brothers.

10~ Quicksand

Kyle

Jack stormed into the room, throwing himself onto his bed. He picked up his phone and texted someone.

"How'd it go?" I asked as I scrolled through my computer.

"How do you think it went?"

"So they were arguing?"

"Yeah, and then we argued. I told you. He's never in a good mood when he talks to Shirley, and he's stressed about Diana, too."

"She hasn't changed her mind at all?"

"Nope." Jack shook his head.

I sighed stressfully, massaging the back of my neck. "Well, the more we wait-"

"Shh. Gimme a sec." He raised his phone mic to his mouth. "No, he didn't want to talk about Shirley. She's on him about Diana. I guess we're going to have to convince her ourselves not to go."

"Who's that?"

"Amelia."

"Alright, we have a few minutes before work, so let's just talk to her." I put my computer to sleep and rose from my chair, stretching. "Maybe if we approach her nicely, she'll consider not going."

He rolled his eyes, but got up anyway, and we headed to the room. Tentatively, I knocked. She didn't answer at first.

"Diana, you in there?"

A thump. Then a drawer closing.

"Listen, um... could we talk to you? Just for a bit? Please?"

Still no answer.

"We can hear you. Please, we're not coming to bug you. This is serious," Jack said.

A sigh. The doorknob rattled and she revealed herself.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"Um..." I glanced at Jack awkwardly. "Could we come in?"

She gave us a confused look, then shrugged and stepped aside. We looked around her room as we moved to sit on her bed; we hadn't seen what she'd done with the place.

It was weird seeing it so clean and neat. Everything was organized and placed in proper order. A complete contrast to Amy's style; messy with piles of papers, stuffed animals, and art supplies everywhere.

Even our rooms were 10 times neater than usual because of Diana. How did she learn to clean so well? I pushed down the rising guilt as she sat at her desk, writing in a notebook.

"What did you want?" she asked flatly.

We glanced at each other. I held up my hands and nodded at Jack to continue. I'd gotten us in the room; it was his turn to contribute.

"Uh, well, we... we were wondering... about you going to school."

She sighed. "For the last time, I'm not changing my mind."

"Diana, there's other schools you can go to. It's not like-"

"I saw the other schools. Not interested. And I don't want to go alone."

"Are you sure that's it?" I asked.

"Why should you care?"

"Well, we care because... because of the effects that'll... how you'll..." Jack sighed, looking at me pleadingly. He was never good at expressing himself well.

I rolled my eyes and continued. "We're worried that this might affect them a bit... negatively."

"How?" She turned in her chair, glaring at us. "They're embarrassed, right?" She scoffed. "Join the club."