Twin Entanglement [C]

Chapter 7 - The Morning After

[Hey, here is the next one and I hope you enjoy where I'm going with this! Enjoy!!]

The sound of wrapping fingers against thick glass woke me, the sound too close to my ears for comfort or ignorance. I opened my eyes slowly, adjusting to the light. Peeking out from under my hoodie I found myself looking into Michael’s face as he leaned against my window, gazing into my car. I looked around dazed for a second before remembering that I was in the school’s parking lot. The wrapping sounded again and I saw that it was Michael’s knuckles striking against my window.

“Wake up man! You plan on sleeping through homeroom?” Michael asked amused. I groaned as I sat up and looked around the parking lot that had filled up while I had slept. Students were all walking leisurely towards the school building. Trying to rub the remaining sand out of my eyes I rolled down my window, bracing myself for the cool chill of the morning breeze.

“Hey, when you get here?” I asked groggily. Straightening up Michael leaned against the car as he took a moment to think.

“I think we got here about thirty minutes ago….” He said uncertainly. My attention spiked at that and I looked around, pulling down my hoodie to get a better view. It didn’t take long before I saw Mia leaning against the tree I had parked under. She caught me staring before I could look away.

“Morning Randy, you look like crap.” She said softly, concern lifting her eyebrows. I cringed as I thought of how I must have looked then, dishevelled and worn out. But even as I felt the wariness in my muscles from all the hard labour over the weekend, I still found it easy to smile when I looked at her. Running my hand in my hair in an attempt to tame it, I nodded in agreement.

“That can’t be too far from the truth. Rough weekend….” I mumbled.

“What? Your mom in the remodelling phase again?” Michael asked half-heartedly as he watched the cheerleaders walk way too slowly past my car. Rolling up the window and joining them outside the car I replied, adding a punch to get his attention.

“Nah, Jimmy suddenly wants a damn tree house, of all things.”

“That’s so cool!” Mia exclaimed in awe.  I huffed in annoyance as I remembered the same reaction on my little brother’s face when he saw a friend’s tree house three weeks back which had been the reason for my weekend in the woods looking for wood.

“I have to disagree with you. The whole idea is stupid. I mean why have a crappy self-made death-trap when you have a house to live in?”

Mia smiled at me knowingly, “So, the woods the whole weekend huh?”

I felt the heat cross my cheeks as she watched me. I tried to think of a smart thing to say, but that smile of hers was making my brain stupid.

“Tree houses are stupid.” I mumbled as I looked away from Mia, whose attention had been drawn away. Michael was chuckling to himself as he watched me turn and I tried not to glare at him.

“Give it up bro. My sister has always thought tree houses were awesome. We would have gotten one too if our parents weren’t so scared Mia would trip to her death while climbing one.” He said the last part teasingly. There wasn’t a reaction to the taunt which caused both me and Michael to turn curiously to Mia, whose was staring in the distance, distracted. Following her line of sight, I found myself looking into the group of cheerleaders that Michael had being watching only a few minutes ago. They had gathered at the foot of the stairs in front of the schools entrance. At first glance it looked as if they were ganging up on another girl who had been sitting a few steps higher, but once I saw who it was I knew that wasn’t the case. Trish Kilburn was not the type of girl you ganged up on.