FEAR

Chapter One

Chapter one

The ride from New York to North Carolina was about twelve hours of pure hell. My twin brother, Nate and I were cramped in the back seat of the Subaru with Kaylee's car seat in between us. Mom and her husband Jack were in the front seat and had my dad, who was an hour ahead of us on speaker. Mom had been arguing with him on how to get to our new neighborhood. Behind us was nothing but the past.

My family and I have spent the last two weeks getting ready for the move. It was a good thing we were moving but I still wasn't ready to leave my old life behind. Over the past three years I've had a hard time getting back into the groove of how I used to be. I tried to make an effort but only hurt the people around me. I even had a humiliating break up with my boyfriend, Devon because everything became so hard for me.

Now we were moving to a small town where everyone knew everything about everyone. The people in this new town grew up together. They were all going to look at us and think we were some stuck-up new family and Nate and I wouldn't make any friends, not that I wanted too. I was getting used to being a loner. It seemed easier to be by myself then let everyone know how I was feeling.

When we pulled into the wrap around drive way, I stared up at our new house. It was gigantic. When mom said she wanted to start fresh, she wasn't kidding. The house was an eight-bedroom, eight-bathroom Tudor Mansion with an in-ground swimming pool, a tennis court, a three-car garage and a basement made into our own little game room with a home theater. All of it was way too much and there was no way my family and I would fit in. I cursed Jack and his extravagant ideas.

Two and a half years ago my mom married Jack who was a lawyer just as my mom and dad were. They met in court when they had to go up against each other. My mom won the case and Jack became infatuated. He was a decent guy who took care of my mom and made my family into his. I liked him well enough but when your parents get divorced, you always keep that little bit of hope inside you that your parents would get back together.

Truth was, Lexi and Kyle getting divorced was the best thing for all of us. They were better off friends and neither had any hard feelings against each other. My dad even decided to move his practice to North Carolina to keep our family close. He was going to be living a block away in a house slightly smaller than ours.

"Wow mom this place is huge." I told her as I got out of the car.

"Well sweetheart, Jack and I thought you kids would enjoy all the space." Mom always tried to make sure her kids were happy, no matter what the cost. It didn't matter as long as she knew we would all be OK.

"I'm going to find my room." Nate said. He came to stand beside me holding Kaylee in his arms.

"Make sure you put the rest of your things away before you take off." Mom laughed.

Nate grabbed my hand and pulled me into the house behind him. Inside was gorgeous. The house was warm and inviting as all the colors were creams and light browns. Even the furniture matched the colors of each room.

After we checked out the first floor, Nate and I walked up the stairs and found our rooms. It only took us a few tries before we found the right ones. The first door we went into was Nate's. The walls were painted his favorite color, light green with a white border. He had a flat screen TV on the wall and a small entertainment center underneath. It held an x box 360 and a Wii gaming system along with two shelves full of his favorite games. Two more shelves held his favorite movies and a few books. All the furniture was white along with three doors on each of the walls.

We opened each of them. One led to his bathroom, one to his walk-in closet and the last led into another bedroom.

The walls were a pale pink with a huge rainbow on one wall. It was Kaylee's room with her crib and changing table. There was a small TV on the entertainment center with toddler movies on the shelves. They even put her toddler bed in a corner since she hated sleeping in the crib.