The Wrong Sister

An Pain Filled Luncheon

As everyone gathered around the dinner table Chloe helped me bring the food out. 

Approaching the table, I noticed that only two seats were left at the table one next to Riley, and one next to the bulky and unfamiliar figure of Gabriel. Chloe took the seat next to her boyfriend whose head had swiveled sharply to stare at me when I entered the room. He stared hard at me as I took the remaining seat opposite him.

I kept my head down trying to avoid his intimidating glare. I didn't get it. He was acting like I had seriously wronged him.

"Thank you for the lunch, Chloe" said my Gran picking up her fork, " I can't imagine how tired you must be after that flight, and you still made lunch. It's amazing."

Riley frowned, "Actually Artemis cooked lunch today." 

"Oh, so you're teaching Artemis now? That's so lovely, Chloe. I've never had the patience to teach." My gran gushed while I blushed in embarrassment at the comment. 

"Well, it's my recipe and I taught her how to do it, but she did well." Chloe said trying to curb the embarrassment I was feeling.

"Anyway. Let's eat." I said done with the conversation. 

Riley stared at Chloe with one eyebrow raised until I nudged him to stop it. He gave me a hard look. I responded to his look with a hard one of my own. 

'Please just eat. It doesn't matter.' 

He sighed and begrudgingly started to eat.

After a few awkward moments conversation returned to the table. Riley and I started joking around.

"Oh, please you just don't get the joke" I said laughing hysterically.

"I don't even remember it. It was so lame." Riley said. 

"Fine I guess I have to say it again." I chuckled steeling myself to deliver the joke, "'no homo' I whisper to myself as I look at my garden of pea plants. The progeny have expressed a phenotypic ratio of 1:2:1. I am Gregor Mendel.'" I burst out laughing. 

"If you were any lamer, I would have thought you were a dead body" Riley said shaking his head and trying to hide his faint laughter.

"Hey! That's mean." I said gasping to recover from my laughing fit. I lightly shoved his shoulder for having a terrible sense of humor.  

"You just shoved me and I'm the mean one? This feels unfair!" Riley laughed and flicked me on the cheek. 

A loud growl boomed through the room. I gasped at the loud sound my family started looking outside through the windows trying to find the animal responsible for the terrifying sound. I, on the other hand made the mistake of looking at Gabriel. He looked murderous. His eyes unnaturally dark as he glared. Moving his eyes between Riley and me. 

I gulped and excused myself from the table to get some water. He scared me. 

I stood over the sink drinking my water. I had hardly heard the footsteps enter the kitchen before a hand covered my mouth, the other going around my throat. With a tight grip on my throat the person thrust me against the wall. His hand moved from my mouth to my hair. he gripped it tightly and yanked my head back. 

I felt warm breath on my ear and the edge of my jaw. In my periphery I saw Gabriel's still furious face.  

"Don't run away from me" he growled in my ear. 

I shivered letting out soft whimpers. 

"Why does it have to be you? Fuck. What am I supposed to do now? Your sister was perfect." he whispered angrily gradually tightening his grip on my throat and pushing me against the wall harder. "How can they respect a bratty whore like you!" 

I couldn't breathe and for some reason his words hurt more that they should have. My heart clenched in pain. My stomach dropped in fear, and my head was starting to get dizzy. 

"Answer me!" He said banging my head against the wall.

I squeaked and attempted to breath, but I couldn't get anything out. He was holding me too tightly.

He seemed to realize that just as I started seeing little black dots in my vision. He let me go as if I had bitten him. I fell to the floor coughing and gasping. 

He left the room quickly after that. 

'What the hell?' I thought. 

I stood up slowly. It hurt to breath and, though I didn't understand it, I couldn't stop crying.  

I went to the bathroom to clean up. In the mirror I saw the damage: a red and raised ring around my throat that would without a doubt turn into a dark bruise. Red puffy eyes from crying, and moderately small bump on my head from where he banged it against the wall. 

'Not the best I've ever looked" I thought to myself. 

I ran upstairs and grabbed a scarf to hide the increasingly swollen portion of my neck.

When I got back into the dining room my mom gasped, "What happened, Artemis?".

"Oh um, I was getting a little cold, so I went to get a scarf upstairs, but I tripped and hit my head. It's not a stress. It will be fine in a little while" I shrugged acting nonchalant. I sat and avoided Gabriel's gaze. 

"Are you okay?" Riley asked softly leaning in to look at my head. 

"Yeah, totally fine. It's a tiny bruise." I said avoiding his gaze and leaning away. 

"Mm, but the one on your throat isn't."  he whispered.

"Leave it alone Riley." I said seriously. 

"So how is the genetics going, Artemis? Still as excited or are you getting sick of studying yet?" my mom asked.

I looked up to respond, but froze when I saw Chloe and Gabriel kissing passionately, "I-I. Umm. Well," I said trying to focus while I absentmindedly rubbed at the pain in my chest," Sorry, yes. I'm having a great time in genetics. There are so many interesting little details that reveal themselves as you go." I started scratching at my chest, "We hardly know anything about eukaryotes yet!" The pain increased. I scratched harder, "There is just so much, but it all boils down to four simple nucleotides that can be interpreted by practically any organism! It's just so interesting."

I felt someone grab my hand tightly to stop me from scratching anymore, "Stop, you're going to draw blood if you haven't already" Riley said frowning.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realize" I said while uncomfortably moving around my chair.