Feathers and Stones

Chapter 18 (Mandy)

"Minka you can't finish all that by yourself!"

"Oh yeah watch me!"

Minka takes a large spoonful of chocolate ice cream. She cringes from the coldness but eventually swallows. Her eyes are teary from the brain freeze she probably got from the ice cream. "See I told you." She says to her friend Leah.

"Hey, Mandy," Tay says. I look over at my friend. "You think Jay's okay?" She has a worried look on her face.

I give her a reassuring smile. "No worries Tay," I say, "I'm sure he's fine, just needs some alone time is all." A small part of me doesn't believe what I just said but I shake it off.

"What about Rikki?" She asks, "You don't think she's causing trouble."

"I wouldn't be surprised." Maison says. He takes a bite of his ice cream.

I give him a quick glare. He shrugs as he takes another bite. I grunt and look down at my phone.

"Hey no phones." Tay says.

I ignore her and continue to text Rikki.

-are you being good?

I send the message and wait for a reply. My phone buzzes and I read the message

-of course ;)

Tay leans over reads the message. She looks at me. "I don't trust that winky face." She says.

I turn my screen off and look at my friends. "Why don't you guys trust Rikki?" I say, "She said she wouldn't do anything horrible."

"Mandy, we-" Tay starts.

I interrupt her. "If your reason for not trusting her is because we just met her then why are you all perfectly fine with Jay?"

They stay quiet. Tay opens her mouth to say something but stops herself.

"Exactly." I say.

"I think the difference between them is that with Jay we know he can't really help it." Maison says.

"Which makes him more of a threat to us." I say, "Rikki knows how to control her power and she has no reason to attack us unlike her reason to attack Jay."

"And what is her reason exactly?" Tay asks.

I narrow my eyes at her. "Don't play dumb, Tay," I snap, "You know exactly what her reason is"

Tay stays quiet and looks at her ice cream.

I put my head in my hands. I pull at my hair a bit as I run my hands through it.

Maison sighs. "Let's just drop it okay?" he says, "we're already stressed out enough as is."

I nod. "Yeah, I agree." I look up at them, "after this let's just all go home. We can all get together later tonight if we want. We just need a small break."

They both nod in agreement. "Alright, sounds fair." Maison says. After that we all finish our ice cream before heading home.

"Sis, why do we have to go home? Can we go play outside?"

I groan and turn towards my younger sister who is standing in the doorway of my room. "Minka I already told you, we're taking a break."

"No you're taking a break." Minka remarks, "I never agreed on it."

"To bad," I say as I turn back to my laptop, "Mom and Dad aren't home so I'm in charge. And I said no going out."

"But-."

"Minka, don't argue with me."

Minka groans and storms out of my room. I glance back at where she was and sigh. "It's for the greater good." I mutter under my breath. I let out an awkward chuckle, "hopefully."

I look out my window at the blue sky. It's such a nice day. Maybe Minka's right. We should go outside. I take a deep breath and stand up. Closing my laptop, I turn and head out of my room.

I walk down the hall to Minka's room. I knock on the door before cracking it open and peeking in. "hey, Mink you in here?" I look around the room a bit before heading out.

I go down stairs and look around. "Minka?" I check the kitchen and the living room for my sister. "Okay Minka stop playing around. Where are you?" I look around as I wait for a reply. Nothing.

I start to panic. "Minka this isn't funny!" I call, "where are you?" I look frantically around the house. I double check all the rooms, even the closers and the garage. "Minka!"

"Mandy!" I hear a voice call from outside.

I quickly turn and run towards the door. I open it and run outside. "Minka?" I see my sister and her friend across the street with Rex in front of his and Jay's house. "Minka!" I quickly run across the street over to them. "What's going on?"

"Jay hasn't come back yet." Rex says.

"Give him some time." I say, "I'm sure he'll show up sooner or later."

"Mandy it's been nearly two and a half hours." Rex says, "he's would normally be back by now."

"How am I supposed to know that?" I say.

"That doesn't matter right now." he says, "We need to find him."

"Do we really need to?" I say, "you even said it yourself that he was fine and all he wanted was to be alone for a bit."

"Are you going to help or not?" Rex snaps at me.

I hesitate, "fine."

"Thank you," he sighs, "let's go." he runs off across the street to the forest behind my house. Minka and Leah run after him. I sigh before following them at a slower pace.