Changing

Chapter 17

We followed after his bounding form cautiously. 

            I was tense, my nerves stretched to their breaking point, as I followed apprehensively after the boy. I was suddenly overwhelmingly positive that I was making a huge mistake. I watched Bonnie, to see her reaction but she didn’t seem overly worried, just a little weary. I didn’t know where the unexpected dread had come from…I tried to understand it.

            I then realized that most likely Bonnie had never eaten real food, or if she had, not for a long time. I thought this was what was causing the stiffness to build up inside me, and so I tried to calm myself, remembering how well Bonnie had done at the soccer game, surly she would also be able to get through this…

            But this wasn’t the source of my tension at all, and it wasn’t until we saw the girl, that I realized what the inborn fear meant…

            “That’s my house!” Enrique said turning to us, one side of his mouth pulled up in a grin, while he pointed to a house that looked surprisingly familiar.

            Why does it seem like I’ve seen this house before?

            My brow furrowed as I mulled over this enigma. He continued forward, but I was unable to move. The apprehension that I felt before seemed to solidify, like a ghostly presence holding me in its unwavering grasp.

            Bonnie stared up at me in confusion, which quickly changed to anxiety when she took in my dire face. Her eyes whipped from side to side frantically, searching for the reason.

            “What’s wrong?” she asked in a strained voice, much too low for Enrique to hear.

            But I was unable to answer, because it was at that very moment that the girl, walked out of the house a furious scowl on her face. My muscles and tendons locked in place, the fear making me unable to move. Bonnie felt the sudden stillness in my body, and she froze in response, her head turned to the object of my tension and she let loose a guttural snarl, still much to quiet for anyone but me to hear, but it was enough to shake me out of my stupor.

            But the girl hadn’t seen us yet, she was yelling at Enrique.

            “Where have you been?” she screeched, throwing her arms up into the air. “Do you have any idea what you did? You stupid boy! You were supposed to stay here!”

            Her black hair was spilling out of her hastily tied bun, and her dark eyes were rimmed in red, as if she’d been crying.

            “It’s all your fault! Dad didn’t let me go with Timmy to the movies, and it’s all your fault!” she bellowed at the top of her lungs.

            “How is that my fault?” he shot back defensively, but his voice wavered a little under the harsh gaze of his enraged sister.

            She didn’t seem to hear him, “and then some stupid bird comes and steals my clothes and my money!” she glared at him murderously. “If it hadn’t been for you, I would have taken the stupid clothes in instead of searching for my stupid brother!”

            Enrique frowned at the sudden change in topic, “a bird took you clothes?”

            I pulled Bonnie’s hand, wanting to get away before the girl noticed us. But that was my mistake. She had caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to glare at me.

            Her eyes narrowed when she recognized the clothes that Bonnie and me were wearing. Her lips pulled back from her teeth, “where did you get that? Huh….” it was clearly a rhetorical question. Her voice was low and menacing.