Keep Your Enemies Close

Chapter Two Backstory

I stirred my cereal as I watched Spongebob. I was so bummed that I didn't even have a life. My older sister, Georgia, pranced into the room.

"Mom said you lost all your friends," she smirked. I tried to bite back a comeback.

"I lost two." She placed her hands on her hips.

"But you only have two friends."

I frowned at the tv screen, ignoring her comeback.

"Georgia, stop annoying your sister," my mother yelled from upstairs. Georgia flipped her shiny brown hair and eyed me, her green eyes staring deeply into mine, trying to burn a hole into my flesh. I often wished I was as pretty as her. I barely even looked like her. She had long brown hair, and I had curly red hair. The only similar feature we had was our eyes that were both green.

"Have fun at school being friendless," Georgia said, walking away. I could hear the entrance door slam from the living room. Georgia always left early for school. But she was right, today I was going to walk right into the first day of high school with absolutely no friends. I was a freak.

Mom walked in, her dark hair frazzled. "Sweetie, don't listen to her, you'll make new friends, there'll be new kids." I turned to face her.

"It's alright mom, Georgia's right." My mom gasped.

"You agree with your sister?"

I sighed tiredly. "Well, I did almost drown someone."

My mom looked closely at me, her eyes saddening. Even my mother couldn't figure me out.

She looked identical to Georgia, but just a grown-up version. I had often wondered where I got this curly red hair from, but mom never wanted to talk about it so I had just assumed that dad was a redhead. And when mom finally showed me pictures of him, I realized he did actually have red hair and even had the same green eyes as me.

I never got to see or know more than just those pictures. It was a sensitive subject to talk about so Georgia and I almost never brought it up. I never actually saw my dad in person, only the pictures in a scrapbook of him and mom in Miami. They were around eighteen there, smiling widely in every shot. Mom had said that he left us to fend for ourselves and apparently he needed to go find happiness. Hadn't he been happy with mom and us?

"Mom, I know you don't like to talk about this, but what actually happened to dad?" I asked her as she wiped the kitchen counter with a paper towel. She stopped mid-wipe, and I was scared that I had offended her. But I really wanted to know.

After a few seconds, she looked over to me, a worn out expression on her face.

"Look, Mabel, he was never really your dad, he left me when we were both twenty, when Georgia was two. I really don't want to talk about it, I've moved on." She turned to leave the kitchen, but this time I wasn't going to let it go. I had to know.

"If you don't want to talk about it, then that means you haven't moved on." My mom sighed, threw the paper towels in the garbage, and sat down on the couch beside me.

"Fine, I'll tell you what happened, but just this once."

18 Years Ago

"So? Are you coming to see me tonight, Julianna?"

She thought for a moment. She would have to risk sneaking out of the house to see him. But she loved him. Of course she was going to do it. She took a deep breath and exhaled.

"Of course, Rick! I'm going to sneak out around eleven, when both of my parents are sleeping and then we can see each other!"

"That's fantastic, Julianna! Our parents can't keep us apart."