Author: reddlleaf

I couldn’t find my sister. Eyes shut, I kept splashing around aimlessly looking for her. I felt like I searched every inch of this pool three times over.

“Fish out of water!”

A burst of laughter from my right confirmed my suspicion. I opened my eyes and saw Rachel in her red swimsuit practically doubled over.

“I was wondering when you’d catch on. Jeez,” she remarked

Other than me, she was the only one here. We liked to go to our apartment building’s pool in the mornings before it got too crowded.

I got out of the pool. “Yeah, alright. I’m stupid. You don’t have to rub it in. Right now I just want to hit the showers and go home.”

“Don’t get lost in there,” Rachel chuckled.

I tried to turn on all the men’s showers but only one of them worked. People barely used these showers, probably why nobody bothered to fix this. The sound of someone opening the door and stepping in echoed through the shower room. I turned to the end of the room and saw Rachel.

“What are you doing in here?” I asked her. Read more »

“Are you still sure we should be doing this, Tina?” I asked as my older sister fiddled with a hairpin in the lock on our dad’s liquor cabinet.

“Mom and Dad are long gone for the weekend. And it’s not like they’re going to notice one or two bottles missing. They barely ever open this thing”, she said, still focusing on her current task. “Besides,” she turned to me, “Daisy’s coming over too.”

I hoped she didn’t see me blush at that. “Oh? is she? I don’t know what that has to do with anything, but carry on.”

“Aha,” Tina muttered under her breath. The cabinet door creaked open. In the cabinet was a small assortment of bottles each containing brown drinks of slightly different shades. Some were round and some were square, and some were tall and some were short.

Tina picked up a tall, square one and nodded her head in contentment. “Yeah, this one should do.”

Tina opened the front door. “Ah. You guys made it.”

Tina welcomed her friends into our house and they came in. First Lauren, then Reilly, and finally, Daisy. I also waved at them when they saw me in the living room. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tina snigger when I nervously said hi to Daisy. Read more »

The clock struck 7:45 pm. I left my room to get situated in front of the living room TV. At 8:00, a new episode of To Protect and Serve, the police drama that I liked to watch, would air. The living room had the nice TV and it would be free without my parents home. Entering, I made a beeline to the remote. I was about to lift remote off the end table when another hand came out of nowhere and clenched the other end of it.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I looked up to see my sister, Cassie, reaching for the remote from the couch.

“I’m going to watch TV,” I said matter of factly.

“Yeah, your show starts at 9:00, right, Nate?”

“No. 8:00”

“Well then, sucks for you because I’m watching Who’s Got Talent? At 8:00. I was here first.”
“I grabbed the controller first.”
We both started tugging on our end of the remote. We both held on for dear life, determined not to lose.

“I was here first,” she appealed again.

I managed to get the remote away from her iron grip and I lifted it high above my head. Read more »