I Dare You

Ch-2 The Cooper-Finley Dinner

Eliza stood right outside the front door along with her mother holding a foil covered bowl of lasagna in her hands, she cupped her hands around the bowl, trying to soak in its warmth.

"I swear I put the keys right here", her brother Ethan said fumbling around the same drawer he had already searched thrice.

"Well, they are not there now, are they?", Mrs Cooper said in slightly sarcastic tone.

"FOUND IT", screamed the other twin, Evan who was kneeling down, he fished under the couch and pulled out a dirty, dust covered bunch of keys.

Ethan and Evan Cooper are Eliza's elder brothers, two years older than her, they are identical twins.

They look like the complete carbon copies of each other at first, but once you know them a little better, you can see the subtle differences in their appearances. Like how Ethan's face is slightly more defined and pointed, or how Evan's eyes squint completely when he smiles, also the dimples that Ethan has on both his cheeks but Evan only has on one.

The Cooper family made their way across the street to the Finleys' place while Mrs Cooper gave the twins the responsibility talk for like the millionth time.

Eliza's dad, Mr George Cooper, her mom and Mr Isaac Finley have been friends since highschool, Mr Finley later moved to a different state. When Darien was around 3, his mom divorced his dad and left, then around 9 years ago they moved into the house across the street with Mr Finley's then fiancé Helen. Eliza and Darien have known each other since, they haven't gotten along with each other since.

Eliza knocked on the door, the rest of her family standing behind her, after a few seconds Helen opened the door, beside her was Clara, Darien's 7 year old half-sister.

"Hello everyone", said Helen warmly as she hugged Mrs Cooper.

They all made their inside, the twins went upto Mr Finley who was watching tv in the living room. Eliza kept the bowl on the table with the rest of the food before making her way to the living room. She plopped herself on the sofa, near Mr Finley. After her father's death, Mr Finley would always make it feel like her dad was still there, he would often go on and on about how Eliza was exactly like her dad and she loved listening about it. 

"Darien, come on down, everyone is here", called Helen as she went near the stairs.

"Coming mom", he called back. Darien has called Helen 'mom' since she got married to his father, it was never made to be a big deal, he just decided to do so one day and no one said anything. Although, even after all these years there is a slight sparkle in Helen's eyes whenever he calls her that.

Few minutes later Darien came down the stairs, by this time the entire crowd had shifted at the dining table and the meal was served.

"Beth, do you remember Mr Clarke?", Mr Finley asked Mrs Cooper out of the blue.

From the look on her mother's face Eliza could figure out that she recognised the name, but couldn't put her finger on it.

"Oh, that professor we had, the one who wore weird hats?"

"Yes, him. I bumped into him at..."

The two continued speaking but Eliza stopped listening, she was daydreaming, her eyes fixated on a random picture on the wall, but her mind drifted off into a different world. She was quickly bought back into reality by the sound of Mr Finley calling her name.

"What?", she said.

"The job? At the retirement home", Mr Finley said but she didn't understand.

From her expression it might have been clear that she was caught off guard as Mr Finley repeated the whole thing. "Mr Clarke has been working towards getting teens to volunteer at a nearby retirement home over the summer, he still has a few spots left so, I suggested you and Darien could take it".

"But, dad..", Darien protested.

"We have been over this, Lets not turn it into a discussion."

Darien looked over at Eliza with a scowl, he pointed over at her. "She can take it, not as if she has got a life anyways".

Mr Finley looked as if he was about to say something, but before he could, Eliza jumped in. "Why don't you take, do something good instead of loitering around the entire summer."

The two continued bickering at each other when Mr Finley banged his fist against the table and there was a sudden quiet. "Quit it you two, I am so sick of you both constantly fighting"

"At least one of you has to go, so you two decide which one", Mrs Cooper said firmly. Both Eliza and Darien looked like they were about to say something but Mrs Cooper cut them off. "I don't care how you decide but we want a name by the end of this month. No further discussions. Eat your food."

Eliza and Darien looked over at each other, Eliza had never disliked anyone more than she disliked him. She once again felt her body tingling with anger like she had in the afternoon, she gritted her teeth together before taking in a deep breath and went on to continue eating, not that she had any appetite left.