Flight Risk

Capitulo Doce

Picture of Liz (Katherine McPhee) ------------------------>

She was beautiful. Plain and simple. I recognized her from the photos that had shown up when I Googled her a week and a half ago and I’m not afraid to admit that I was instantly envious of her hair that fell in long, dark brown ringlets and flawless skin that required minimal make up. In fact as far as I could tell from where I stood, the only makeup she wore was thick black eyeliner and some lip gloss to extenuate her perfectly proportioned lips. If I had to guess, I’d say she was about half a foot taller than me and had an hourglass figure most girls would kill to have. I doubt she even paid it much attention because she was wearing a non-formfitting t-shirt that read “Silence is Golden, Duct Tape is Silver” with an enlarged piece of duct tape in the center of the shirt paired with some jeans and converse. Yes, Liz the lead singer for an up and coming band known as Poetic Justice, was standing in the living room waiting for Sam to get home.

Standing beside her, was an extremely pretty Asian woman that was a few inches shorter and had loud multicolored hair and a Rolling Stones t-shirt with jeans and boots. Like Liz, aside from the heavy eyeliner, she wore almost no makeup and had naturally flawless skin. That said, based on the description alone, I’d say that she was Crystal, and the pretty good looking guy with dark, curly hair standing next to her was Gabriel. You could see a slight resemblance between Gabriel and Liz in their hair and eyes, but beside that they didn’t really look like family.

“Why don’t you all have a seat? Sam and Brad are on their way; Sam just needs to pick up his little sister Rissa from school.”

With a friendly smile, Liz said, “Good grief, we totally forgot to introduce ourselves! My name is Elizabeth, but I’d prefer if you called me Liz like all my friends do. This is Crystal and this is Gabriel.”

“Call me Gabe,” he smiled as he extended his hand toward me. As I shook it, I realized that the brother and sister had one more thing in common. They both had infectious smiles. I shook Crystal and Liz’s hands before we settled back into a slightly too quiet silence.

“Wait a minute, you’re the chick I saw in the magazine a couple of weeks ago! But if that’s the case I’m kind of confused, are you Brad’s girlfriend or Sam’s?”

I instantly responded, “Neither,” at the same time Liz said, “Sam’s.” Realizing that we weren’t in agreement about so simple a matter she asked, “So you and Sam aren’t official? I mean, I thought he- nevermind. Ignore me. I guess I just assumed and you know what they say about people who assume.” She tried to laugh off her awkward rambling and I found myself genuinely laughing with her, though I didn’t really know why. There was just something about her that, I don’t know, got me.

Then something else sunk in, “Um, Crystal? Did you just say you recognized me in a magazine?”

“Yeah! Well, I don’t know if I’d really classify a tabloid as a magazine since they’re usually garbage for idle minds, but if you give me…one…” She trailed off as she started to rummage through a purse that could second as a suitcase before producing a couple of magazines that looked slightly crumpled. “Here, check it out! I’ve got the articles tabbed if you want to read ‘em.”

Much like her voice, her laugh had an almost melodic quality to it and part of me began to wonder if I had any chance with Sam now that she was reappearing in his life. I mean, I’m not particularly insecure, but Sam was, well Sam, and Liz was ridiculously perfect.

“Crys, did you bring the kitchen sink in there too?” she continued to laugh as she added, “Where’d you find those magazines, by the way? I turned the apartment upside down looking for them last week.”