Golden Threads

Chapter 6: Race To The Cliffs

Mallory had rolled her eyes a good several times in the past 10 minutes.

She loved her brother, but watching him as he tried on various leather -biker- jackets and was changing up his entire look after seeing the lady from the night before, Mallory could deny it no longer,

Her brother was such a poser.

Their mother had gotten the job and had excitedly driven off that day to do her orientation and get her first shift in.

But not before keeping to her promise to make the Biker boys some snacks, and not before letting the Emerson boys have it for leaving Mallory alone and letting her get hurt. Mallory did her best to ease her mother's anger, but Lucy Emerson wouldn't be so easily dissuaded. So after a through scolding, and feeling as though they've shrunk 3 sizes, the trio found themselves spending the day keeping themselves entertained as Papa Emerson did his own thing.

That day had been filled with activities of exploration and properly unpacking. Mallory especially took her time and had great pleasure in making her room into her space. Once she was done, she helped Sammy do the same, arranging his furniture and clothing just the way he wanted before he decided to head out to the comic book store again.

She offered to help her twin do the same, but Micheal's mind was elsewhere, so she left him be.

She regretted that now, thinking that if she'd talked to him, maybe she could've been spared watching her jock of a brother attempt to dress in rebel biker clothes.

She did move to intervene when he walked over to an ear piercing station. All this for some stranger woman he didn't even talk to? What is this? What's happening?

"Mike, I don't think..." Her voice trails off as the tinkling of bangles whispers across her senses once more.

"She's right, It's a rip-off."

And there she is. As if appearing out of thin air, the mystery girl all but whispers in her brother's ear, still loud enough to be heard over the crowds and music.

Micheal's eyes widen and Mallory watches as tension drains from his body once more.

When she moves away, he follows her like a puppet on a string. She smiles kindly at Mallory and Mallory nods back, but isn't able to make herself smile. The backpack full of snacks on her back offering an anchoring weight even as she started to grow a bit uneasy.

This girl is a mystery indeed, and in any other circumstance, the effect she had on her blockhead of a brother would be amusing at best... but this isn't any other circumstance, and Mallory can't decide wether or not she likes this girl.

She makes her brother's aggression drain, she makes her brother act irrationally... Michael turned his anger towards her and Sammy because they wouldn't let him follow her.

Mallory was aware none of these were the girls fault, the girl didn't know her brother anymore than her brother knew the girl. She couldn't know the effect she had on him... but Mallory still worried.

Mallory always worried when her brother acted like this. Because Michael didn't think, he acted and thought later, and it wasn't a good tendency he had.

Mallory didn't know whether or not she liked this Girl, not because of who the girl was, no she didn't know her yet. But rather, she didn't know if Mallory liked the effect she had on her brother. And she felt bad knowing that that judgement was based off of something this girl had no control over.

Still, she adjusted her backpack and followed her brother, unwilling to have a repeat of last night. She stays quiet as she listens to them talk.

They flirted back and forth, careful bonds forming between them that spoke of maybe a deeper bond, maybe even something that could eventually be called love. But for now the bonds were of a possibility, an opportunity.