Sight Seers by P.S. Singleton (Sample Chapters)

Chapter 4: Testing Theories

"Good morning, beautiful sister-o-mine!" Ashton burst into my bedroom, singing on too high of a note for this early in the morning.

Sitting up in my bed, I rubbed my eyes. "What?"

Captain barked off-beat to my brother's song. The bed shifted as Ashton sat down. He set his hand on my bare knee. I watched my face, contorted at the tiredness of just waking up and the chaos that had just let himself into my room. "No time for sleeping, girly! It's October 7th, and you know what that means!"

"No, what does that mean? What time is it? Why are you in my room?" My face rested against my palm, tangled hair loosely falling over me.

His expression fell; I could tell in the way his eyes dropped and his gaze turned. "Oh. Well, let me remind you. 16 years ago, on this day, a certain little girl whose name starts with an 'A' was born."

He stopped talking, and I realized he was waiting for an answer.

"Was it me?"

"It was you! Happy Birthday, Ally-gator!" He shoved something in my hand, a considerably wide chocolate chip cookie, complete with a single, unlit candle stabbed messily into the middle.

"My birthday?" I eyed the desert. "Thanks." I had lost a lot, but I hadn't stopped to consider each and every little thing missing in my past. That stood too tall of a task. But now, the mention of having something as common as a birthday made my eyes sting. Just a little.

"Dessert for breakfast. I like my birthday."

Ashton's cheeks peaked in a smile. "I've got work today, but after that, what would you like to do? Anything today, as it's your day."

"I don't know... Maybe we could just hang out or something. I don't really know much about anything to do." I took a bite of the cookie to keep myself from thinking about all the years I had lost. It melted against the roof of my mouth, disappearing just like every aspect of my life before now. I hardly knew anything about Ashton, any parents I had, or even myself. I was just a girl trying to copy the person Alison Caddel had once been.

Stretching his arms behind his head and cutting off my sight, Ashton let out a wistful sigh. "Just a few days ago, you were just nine, a short little thing. And then I blink and you're sixteen, all big like an actual person." His tongue clicked. Following in a smaller voice, he said, "We sure have missed a lot." Those nervous and painful thoughts had reached Ashton too. In an attempt to shake them off, he poked me in the knee. "If you don't stop growing, you'll be in trouble. Quit it."

A small laugh escaped me.

"I'm serious, Ally. You're my baby sister forever, right?" He yanked me into a suffocating hug, tickling me as we lay on the bed.

He took my uncontrollable laughter at his teasing as a yes.

"Good."

We took a moment, enjoying the calm as I ate the cookie I had somehow managed to save from Ashton's roughhousing.

I cleaned out the last of the cookie from my teeth when Ashton grabbed me by the legs and yanked me up over his shoulders - all in one swift movement. I let out a squeal, Captain barking at the cacophony.

"Ashton! What are you doing! Put me down!" Feeling my shirt falling up, I pulled it back over my stomach. My long hair only landed at his ankles, which is when I noted how tall he stood.

"Where do you want to go for actual birthday breakfast?" He passed the doorway of my room and walked around the house, hauling me upside down. His sweaty palms on my ankles allowed me a view different from the lightheaded one my body felt.