The Criminal's Girl

Chapter 8

The next day, I’d woken up and made my way back round to my house, not wanting to be around for a possible sighting with Raymond. I left Zeni after thanking her for taking me in again and managed to run off before she tackled me into spilling the details about last night arriving at my house at 10:00.

“Anyone home?” I called out to the house.

Appearing at the top of the stairs was Melisa, looking thoroughly sexually sated in her underwear. She is my brother’s double... what a f***ing terrifying thought, I thought, smiling upon her arrival. “Hey, Harls, you alright?” she asked brightly.

“Yeah, I’m good, and I can tell you had a good night last night!” I replied, winking at her exaggeratedly.

“Yeah, it was pretty good. I should tell you actually, what your brother can do in bed, he’s pretty ace at parking his Porsche in my driveway if you know what I mea_”

“Lalalalalalalala!!!!!!” I shouted loudly, off-key. “Isodon’tneedtoknowaboutmybrother’ssexlife Isodon’tneedtoknowaboutmybrother’ssexlife...” I repeated softly, drowning out her rather detailed explanation of exactly what my brother’s ‘driving’ skills were like last night. When peace reigned again, I breathed a sigh of relief.

“So, what did you get up to last night?” Melisa changed the subject, spotting juice in the kitchen and relocating our conversation to next to the fridge.

“Not much,” I said nonchalantly, attempting to steer the conversation into less confrontational territory as my brother had just entered. “Hey,” I welcomed.

Not answering, Dan continued to stare at me, his eyes worryingly magnetised to my neck. “Is that... is that a love-bite?”

I was stunned for a minute, then, with a gasp, clapped my palm over the side of my neck. Dan’s eyes glittered with menace before quietly uttering, “The other side.” I slowly slid my hand over to the other side of my neck.

I stood silent for what seemed like eternity, my eyes staring at the tile floor of our kitchen, wondering when this whole nightmare would just be over. A cough interrupted my prayers and I raised my head slowly. “Care to explain?”

“Not... really?” I said, it was more like a question than a statement and I knew it’d been the wrong one from the frown etched deep into Dan’s face. Sugar... I thought, and braced myself for the tirade. “Wrong answer?”

“Damn f*cking straight it is, Harls, what the hell have you been up to?” Dan snapped, his expression taught with anger.

“It was nothing, Dan, cool your shots, it was just a date,” I began slowly trying to explain. He was being way to over sensitive about this.

“It was nothing, was it? Is that why you’ve got hickeys all over your body like some kind of ho?” All over my body? I thought, taking inventory of my form before spotting the trail of love bites journeying up my arm. How the hell did they get there?!

“Ho? Hell-to-the-no, Dan, your pushing your luck,” I said, starting to get angry. What’s with the pissy mood? He’s not usually this difficult and it’s not like I’ve never had a boyfriend... ahh, wait, he’s never been introduced to one of them before, I thought, clarity sinking in.

“Dan, calm down, it’s just a date, like she said,” Melisa intervened, trying to calm the beast.

“What? So you knew about this as well?” Dan said, suddenly turning on Melisa.

“No!” Melisa defended, “I’ve just decided to listen and believe her, unlike you who’s acting like a total div and not listening to what anyone’s saying!” Woohoo! Go, Mel, way to tame the beast, girlfriend, I mentally cheered her on, my eyebrows hiked up to my hairline at hearing the soft-tempered Melisa going crazy on my brother.