A Dark Family Secret

She Is Mine

Crystal swallowed her anger and knocked at the door. Both of them turned to face her.

They didn't say anything, and neither did she. This moment was one of the inconvenient moments you had in films when people were caught doing something embarrassing. LR just gave her sister a tight smile and stood up. "What?" LR asked her sister. LR always did that when she was embarrassed. Crystal couldn't help but smile.

"You have a crush, don't you?" Crystal said with her eyebrows wiggling in the air.

LR stopped walking; she didn't find it funny. She stared into her sister's eyes. "Just because someone understands me better than you ever have doesn't mean I like them."

Crystal was startled by her sister's statement, but she was quietly happy that she didn't have to worry about the boy.

LR galloped down the stairs. Her anger had faded, and hunger had taken over. LR beamed. She knew her sister had never cooked a bad meal in her life.

"OH my GOD!!!!!" LR screamed as she saw the food. Grey mush with potatoes.

Crystal and Timothy raced down when they heard LR scream.

"What is this?" LR asked Crystal when she came downstairs.

She was looking at her as if she had two conjoined heads.

Crystal was sincerely scared of the food that LR just pointed out.

"I...I didn't make that..." Crystal said, trying not to puke at the sight of that gruesome food. Both of the girls turned to Timothy expectantly.

Timothy was scratching his head and suddenly finding the ceiling interesting.

The girls started laughing so hard that they began to wheezing.

Timothy looked on the ground, embarrassed.

LR and Crystal stopped. Wide-eyed, they looked at each other -He doesn't know how to cook. At the age of 17!

Both girls felt bad; he lived alone in a house with no parents and couldn't even make an adequate meal for himself.

Crystal looked at him and gave him a tight smile. She knew she had never had a good parent figure, but at least she had someone that brought food to the table and showed them how to cook. For the first time in her lifetime, she was appreciative to have had that chance.

LR and Crystal offered to teach him how to cook some easy meals.

The three of them spent hours and hours making delicious food.

They got to know each other. Crystal was shy, LR was outgoing but didn't act girly. She was a beanie type of girl; Timothy had discovered that day. He smiled. He was thrilled to have new friends.

*Knock,*Knock.

Startled, Timothy stared at the old white door.

The knocks were getting heavier and louder. Timothy didn't evoke inviting any of his friends.

Timothy signalled the two girls to hide.

Crystal crawled under a table in the corner while LR scrambled into a closet.

Timothy fixed his apron and slowly put his grip on the doorknob.

Slowly and steadily, he opened the door just see his mate, Lukas.

"You look like you've seen a ghost.", LR could hear a deep voice say to Timothy.

Should I help him? Why am I hiding? LR's head was full of twists.

She braced herself together and slowly stepped out of the closet.

She reached out to grab a nearby broom.

"Psst." LR could hear her sister under the table.

She knew her sister was just going to try to stop her from doing anything.

"Please just leave. I don't want to harm anyone.", LR said suspiciously to the hazel-eyed boy standing at the doorway.

The boy smirked at his friend as if all that was happening was some sort of funny joke.

LR played down the broom. She could feel the heat rise to her cheek. That boy wasn't a threat to anyone.

"Quite a feisty lover you have there.", he said to Timothy, a tiny bit disturbed.

Timothy and LR looked at each other as if he had just said the world's funniest joke.

"We aren't together", both of them said at the same time.

"Sure..." said the boy, uninterested.

He noticed dark bouncy hair under the table.

Crystal noticed eyes dig into her soul. She turned around to see a pair of eyes looking straight into hers—Hazel eyes, brown hair like hers and a chiselled chin. Crystal felt like she knew him, but she knew that that was how she thought about many people. Crystal laughed to herself and crawled out of the space.

All four children were watching each other—heavy silence weighing in the air.