━━━ 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐘

𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞

Summer had made its way to the never-ending fields of the British countryside. The verdant meadows made it seem almost heavenly as the fresh air and hills of emerald green that went farther than the eye could see framed a perfect picturesque from my room window. 

I’d been braced with this view a hundred times before yet it never failed to bring me to a sense of tranquility. I took a deep breath in, as if to somehow absorb the beauty laid before me. Here, in my family home that had stood firmly longer than anyone could remember, I had lived ever since the passing of my parents with my aunt, uncle and two younger brothers. 

Outside, in the large, plain fields that surrounded my house, my eye caught the sight of my brothers, Aiden and Austen, both at just eight years of age. A slight laugh escaped my lips as I witnessed them playing carelessly amongst the birds and butterflies under the bright rays of the sun as they did almost everyday. 

The view, however, didn't last long as I heard a buzz from her bedside table. I picked up my teal-colored phone case to read the text that had just been sent to me.

Joaquin: mind if i come over for lunch today?

Joaquin: smthg kinda happened at home

Joaquin was my best friend and it was safe to say that his home life was...complicated. I knew better than to question it. 

Betty: sure, I’ll tell my aunt that you’ll be joining.

Joaquin: thx

Joaquin: sooo, what's up at your place

Betty: the same old, aiden and austin worrying the shit outta my aunt by not returning from their ‘adventures’ by sundown, playing their stupid pranks, and ‘running away to neverland’

Joaquin: i can picture her reaction lol

Betty: ‘I swear these kids are gonna make my old heart drop outta my chest one of these days AIDEN AND AUSTEN YOU TWO ARE EITHER GETTING BACK IN HERE OR STAYING THE NIGHT OUT’

Joaquin: lmao XD

There was a short pause after that, though a smile crept up on my lips as I was sure it had on his too. As much as old-fashioned and sometimes even annoying my aunt was, she had raised me and my siblings almost our entire lives as her own. She was like my second mother, and frankly, was more of a mother to Joaquin that his own, but maybe more on that later. 

Betty: show up for lunch in 40, k?

Joaquin: yesss ma’am

I closed my phone and exited my room to head down the old, slightly rusted yet beautiful, golden-brown stairs to the kitchen where my aunt was.

The sweet smell of cherries entered my nose and suddenly I was all the more hungrier. Peering closer I realised the fact that a mouth-watering cherry pie was in the making. The kitchen was messy with flour from the pie crust and a few cherries scattered here and there covering the originally grey  countertop in white and red . The atmosphere couldn’t smell more wholesome than it already was. 

I quickly dipped my index finger in the red filling and licked it before my aunt could shoo the hand away. She didn’t bother lecturing me about it so I figured she was in a particularly good mood today. I took another dip in the filling, It was delicious, as usual. 

“Mhmm” I acknowledged the red filling in my mouth as I propped myself onto the cleaner side of the countertop. “Joaquin’s coming over for lunch in a while, is it okay?”

Still engrossed in her baking, she replied “It’s no trouble at all. The more the merrier.”

“Wait, is someone else coming?”

“Oh, did I not tell you? My bad,” she said clearly with too much on her mind as she wiped her forehead causing some of the flour to stick on there. “An old friend of mine is returning here for the summer with her kids. They’re both your age, you should get along well.”

I hummed in response. “When are they coming?”

“Their plane ride from London landed a while ago, so they should be here by lunch.”

London, wow. People didn’t usually come all the way from somewhere as big as London to the small countryside I lived in. I mean, what if they’re all really posh and snobby and rich? Well, I hope they’re not, or this would turn out to be quite an interesting event rather than a simple lunch. 

My phone buzzed again, picking it up, I headed from the kitchen to the living room where I made myself comfortable on the nearest couch. It was a notification from Instagram. Joaquin sent me a post from the ‘Wisteria High Confession page’. Exactly like It’s name, It was an Instagram page where everyone from our high school submitted their (mostly false) confessions to give them at least some form of excitement for what really was there to do here other than to stare into oblivion surrounded by trees and flowers. Sure, that idea sounded appealing but I can tell you from personal experience that after a year or two, It all gets pretty boring. 

Even though the person who ran the blog was ‘anonymous’ everyone knew who she was. Inez Dallas. Who else better to get your scoop of high school gossip than from Inez. She was practically the sourcepoint of every rumor that had ever been going around the school ever since the beginning of time. We all knew better than to trust every word that spilled out of her mouth but we still begged her for juicy rumors, at least everyone else did. 

I tried your best not to read the post in the ‘gossip girl’ narration voice as I read it in my head. “An anonymous classmate has informed us that perhaps this summer is going to be more interesting than we thought, for we have a new fish in our pond to play with. Make that two!”

No doubt, this was referring to the family that my aunt was talking about. Her friend. I swiped my finger to the next photo of that post. 

Oh wow. Wow. It was a photo of the two new kids. A sister and a brother who looked around the same age. I’d be lying If I said that they both weren't utterly gorgeous but like, they had good genes. Really good genes. They’d been here for barely a day and Inez had already hunted for their instagrams but what else did you expect from her? @louispartridge_ she tagged. It made sense now as to why this was important enough to post, two new good looking people had come here from London of all places, people want drama. 

This is sure going to be interesting