Page 9 of A Twist in Fate
“I can't wait, me and Lucas love our shirts. They're awesome. I think the orange brings out my eyes,” James says, while eating eggs and toast. “Don't you agree?” He leans over toward Bailey and Abby, blinking rapidly, with a smile on his face that makes us all laugh. You would think he is into them but another thing I have found out about James is that he loves to pretend to flirt.
Abby just pushes his face away and says, “You wish I'd agree.”
Lucas, who still had not arrived until now, sits down pushing a bowl to me. “Here are your frosted flakes,” he says, smiling with his arms crossed as if he is proud of himself. I look down at the bowl with the sugar covered cereal and the perfect amount of milk.
“Thank you. I could have got it myself.”
“I don't mind. I want to get them for you.” His cheeks are slightly pink, and he looks down at his hands. I can feel a similar warmth spread across my own. I grab my spoon and eat a spoonful of cereal.
“Bro, you could've got me some more toast. You should have told me you were going back up there,” James says, pretending to be annoyed.He loves to pretend to be annoyed too, especially at Lucas.
Lucas replies, “Hey I owe her, I almost knocked her over earlier.”Right, he thinks he owes me. Of course I overthought one tiny interaction.As usual. I think I am a chronic over thinker at this point.
“You what!” Bailey yells, standing up and walking over to her brother, giving him a hard whack around his head, before sitting down back in her seat. “How dare you hurt her. She just got here! Are you trying to drive her away?”
“Bailey, calm down. It was entirely my fault and I'm completely fine.”
“I'm not!” Lucas says, holding his head.
Clearly, he was being dramatic because he seems okay minutes later as the conversation moves on. I look down at the cereal again. I know it doesn't mean anything and if it did it was just an apology, but it made the warmth from my cheeks spread into my chest.I have to be getting sick.
CHAPTER 4
Lucas
Song 4
Feels Like – Gracie Abrams
06/30
Mom: we are going to be a bit later than I thought. Daisy started crying when she had to say goodbye to Steve and twig and then betty stopped up on our way past the store. Just about to leave.
Mom: see you soon.
Me: She barely got upset when I left for college, but she has to leave her cat and MY goat for a few weeks and she's crying. I'm offended.
It's now two thirty and some children have started to arrive and be sorted into their groups, but me and Ivy now stand next to each other and not one person from our group is here yet. The longer we stand here the more laboured Ivy's breath becomes. She's clearly getting nervous and can't stop fidgeting with thebottom of her shirt. She's looking down towards her converse and all I want to do is reach out and find a way to comfort her. I am not sure how.
Desperate to distract her, I say, “I really hope Daisy is in our group. I have no clue what's taking them so long.”
“Wait, who?” she says, looking completely confused. Her face is all scrunched up as her chocolate eyes meet mine. I had assumed she knew about Daisy and my family considering she's been friends with Bailey for over two years now.
“My sister,” I say, confused.
“Your sister is over there,” Ivy says, pointing to Bailey standing next to James.
Bailey is telling three children about something whilst he stands behind her with two fingers up behind her head making them laugh.
I say, “Not that one, my youngest sister, Daisy. She's seven and even though she could have come last year, it's her first summer here and when I spoke to her on the phone, she was extremely excited.”
“There is three of you? I didn't know you had another sister, but to be honest I didn't know you existed until I got here,” Ivy says.What?
“Bailey didn't tell you?” I ask.
“No, we never really talked about it. Our lives were more of an, if I want to talk about it, I’ll bring it up kind of thing, but we were there for each other in other ways, like when she helped me through tougher stuff it's because she didn't force me to tell her anything. We had both been through stuff, but we never asked about everything or the details of it because we knew it didn't matter as long as we were here for each other,” she is looking down again, but she clearly has relaxed after she spoke about Bailey. Over the past week her dark hair has started to have golden strands that stood out in the sun. The light is hitting her face beautifully as if she were glowing but even when we sat by the beach, as the sky darkened, or in the light of the dining hall, she always had this light that surrounds her.
“You're a good friend, sunshine.”
