House of Howling

Chapter 3

Liz sits down on her bed with a puzzled look on her face as in saying "What in the world just happened, my sister is alive!?" She turns to me and smiles. "Cool Alice, turns out my sister and your brother have the same fate as us well... for the most part. Come on, let's go find that store. Hopefully they don't charge us with money, mine is in my bank account back in Hope Hills."

Before Liz stood up and I could walk to open the door an envelope slipped under the door in Rich's hand writing. I walked over to the envelope, bent down and picked it up and started reading,

'To: Alice and Elizabeth
From: Rich'

I opened the envelope, pulled out the letter, unfolded the letter, and read it.

'My dear friends,
Oh boy have I missed you guys. I missed talking to you guys so much. You are going to love this place, I have, the kids are awesome and really kind to first years. It is my new home, sooner or later it will be yours too. There is $1,000.00 in the envelope, I owe it to you girls for everything you have done for me. My room number is 574 down the hallway and 5 rooms to the left. Remember your room number, your room number is key. You room number is 588(Mark told me)
Love,
Rich W.

P.S. Alice I suggest to ask the clerk at Juniper's Daughter for your dress. Silver and Mark have already picked it out.'

After reading I drop to with the letter in hand, tears are just everywhere on the letter and on my clothes. Liz races to my side, "Are you okay? Whats in the letter Alice, is it why your crying? What did Mark tell you?"

"He told me that Rich misses me so much. Just as much as I missed him," I managed to only answer her last question while sobbing.

(Here's the deal with Rich: He is one of the two best friends that I have in the world, before he left we bacame more than friends. We started dating behind everyone's back a month before he left. He is the sweetest guy ever, he doesn't cheat, spread rumors, or bully.)

"Hey Alice, come on lets go to Juniper's Daughter."

Liz helps me up and we head for the door as I wipe my tears, I reach for the door knob, twist it, and pull the door open towards me, the door reveals a 19 year old man, that is a miniature version of my brother is standing outside with one fist up as if he was going to knock on the door, just stands there frozen except for his eyes, the are looking straight at me.

"Hey... long time no see?" he asks looking straight at me, he puts his arm down to his side awkwardly. He was wearing a blue t-shirt, brown shorts, his short blonde hair loose and messed up, his skin is tan which brings out his green eyes, he is wearing black ankle socks with blue sneakers. I hug him without hesitation (what is it with me hugging people today), "Rich," he hugs me back. After we let go he kisses me on the lips, as a reaction I kiss him back for a fair amount of time. I feel that Liz is kinda left out, so I pull back leaving him surprised that I kissed him in front of Liz.

"So how have you been," Liz forces herself to say because of the silence that was really bugging her.

"I missed you both, oh my goodness you guys have totally changed in a year," he takes a step back and gestured for us to come out of the room and inside the hallway. The hallway has a few people walking past us, I can hear the girls whispering, "' Who's the new girl that Rich just kissed?'" or "'Why did he just kiss her?'" As if the girls who whispered these things were jealous.

We walk out of the room and Liz shuts and locks the door behind us, giving me the key and walked away from Rich and I as if saying, I will walk ahead so I don't have to see you two all 'lovey-dovey'.

We walk behind her hand in hand, which is weird because we have never kissed or held hands in front (or in this case behind) Liz before. Let me explain, Rich and I started dating for a month before he left, I never told Liz because she always liked him and I knew she would be mad if she found out. So we kept it a secret from Liz, from everyone.. well until now.