CHAPTER 5
ROAN'S P.O.V
The front door unlatches and swings shut. I look up, half expecting it to be that guy again. Instead it’s Simone who strolls in, tossing her suede bag on the kitchen table. She sighs, combing a hand through her hair in that I’ve-had-a-long-day way. She pauses mid-step when she sees me on the floor.
“What-cha doin’? She asks, dragging the ‘do’ sound.
“I split some water,” I explain as I wipe a paper towel along the floorboards.
“From the living room, down the passageway,” she leans sideways to get a better look at where the stream of liquid ends, “and into the bathroom? In the shape of footprints?”
“Ok, I had a shower and I came down here because I heard a noise.”
“What type of noise?”
“The nothing type. It didn’t turn out to be anything.”
She looks skeptical, narrowing her icy blue eyes at me.
“I smell boy.”
“You what?”
“There was a boy in here, wasn’t there?”
“How can you smell that there was a boy?”
“Ah-ha! So there was a boy!”
“Again… smell?”
“A mixture of male cologne and sweat. Utterly obvious. Anyway, back to the how and the why.”
I rolled my eyes, having momentarily forgotten her rabbit capabilities.
“Fine. As I said, I was having a shower and I heard a noise-“
“Oh! The noise was the boy!” she exclaims excitedly.
“Well done, gold star for you. Moving on- I came down in my towel-“
“Wait, you came down here in only a towel when there was a boy?”
“Not my proudest hour…”
“And what happened?”
“I told him to vacate the premises or a call to the local authorities would be made,” I conclude, moving to clean another puddle.
“No way! So he was inside the house?”
“Yep.”
“And he didn’t say why?”
“Nope.”
“Well… Your day was far more interesting than mine.”
“Is that saying much?” I probe.
“Not really.”
“No one took interest in your résumé then?”
“You guessed it.”
I push myself up and sling my arm around my sister. Her shoulders sag and she leans into me.
“Give it a couple more days, Sim. The job offers will flood in.”
“I sure hope so, we could really use the money.”
I nod. This is, of course, true but finding a job in such a small town will no doubt be difficult.
I mop up the last splash of water and groan as I move into an upright position. My body screams at me for being hunched over for such a long period of time and I press my hand into my lower back and arch my body, feeling a crack. Rolling my neck on my shoulders, I turn to my sister who is now raiding the fridge for fresh vegetables.
YOU ARE READING
The Crimson Coat
Teen FictionWhen Roan is unceremoniously dropped into a new town she expects the usual. Her life is an ever-repeating cycle that, over time, has become highly predictable. New house, new people, same string of lies. Being only half human has its inconvenien...
