Be careful what you ask for.
When digging deep, you may uncover bodies.
Maisie's life has been falling apart since her older sister went missing years ago without a trace. With a dead father and a mentally unstable mother, the teenage girl ha...
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-MAISIE-
THE MORNING LIGHT paints my bedroom cream. I stare at her side of the room. The teal comforter over a mattress not used in years and the sandalwood scented candle on the dusty bedside table. The never opened camera film above the old dresser and the three dead cactuses on the windowsill.
I sigh, turning and facing the window on my side of the bedroom now.
Last night, I had, again, a hard time falling asleep. My bones ache but I force myself up. Kitty, which was sleeping by my feet, complains. I open the door for her and take a long hot shower.
I put my hair up with a claw clip before skipping the three flights of stairs down to the first floor. I hear the voices of my oldest and youngest brothers coming from the kitchen. My feet follow their tones.
"So... who you play basketball with again?" I hear Alasdair asking.
"Why the sudden interest?" Fin's mumbled words resonate.
"I can't be interested in who my kid brother's friends are?"
"Kid brother, seriously?" Finlay scoff. I lean on the wall, eyebrows scrunched in curiosity, already imagining where Al is going with his questioning. "And trust me, most of them are not my friends."
I smell garlic and onions. I hear oil popping and plates crashing on the island. I almost complain about they using unnecessary and full of fat oil, but Alasdair's voice echoes first.
"What? Why not?" he inquiries.
"They just aren't." And I can imagine Fin's shrug and eye roll.
"What about...Noah?" Alasdair throws next, stillness behind his words.
Before my youngest sibling can answer something in the lines of he is a pretentious jerk with a questionable choice of best friends and a charming smile that has made our sister's panties drop, I step into the kitchen.
"Why don't you just ask about him to me instead?" I force out through gritted teeth, arms crossed.
Both my brothers snap their eyes at me. Finlay's mouth hangs open. Alasdair swallows, straightening his back.
"Chicken?" my oldest brother offers with a tight smile.
I throw daggers at him. How dare he go asking Fin about Noah? And how stupid am I to have forgotten to blackmail Finlay before?
"I will only have a salad," I answer, picking at my nails.
"Maisie," Al sighs, shoulders dropping. I can feel Fin's stare lingering on me.
"I promise to eat a good dinner. I just don't want to be bloated for the pictures," I explain, blinking up at my oldest sibling.
"For God's sake." He pinches his eyes. "Maisie, everyone gets a bit bloated after eating. And everyone needs to eat. You will look beautiful no matter what."
