Cut!

Take 2 - They Don't Know About Us

A/N: Please comment as you read. It'll mean the world to me.

“No,” I said. “Absolutely not.” I stared at my sister wide-eyed. Was she for real? Honestly, I feared the answer.

Ludmilla pouted slightly. “Why not?” she asked. “It’s the perfect solution. Everybody wins. I’ll pay the tuition for Gillian’s and you’ll get a chance to work on your portfolio. Plus, I’ll get better here.”

I took a good look at her. It’d been a while since I last saw her, but still, I didn’t remember her being downright bonkers. She was sitting on a white hospital bed, an IV hooked to her arm. When I’d arrived earlier, Marcus had filled me in on everything. Apart from a bad addiction to alcohol, my beloved sister also had taken a liking to crystal meth. She’d been here for two days already, and a nurse informed me that Ludmilla was very much aware of her surroundings now. That, unfortunately, meant this insanity was spurred on by herself and not the drugs.

It was odd—seeing her this way made me queasy. Ludmilla was the wonder child of the family. Even before our parents’ death, she’d been the one with all the glamour. When we were younger, she’d written her own plays, and somehow, she’d always managed to make me play the male hero. She’d been very vocal about her dreams of being a star, and at the age of sixteen, she’d successfully landed her first big movie role. Now, four years later, it was getting harder to hide my own identity due to her fame.

And now she wanted to get me all entangled in her business once again, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. All I wanted was to get a proper education, and then proceed to become a photographer. I didn’t need to get mixed up in Ludmilla’s crazy antics.

“Please?” she asked. “It’s my big chance, and I can’t leave here.”

I shook my head. “You’re delusional.”

“Come on, Cami,” she said. “They don’t know about us, so if you show up they’ll just proceed without having any doubts. Plus, Marcus will take care of everything, and I’ll talk to you every night.”

Grabbing a random magazine on the table, I started flipping through it to signal the end of the conversation. Over the years, I’d found that ignoring her was the only way to get her to stop.

I was pretending to read about Beyonce’s new diet when I heard a sniffle. Glancing over the top of the magazine, I saw Ludmilla sobbing into her hands.

“Hey, now,” I said softly. “It’s not that bad…”

“I messed up, Cami,” she said. “I messed up badly.” She looked up at me with tearstained eyes. “I knew I shouldn’t have tried meth—I knew it was a bad idea. But I just couldn’t take it any longer, you know? I couldn’t take the loneliness and the pressure. I needed to escape, and the alcohol just didn’t work anymore.”

My mouth felt dry, and I found myself at a loss for words. I’d never seen her like this before. Ludmilla was the strong one. She was the one who stood up to our Uncle when he’d opposed me studying in England. Without her, I would’ve never had the courage to leave on my own. However, right now? She looked like a lost little girl who simply missed her parents. It was a look I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“We all make mistakes, Milla,” I whispered. I stood up from my chair and walked over to the bed. She scooted over, and I lay down beside her.

Staring into each other’s eyes like that, it reminded me of when we were kids. We’d done everything together back then.

“What happened to us?” she whispered.

I couldn’t answer that. A lump settled in my throat, and I tried hard to swallow. As I looked into her eyes, I felt my own begin to water.