Glass Rose

chapter 1

"Hey, Mark, so you know my sister will be coming home today." Said my friend and current housemate, Alex, as he took a drink of his water. "Yeah I know; I mean you've only been saying she is for the past, what, three years?" I said as I changed the channel to Animal Planet. "Well, I'm headed to the airport to pick her up now, so could you clean up while I'm gone?" He asked grabbing his keys. "Yeah," I said standing up "now get going or your gonna be late." "Thanks man, be back in a few." He said as he stepped out the door. I rolled my eyes from the fact that he's been constantly freaking out about his sister coming home. "Now to start on this mess." I said to myself, pulling my phone out and playing music.

"So let me get this straight, you're home alone and your friend is out with his sister." Said my sister, Amy. "Yep, and the funny part of all this, he left his phone here." I said chuckling as I took a swig of my Coke. "Wow so you have no idea when he's gonna be back and on top of it can't get ahold of him to find out," She said shaking her head chuckling "So how's your story coming?" "It's still on standby. I haven't had much time to work on it, with work and school it's been hard to find moments to work on it." "I sense there's also another factor to why you haven't worked on it and if it's the reason I...." "Nah sis it's just like I said." "Mark you're gonna have to..." "Thanks sis, but it's nothing like that." I interrupted, leaning back in my chair when I heard a door slam from her end of the call. "Oh sugar, I gotta go, love you bro, talk to you later." She said ending the video call. "Love you too sis." I said as I shut my laptop. My mind wandered to what my sister thought was distracting me when I heard my door open. "You ok man?" He asked "Yeah, I'll be out in a minute." "Flashback?" "You can say that, more like I was reminded," I said taking a deep breath, "Now introduce me to your sister, I've been dying to meet her." I give a fake smile, hoping that it would get him to drop the subject. "Yeah," He side stepped. "Hey, Ashley, this is Mark, my best friend and our housemate." He said as he closed my door. She turned around, almost as if she was startled. She seemed nervous. I extended my hand. "It's nice to finally meet you Ashley, Alex told me a lot about you." I said. She shook my hand, "Likewise, Alex told me about you too, pardon my current appearance." She said. I didn't really notice her outfit at first, but now that she mentioned it she didn't look bad with her flannel shirt and tight shorts. "Honestly you look fine in what you have on now." I said. "You ok, you seem distracted." She asked looking in my eyes deeply. "Oh, sorry, I was visiting some old ghosts so to speak." I said rubbing the back of my head. " So who's hungry?" Alex asked. "I am famished." Ashley said. "I guess it's true about plane food, it's just not that satisfying." I said as we made our way to the kitchen/dining room.