Love's Demise

Prologue

Prologue
2009-05-09 12:43pm
Cher Diary

×in french×
Saturdays are the best. Mama and papa let Étienne and Ángel come back home from boarding school. Étienne makes us pancakes in the morning, blueberry pancakes and drenches them in apple syrup. Ángelo doesn't speak a lot, but he likes to play us the guitar in the morning while we eat. He sings Bohemian Rhapsody in the morning. Samael and I sat in the dining room, kicking our feet against the chairs while we stuffed our faces with sweet pancakes. I love Saturday mornings, and Saturday evenings even better. Tonight, papa says he'll let us make our own pizzas if we finish training without complaining. Mama says she'll take us to town if we finish our Russian lessons quicker and buy us Ice cream. Samael will complain, he can't hold a gun like I can. He says it's too heavy and papa won't stop yelling at him if he drops it again. He doesn't like Russian, or any other language mama teaches us. He says he wants to speak only Arabic and French, but mama wants us to speak more languages because we will need it when we grow up. But today is Saturday, everyone is always happy on Saturday.

"Sloan!"

Étienne ran after his little sister, cursing out her name. She dashed through the living room and crawled under the coffee table. He hadn't stopped in time, his knees hitting the table as he halted. The girl laughed, watching her brother fall over the table and hit his head. She crawled out from under the table and smacked his head. He glared at her and she waved the phone in his face.

"Give. Me. My. Phone." He bit out.

She pressed it to her ear and mimicked his voice, "Hey bro, what's good."

"Who is this?" a female voice answered.

Sloan looked at her brother, raising her eyes. Her eyes widened. She looked at the screen and started laughing. "Give it here you little brat!" Étienne tried prying it out of her hands, but the girl pulled away and ran out into the backyard. Her father and Ángelo stood by the garden, watering the summer seeds they'd spent all afternoon planting. She ran out onto the lawn, waving the phone in her hand. Her brother turned around and whipped mud across his forehead. He had his hair tied up in a neat bun, and he smiled a little when he saw her.

"Étienne has a girlfriend!" the girl sang, "Étienne has a girlfriend!"

She heard her fathers laughter, right before a large hand shoved her onto the floor. Her brother towered over her and tried to grab the phone from hands. "Give it here you little shit."

"No!" she screamed.

Her father laughed in the distance. She kicked Étienne in the shin and bit his fingers. When he tumbled onto the lawn beside her, pulling his knees to his chest, she stood up and kicked him in the legs. Ángelo grabbed her before she could do anymore damage and plucked the phone from her fingers. She stuck her tongue out at her, cradling himself on the floor. Étienne showed her the middle finger and she gasped, wiggling out of her brother's hold with a will to do more damage. Étienne rose to his feet and grabbed his phone, glaring at his twin brother who had the biggest smile on his face.

"Hey Lisa." he said, sticking his tongue out at his sister. "Yeah, sorry about that, that was my sister," he said, walking away.

Ángelo put her down when his twin was safe and away. He patted her on her head and went back to his flowers. Her father smiled at her before he turned around and watched Ángelo water the plants. She didn't get it. They loved to spend their mornings in the garden. They'd watch the soil wet, they'd watch the soil dry, and they'd stand there all day long if they needed to. She wanted to play, to train, to run around the house and climb everything in sight. There was something inside her that always needed to get away, to keep moving. She wouldn't stand around and watch them work, so she ran back into the house to find her mother.