Cruise - Lauren Cimorelli

3

"You guys took your time," Jacinda giggles before softly punching me in the arm as I take a seat next to her on the wooden, fragile looking bench. "Did you patch things up?"

"Is there anything to patch up?" I reply before shrugging, feeling absolutely done with the gorgeous brown eyed girl. "No, we didn't patch anything up and I'm not sure if I really want to."

"Ouch," Jacinda squints her eyes as she pushes herself away from me slightly, making a large gap between us on the bench. "That's a bit harsh, don't you think?"

"Not really," I hesitate for a few seconds before sighing, feeling almost bad for Lauren as these words leave my mouth. "She acted like we were friends while I was helping her, then straight after it was like she didn't even know me. Like she wasn't even a tiny bit curious about me." I dart my eyes away from my sister to spot the group, most of the girls playing hide and seek with their brothers. "Don't you think that's a bit harsh?"

"You two are just as bad as each other," Jacinda states before shrugging - her eyes following my own to watch the family get along better than what we did when we were smaller. JJ, Jacinda and myself had the worst relationship until JJ just had reached fourteen - I was twelve and absolutely idolized the older girl while Jacinda was barely eleven. It was a terrifying time before that - there was not a single moment where we got along as siblings like the Cimorelli's do. 

"I told her I care for her."

Her eyes quickly find themselves back on me, wide and surprised - almost as if she doesn't believe the words that have come out of my mouth.  

"And?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing, she went back to being a stranger." 

"Huh," Jacinda relaxes as she studies the scene infront of us, trees enclosing in on us in a sense - almost creating a roof of leaves and a pathway of roots towards the playground. "You do realize that she has been staring at you this whole time."

"Wha-..." My eyes bounce on where Jacinda is looking, only to find Lauren almost shyly glance away, back to her brothers. Her peeking brown eyes twitching as they find themselves locked back on to mine before she looks away for the second time. "That's kinda creepily weird."

"Ooh," Jacinda giggles before nudging me playfully in the ribcage, causing me to not-so-gently hit her arm back. "Lauren has a crush on you."

"Um...What?" I manage to spit out of my mouth as quickly as I can; my cheeks growing hotter by the second. "We're not gay Jacinda."

"It wouldn't surprise me if she was," Jacinda laughs once again, dryly glancing back at me before she stands up, her black hair flicking her in the face as the wind aggressively blows towards us; messing up her hair entirely but she doesn't seem to mind - grabbing my hand with an almost extreme enthusiasm and dragging me up, making me headbutt her shoulder in the process. "C'mon, let's go talk to her!"

"W-What?!" I squirm in her grasp, but my sister is so much stronger than me due to the amount of sport she plays. She's one of those girls who finds the time to actually balance out her life which everyone knows is a genuine struggle, passing school and being amazingly fit and healthy with an amazing social life is hard to maintain. "No! Jacey! Stop!" The childhood nickname rolling off my tongue with a certain unfamiliarity which only causes her to tense up, pulling on me even harder if that's possible - dragging me along the ground with a broad smile across her face, one that I'm ecstatic to see again. 

"C'mon Vesperia! Be nice to the neighbors!" Jacinda begs, her blue eyes bouncing happily along the scene, almost as if she's getting joy out of watching me squirm horribly. No matter how much I work out, nothing could beat the machine which is my younger sister.