𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐒

sixteen

after both girls left to head to el's house, the eldest girl decided it was best to take a shift at the pool tomorrow. "great." sam huffed, as billy walked inside the house.

"billy!" she called, as he slammed the bathroom door.

sam was always the first to notice when something was wrong, max called it the sister sense. but recently she had been picking up an eerie essence in the house.

"billy?" she knocked, sniffles filling the silence between them. why was he crying?

no answer from the boy.

sam just awkwardly stood there, her body resting on the door frame. "i know we can be pretty shitty to each other sometimes, but...but i'm here if you need to talk." again no answer.

sam steadily made her way to her room, and didn't hear a word from billy the rest of the night. suddenly, the phone rang. "hello?" sam said, her voice quiet, as if she were scared to wake someone. "sam, it's max." a familiar voice said, sam looking down at her knuckles, as if to prep herself for bad news. the front door slamming shut, made sam jump out of her skin, before she actually replied back to max.

"hey, uh...sorry. what's wrong?" she replied, staring at her bedroom door. she hadn't understood why she had been scared to speak, and she certainly couldn't describe why she felt confused.

"is billy home?" sam thought for a second, finally looking away from her bedroom door. and then just like that, her eerie feeling was gone.

"no. he just...he just left. why?" sam said. "no reason." max dismissed, very poorly, trying to avoid the truth.

"tell me the truth maxine." sam said, her voice changing into a very stern one, different than how she spoke. "no reason, seriously. just, goodnight." max brushed off, hanging the phone up.

the girl scoffed a little. sam shook her head, laying down to finally get some rest. "goodnight."

the next morning, while getting ready for her shift at the pool it started to pour outside. unfortunately, it wasn't enough for sam to go and cancel her shift.

despite her better judgment, sam left the house without waiting on max and el to come home. "i trust them, they'll be fine." she mumbled, changing her train of thought to the rest of her day.

sam shook her head walking into the locker room, noticing a water spillage. "you have got to be kidding me." she groaned, as. when she pulled away to grab a towel.

sam quickly changed, and headed out to stand. it was actually pretty peaceful sitting covered on the chair. it was nice and calm, although the people in the pool were very not.

a loud clap of thunder was heard. she blew her whistle loudly twice. she mentally thanked herself for the rain saving her from having to jump in. "nobody is allowed in the pool until 30 minutes after the last strike." she announced into the megaphone, heading back inside the shack.

"hey sam, when you get home tell billy that we appreciate him helping take care of the other staff." her manager, sean, said making her look up from her feet. "what?" sam replied.

steve nodded. "billy took off, to help heather...she's sick." he explained. sam felt this overwhelming calmness take over. nothing was wrong with billy, her sister sense must have been off. "oh..yeah, yeah. i will." she smiled.