Quiet Like a Ghost

Chapter Five: Cry

I wake up to chatter out in the front room, I hear Dahlia, Balz, Opal, and Chris talking about different things. I start to get up when I hear Dahlia ask her what she sees in me. Kind of a rude question but I'm curious now. Staying silent so everyone thinks I'm still asleep, I listen. "Uh, I don't know, he's good looking, sweet, caring. He's kind of perfect." She says, making my face heat up.

After a few minutes of Awe!'s, Opal excuses herself to take a shower. She chooses to use the shower in the master bath, leaving the door open. I watch her as she strips down to just her bra and underwear, before she looks over at me. "Thought you were awake." She smiles as I walk over to her.

"Morning." She says, letting me trace her curves with my hands and kiss her, as she wraps her hands around my neck. Losing my sense of restraint, I push her against the wall, kissing her neck, making her moan. "Devin." She pulls on my hair, making me really, really turned on.

There's a knock on the frame of the door. "In case you have forgotten. There are people right out there, that can hear you." Chris says as I break way from her. "Yeah. Sorry." I say, a small smile playing on the edge of my lips, "Yeah whatever." He shakes his head, leaving.

"Want to join me?" She asks, pulling on my shirt. "As great as that sounds, Chris is right and my little sister is out there." I tell her. "Then get them to leave." She smirks, taking off her bra. I make a scatchy, groan noise, trying not to look. "No. You go. Maybe tonight." I mutter, part of me wondering what the hell I was doing but I'd rather not be selfish. "Fine." She says, I walk out letting her take her shower.

"Morning." Balz says, smirking. "Morning." I nod grabbing coffee. "So Opal seems nice." Dahl starts conversation. "Yeah she is." I say, taking a drink of my coffee.

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you dating her?" She asks. "You ask such rude questions, but one I don't know if we're officially dating. We never really talked about it. Two, I would date her, because she's gorgeous and easy-going." I tell Dahlia as she smiles. "Just wanted to know."

Chris was quiet and stirring his creamer with a bit of coffee as he likes it, just staring at it. "You okay?" I ask him, making everyone's attention go to him. "Yeah, yeah. Just daydreaming." He says drinking his drink. Daydreaming? Probably about Opal, he did just see her half naked, after all.

After a few minutes, Opal comes out, wearing a crop top and high waisted jeans. "Eli wants to come over. That cool with you?" She asks, kissing my cheek. "Yeah, that's fine. You going to get him or is Pen bringing him?" I ask, "Penelope is bringing him." She tells me.

"Who's Eli and who's this Penelope?" Chris asks, "Oh right you guys haven't met them, Elijah is my little brother and Penelope is my twin." She smiles. Chris smiles as well at 'Twin.' He has no idea how creepy she is, but I leave that for him to find out.

After 10 minutes, Eli and Penelope are here. Eli got right to playing Halo against Balz and Chris was talking to Pen. Surprisingly he didn't seem to mind her talking or her odd look.

"So you got a girl?" Pen asks Chris. "No actually, I recently broke up with the last one." He says faking a sad look. "Awe. Was it a bad break up? Because I can help..." She whispers the last part in his ear and he kissed her. "Pen! You've been here for at most ten minutes and your already making out with someone!" Opal laughes at them. Something tells me Penelope is pretty easy...

"So? You got him don't be jealous." Penelope says, sitting on Chris' lap. "One not jealous, two Eli is right over there. You're going to scar him." Opal says, pulling her off him. "Awe..." Chris groans, making me laugh. "Eli has seen worse, he's fine." Pen tells her. "That's horrible, he's 16!" Opal shouts at her.

"Okay. You need to cool your jets." I mutter, picking her up, carrying her to the bedroom. "Why the Hell did you do that for!" She glares at me. "Look, I'm sorry, I know your overly protective of him, but you got to understand. He's 16. He's probably seen more than you'd ever would want him to." I say quietly, trying to get her to cool off. "He's my little brother." She whispers, "I took care of him when mom and dad died. I fed him, I got him to school on time, I helped him through everything since he was he was 10. He's my brother." She cries into my chest as I hold her.

"Opal?" Eli asks, hearing enough to know it was about him. I motion for him to come closer, and Opal squeezes him in a hug, leaving me just to stand there, unsure of what to do. When she stopped crying, she listened to what Elijah had to say, "Opal, I know you went through a lot for me when they died, and I thankful for that, but I'm almost an adult now. I can take care of myself. What I can't, Pen helps me. I've also accepted mom and dad's deaths, you haven't, you pretend you have but at one mention of them you're a wreak. They're gone, Opal. It's been six years." He whispers against her hair, making her cry more.

"I know... I just miss Dad." She sobs against his shoulder and Eli gives me a look like he doesn't know how to console her. I move to let Eli free and to hold Opal up. She is just dead weight in my arms as she sobs. I let her cry, if I lost my parents I'd need to cry and from the sound of it she never had the chance to mourn.

Eventually she falls asleep and I lay her down to rest. Her make up is smeared all down her face, and she looks hurt even as she sleeps. It's heartbreaking to watch her. She shifts into a ball, holding her legs, still very asleep. I rub her back, not wanting to leave.

"She alright?" Dahlia asks, "No." I sigh as she comes closer. "Eli told us what he said, Pen didn't take it to amazingly either. I can't imagine what it's like to lose both of your parents." She sighs, moving the piece of black hair that was covering Opal's face. "I don't know." I whisper, kissing her cheek and walking out of the room.

Penelope and Chris were gone; Eli and Balz were still half-heartedly playing the video game, "You win. I'm going to take a break." Eli mumbles grabbing a soda from the fridge and walking out on the patio, wanting some air I guess. Dahlia sits herself down on Balz's lap, laying her head on his shoulder. Yep I need air too.

Walking out to join Eli, I hear him singing to himself quietly. "Not bad." I sat making him jump. "You scared me, and uh, thanks." He says, turning red. "Does you sister sing too?" I ask. "Opal? Yeah she's pretty good. She hates it when people listen though." He shrugs. I nod, "Do you play any instruments?" I ask. "No. Never had the money for them." He shakes his head. "Want to?"

He shakes his head. "As cool as they are, I wouldn't have the patience for them." I nod, I get it. Learning guitar took me awhile. You definitely need the passion for it. We're silent for awhile when he says, "I can tell how much you care about Opal by how you hold her and don't let her go when she needs someone to cry on. I never could do that. I always felt like I wasn't doing enough to help her." He says, his voice cracking.

"She just needs to be sad for awhile. Everyone needs awhile to cry and be depressed. Just wait and she'll be fine." I tell him, rubbing his back. "Thank you. She's been needing someone like you." He smiles at me, giving me a bro hug.