Playing with Matches

Chapter 1

Hey, these are only partially edited, so if there are mistakes, let me know. Not doing any pics or anything yet, start those later. Once again, if you have any covers you want to make or whatever, send them to me. I'd appreciate it loads. Well, here's chapter one.

                Ricky growls on the seat next to me like a pissed off dog, earning a few dirty looks from the cops milling about the office. I try my hardest not to look too troublesome, since Ricky and Ryan have that all figured out themselves. While they’re looking for a fight, I’d much rather wait and see what the cops are going to do, considering none of us can give them a definitive answer on where our mother went. Though we all used the same story we’ve been using since she disappeared which is that she went to stay at a friend’s house for the night.

                Unfortunately, no one believes us.

                A few phone calls let them know that our mother hadn’t been seen since about four months ago, none of the neighbors could even remember the last time they’d had a glimpse of her. Our monotonous story was that she’d been sick for a while and only went out for work. Just another lie they didn’t believe.

                Of course, we got them confused with the fact that, no matter what they asked, we gave the same general answers. We saw her yesterday before school, she was the one who did the clothes that are in the dryer, she didn’t leave that long ago, we swear. Just another reason I love being a triplet, we can read each other easier than books and we use that knowledge relentlessly.

                Sadly, that wasn’t enough to get them to let us go home, not even when Ricky came in with the bail money. Why? Well, because my mother’s work had no record of her for the last three months and she’d just basically disappeared from the face of the planet. I’d pulled money off her cards to make it through the first few weeks, but then the accounts were randomly drained, which told us more than anything else that she wasn’t planning on coming back. That was about the time Ricky started working full time at the mechanic shop he’d been working at and when Ryan had started fighting more.

                “Who do you think they’ll call?” I ask, just to say something. We’d finally given the names of our two older brothers, both of whom had also basically disappeared from our lives all those months ago. Not because they didn’t still call, but because we could no longer tell them the truth about our lives. And that made our conversations depressingly short.

                “Not Riley. He’s still in school and won’t be able to take care of us. Though they might just call him for shits and giggles.” Ryan snorts, glaring at a passing officer. I elbow him and try a polite smile towards the man, who shoots me a distrusting look. Well, maybe he should be wary. I’m not exactly an angel.

                “They’ll call Ro. He’s got a wife and a good job, not to mention that they’re pretty well off. They’re the most equip to deal with us.” Ricky informs me, not sounding impressed. Roland is our oldest brother and the boys had looked up to him forever. He was rough and tumble, with tattoos, piercings, the whole shebang. Then he met Lily and they think he went soft. And it irks them that he quit fighting, all for some two bit chica.

                Of course, I like Lily. I was one of her bride’s maids at her wedding and we’ve been friends since we met five years ago. Even though she’s four years older than me, she’s never treated me like anything but a friend and younger sister, which is probably why I like her so much. The boys just see her as the woman who ruined their older brother, while I think their story is adorable and sweet.