma, damn girl those jeans make your ass look tight!" she greets me.
And we're back to how we were before the incident destroyed our relationship. We've never really been close seeing as we're two completely different people with absolutely nothing in common but we used to manage just fine. We can go back to that.
I laugh.
We walk inside the mall and what seems like a hundred stores become visible. I look around the open area as I try to decide which store I want to visit first. There's so many options. I could go with makeup, clothes, shoes, toys, bags... etc. Anything I could possibly need is in this giant building of stores. I love the mall.
I point to a store, knowing I need a new pajama set.
"Let's go in there." she follows me into the store and we browse through the clothes. We each find one we want and head into the dressing room.
It makes sense that we'd each get our own dressing room but if we're in two separate rooms how could we tell the other whether or not they look cute. The cashier insisted we use different rooms but Laila is very persuasive when she wants something.
I hold up my white and yellow stripped pajama pants and matching short sleeved shirt.
"I see London, I see France..." Laila shouts in a singsong voice before I slap her.
She laughs and I can hear the male cashier outside chuckling at us.
When I get it on I like the way it fits. It's tight around all of my curves, showcasing everything I have.
We settle on these pajamas. They're both exactly the same except where my stripes are white and yellow, she has white and navy blue.
Once we pay for the items, we go back into the dressing room and change into them. We put our old clothes in the shopping bag and head out of the store in our new pajama sets.
"Since you like shopping and I agreed to do this just for you, can we play truth or dare while we shop and make it more fun for my entertainment?" she suggests. I take a deep breath.
Truth or dare is a lot of fun to play if played with the right people. Laila is the type of person who would make me give an innocent old man a lap dance. This could be a very bad idea.
"Only if you promise to behave."
She sighs, "I'll see what I can do."
Reluctantly, I nod. She grins.
"For your first dare, you have to go into that mattress store and test the beds."
Oh, she's evil. I'm wearing pajamas now!
"If I get kicked out I'm taking you with me."
She rolls her eyes, "Let lose and live a little. You'll be fine."
I walk into the store and she keeps her distance as I do my dare. She watches from behind an advertisement board.
I slide underneath the blanket and shut my eyes. Even though I'm surrounded by strange people with my eyes shut, completely oblivious to my surroundings I'm not that scared. This mattress is incredibly comfortable. Any minute now and I'll be asleep for real.
Then, the blanket is yanked off of me and a grumpy woman stands there, "What are you doing?"
I raise up slowly, stretching my arms over my head, "Is it time for school already?" I yawn.
She frowns, "Get out of my store or I'm calling security."
Well, that escalated quickly.
I hold my hands up in defense, "No need for that ma'am. I'm leaving."
She steps aside, watching me closely as I climb out of bed and leave the store. A few moments later Laila is behind me laughing hysterically.
I turn around to face her, ready to announce my dare. Only I haven't thought of one yet.
She's better at this sort of thing! She walks around doing her own dares for fun. She enjoys the thrill of getting in trouble and sometimes the judgmental comments from bystanders gives her motivation to keep going. She likes the attention so I've got to give her a really good one. One that she won't like.
"I dare you to give yourself three dares to complete." I cross my arms. She can pick her own dares but I have a twist at the end. She absolutely despises being under pressure.
Laila nods once, "Easy, done."
"Now those same three dares that you've got in your mind, you have five minutes to do them. I'll time you and follow you around. If you can't complete all three dares in five minutes then you're buying our lunch."
Her mouth curves down at the sides, "That's cruel of you little sis but fine. You're on."
I start the timer and she takes off running into the hardware store. What the heck?
She grabs the first tool that cuts something and rushes to the counter with it. A man turns around and she smiles at him sweetly, "How well does this particular saw cut through bone?"
His eyes widen, "Are you talking about a deer or something?"
She shakes her head, calm demeanor, "No."
He gives her a nervous smile and takes the saw from her delicate hands. The man goes to grab a different one, probably just fulfilling her wish to find a better bone cutting saw. But once his back is to her, she runs away.
On her way out of the hardware store, she grabs my hand and begins pulling me to the next store with her, "Time?"
I glance down at my phone, "Three minutes and forty seven seconds."
She releases me at the Gap I stand in the doorway as she browses through the pants.
Only seconds later, she grabs a pair of denim jeans and hurries into the dressing room.
I can practically feel the adrenaline pumping through this girl. Watching her is making me feel out of breath and exhausted.
The door to the dressing room opens and she steps out. She put the shorts on backwards but the confident way she's walking tells me she did that on purpose. She struts up to the nearest person she see's: a middle aged man.
"Do these shorts make my butt look big?" she turns around for him once, pulling up at the sides so they won't fall.
The guy stares at her for a moment. Blinks once.
"Those are on wrong."
I cover my mouth to keep from laughing. Laila doesn't have a filter on her. She'll do anything, say anything to anyone. One of my favorite things about her is that she doesn't care what people think.
She glances back at me and I hold up one finger, letting her know time's almost up. She's still got another dare to complete.
A smile breaks out on her face when she hears the service phone start ringing. She hurries over to it, racing an employee but she gets there first. The worker stops and looks at her, clearly unamused.
"Domino's." Laila says into the line before the phone is snatched from her hands.
Well, she did it. I didn't think she'd be able to work so good under pressure but she did it. And she's still got thirteen seconds to spare.
She shoots me a grin before going to get out of her shorts.
She's a wild one, my sister. But this time we're spending together is sort of fun. Maybe I did miss the relationship I had with Laila I just never wanted to consider the possibility that I needed her in my life.
A few moments later she walks back out, "Guess who's buying lunch?"
I groan, knowing it's very well me who is buying lunch. But a deal's a deal, right?
"Let's try that smoothie shack! I see a hottie behind the counter and maybe if you're lucky the hottie has a friend."
I cock my head to the side, trying to decide if she's serious or not. She simply stares at me and becomes confused on why I'm not speaking.
"I have a boyfriend, Laila."
She tilts her head back, "That's right. You're with the hottie who plays football." she nods as she remembers Trace. Then she licks her lips as if she's still remembering him.
Her mind wanders off and I don't like the thought of her thinking about Trace. For the most part, what Laila wants is exactly what she gets. But Trace doesn't want her, he wants me. For once there is something that I have that can't be taken.
I hate the thought of her imagining him in her filthy brain.
"Whatever your thinking about, stop thinking it." I say and she's snapped back into reality. A small smile is still playing on her lips.
She gives me a dismissive wave of the hand, "Oh, calm down. My thoughts are private so it's not like they'll ever happen. If he knew what I was thinking though..." she trails off, chuckling to only herself.
I roll my eyes.
"Tell me, Emma. Has he screwed you yet?"
My eyes widen and she laughs humorously.
"I'm not answering that." I reply and make my way towards the smoothie place she picked.
Even though we haven't gotten that far, it's none of her concern. I don't care what she thinks of us.
"That means he has. Was it good? I've noticed he does this little thing with his tongue when he talks. I'll bet he-"
"Laila." I hold my hand in front of her face and she stops talking.
I know exactly what she's talking about. When you ask him a question, he'll stick his tongue in between the side of his teeth for a split second. Whenever you see him do that it means he's thinking. If you don't pay close enough attention then it'll go easily unnoticed.
So then how did she recognize that little detail about him?
I don't like her thinking about Trace. I especially don't like her pointing out his minor mannerisms.
"Let's just get our food, yeah?" she asks, noticing my annoyance.
I nod and she begins telling the 'hottie' her order. It's funny watching her flirt because it's sort of like watching me do it. We look completely identical so when I'm not around her for a long time, it's weird seeing my double walking around.
Watching as she flirts with a random guy is so weird. I'd never do something like that but she does it for pure entertainment.
Why does the person wearing my face have to be so different from me?
Our orders appear and we grab them before heading to an empty table.
Authors Note:
Hello! Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote! Have a great day and stay safe!
Over the past four days we've gone up two thousand reads to put us at a solid 12K reads! Thanks so much for reading! You're all incredible and I really appreciate it! :)