the coffee shop girl // niall horan

Chapter Twelve

Chapter 12

"Isi? Isleen?"

Róisín fought the urge to hang up the phone immediately. She hadn't spoken to her sister since her family had moved back to Ireland at the start of her years at uni. She had had no reason to; when they had parted, Isleen had made it quite clear that she was indifferent to any contact, and that if there was any, she would not be the one to initiate it.

"Isi?" Róisín asked again, a sudden urgency in her voice to hear her sister's strong brogue in her ear startling her. "Isi, is something wrong?"

The silence on the other line continued until, quite suddenly, Isleen asked, "Is it all right if I come and stay with you for a few days?"

Of all the things Róisín expected her devilish, spoiled younger sister to say, this was not it. Something along the lines of, "We're in London, just to let you know, but we don't want you to visit us," would have been something she expected. But Isleen asking for a place to stay while she was in London was about as expected as the entire human population relocating to Jupiter.

"Ro? Are you still there?"

The return of Isleen's voice brought Róisín back. "Why?" was the only thing she could say.

It was Isleen's turn to be silent once again, the only hint to her presence being her short, quick breaths. All too soon though, Isleen's thick voice wafted through the phone line.

"I-I'm in London, and I need a place to stay," she said repeated. "And Mum and Dad aren't here and I don't have any money."

Róisín seriously considered saying no. She thought of just hanging up the phone right then and there and forget about the whole ordeal. She'd done it enough times in her life, what was once more? Róisín wasn't sure what made her do it, but she found herself saying the only word she had never ever said in response to her sister:

"Yes."

"So, you'll let me stay with you?" Isleen's hopeful voice scratched through the phone.

"I- yes," Róisín said with a sigh, running a hand through her hair and letting her finger coil around a tendril that had escaped her ponytail. "Yes, you can stay, but only for a little while. I don't have much room."

That was a lie, Meaghan had basically moved out, but Róisín wasn't ready to let Isleen stay in her old room. Knowing Meaghan, she could come back at any time and expect her room to be exactly how she left it.

"When's a good time to come over?"

That caught Róisín off guard; Isleen was already in London? "Not for a while! I'm out! You can't come now, can you wait? Is there any possible place you can wait for a few hours?"

"Well, I'm not quite sure where I am ..."

Róisín bit her lip. After asking where she was, Róisín proceeded to give her direction to her favorite café and told her to wait there until she could come pick her up.

"It might be a while," she told her little sister. "I'm taking care of some friends, they're sick."

Isleen thanked her sister for the first time in her life and hung up.

~

Two and a half hours later, it was around 5pm and Róisín was headed home. She ducked into the café and glanced around, surreptitiously looking for her sister. She wasn't hard to find.

From and early age, Róisín had competed with her younger sister for their parents' attention. Róisín and Isleen were only 20 months apart in age, and had never been close. Róisín was the older, therefore more responsible, sibling, and was blamed for everything that went wrong with her sister. Isleen's natural, bubbly personality had simply outshone Róisín's dour countenance; there was no "Isleen's the prettier one" or "Isleen's so much more talented" to bring Róisín down. While those were true, it all boiled down to the fact that Isleen had been coddled and spoiled more as a child because she was easy to be around; no one particularly found joy in spending time with a child who never smiled and never laughed, and didn't want to play.