You win

Chapter Two

“Luke,” I said after opening the front door to see him standing there. “Hi.” I was mildly surprised to see him, but glad none-the-less. His dark hair seemed darker than ever and his blue eyes were cautious.

He slipped his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and smiled, but there was something off about him. He almost looked nauseous. “Hey, Caroline,” he said with a certain uncertainty. “Is Carter here?”

Just the sound of my brother’s name made my blood boil. At that point, I wouldn’t have cared if aliens abducted him in his sleep and took him away to an unknown planet where we would be five million light years away, because honestly, right now this planet wasn’t big enough for the two of us. It was either he get abducted by aliens, or I get revenge.

“No, he’s at work. I thought you’d know that—he always works on Thursdays. But he’ll be home soon.” I opened the door all the way. “Why don’t you come in?”

He hesitated. Normally Luke would have no problem killing time with me until Carter showed up. We did it all the time. But he didn’t seem so sure this time. Maybe it was because Carter and I were fighting and he didn’t want to get in the middle of it. Maybe Carter had told him to stay away from me because I was some kind of psycho bitch. While that’s not completely untrue, it’s never stopped Luke before.

“I made cookies,” I told him with a smirk, knowing it would make him cave.

He gave me a little chuckle and entered the house. “Caroline Bailey, baking cookies? What happened?”

“What do you mean ‘what happened?’” I asked as we walked into the kitchen. Our entire house had the whole modern theme going for it. My mom despised clutter and loved anything that was shiny. Stainless steel fridge, glass tables, odd-looking artwork that looked like it belonged in another dimension…

Luke sat down on a barstool and I cracked open the oven to see if the next batch was done. “Well, everyone knows you only bake when you’re in distress,” he said. “So tell me. What was it this time? Maggie? That Elizabeth girl? Did your goldfish die?”

“Okay, first of all, Clark did not die. Super Fish don’t die. Second, not everyone knows that I bake when I’m in distress. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’re the only one that has ever noticed, which is just weird because my mom is usually on top of these psychological things. Third—”

I was interrupted by the beeping of the oven, telling me the cookies were done. I turned off the annoying beeping and slipped on an oven mitt.

Luke didn’t know about what Carter did, otherwise he would have known exactly what was wrong. Carter hadn’t told him. I thought he would have—the two were closer than I was with any of my friends, even Maggie. I thought Carter would have at least used Luke to vent about what a spastic sister I was and how he wished I was a guy, etc.

I thought about telling Luke what Carter did. Surely he would take my side, as we both shared a passion for writing. But then I thought about how I felt when I saw my brother’s short story in the newspaper instead of mine and was blinded by revenge. I spent months perfecting my short story. I needed that scholarship money. I wanted people to know my name. If Carter could take the one thing that meant the most to me right now, then I could take the one thing that meant the most to him, right?

After I came back to earth, I set the cookies on the counter to let them cool for a while, and turned back to Luke, who had absolutely no clue about the terrible thoughts running through my head. Use Luke to get revenge on Carter? I could never do that. It would be absurd.

But…

No. What was I thinking? Who cares if it would finally give Carter a taste of his own medicine? I would finally be able to get even with Carter after all these treacherous years living under the same roof…