The stepsister

9> Second try

Days passed and I didn't say anything about her again or take an interest in her. Instead I focused on my things. I used to go to my room to finish some work, I even used to go to Kat's house because in some subjects we agreed to do some projects together and with another classmate. The atmosphere inside the house was the same as always, but with a novelty, my mother used to spend a lot of time on the phone. She looked like a business woman. On some occasions I thought that she would talk to my father but the serious tone she used of her -something unusual for her- made me think that she was talking to someone from work.

I managed to be focused for days but curiosity got the better of me. There was a splendid night -at least that is what my window showed- in which before going to sleep, while I looked out, I heard the door of her room close and a few minutes later I saw her again leaving the house and entering the forest.
Both fear and laziness prevented me from going down to chase her, but I was able to enter her room. I felt like a police officer on a mission as important as it was dangerous.

It was big but not as big as mine. She had a bed to the left of the door and a desk to the right. In front of me there was a window covered with thick curtains, to its left a closet and in the background, next to the bed, it had a bathroom like me. On the walls there were only shelves with books.
It was not a very bright room. Of course, it was perfect for her. It was, in general, less... modern and youthful than mine. But it seemed neat and clean.

I searched through the desk drawers. There were blank sheets of paper, unused notebooks, pens and so on, some half-read horror book..., nothing. I peeked into the bathroom and didn't see anything unusual. But... she had a bathtub! And me just a shower... Well, I guess that's fair. My room was bigger than her.
I opened the drawers of her bedside table and saw a small notepad type notebook where, apparently, she would write down her dreams. They had a date and everything but the last one he wrote down was from three years ago. There was nothing out of the ordinary except that... is she not dreaming anymore, or what?
Finally, it occurred to me to open the closet...
All very normal. Outerwear, sexy underwear... <Focus Jodie!> and a space where there were no clothes. In her place there were a lot of papers and something like diaries... No wait!...Personal diaries.

The oldest was from 9 years ago, when she was... 14. her mother was still alive. Melanie here seemed like a very happy girl. Apparently, they got along very well and were very close. But when her parents argued, her mother would get hysterical and...she would threaten to take her own life? Would she be she crazy?

I picked up another diary, it was from 7 years ago. I was right. She was like a goat! She was always alone with Melanie. She reproached her father for leaving her too long alone with her mother because of her work. Her mother, whose name was Débora -Melanie no longer wrote "my mother" now she called her by her name- she said a lot of bad things about her. She insulted her for no reason, told her she was devil just because she is lesbian, raved in front of her and was super schizophrenic. She says that one day her mother came to hit her and Paul saw it. That's when he decided to lock her up in an asylum but two months later... she killed herself! My goodness, Melanie had to go through hell during that time.

I decided to get a more current one. This was from 3 years ago. She would have... 20. You can tell she was older because of the way she wrote. She complains about going to the psychologist so much despite having already gotten over her mother. She thinks that her father is very strict about going to the psychologist a lot because he doesn't want her to suffer from any mental illness like her mother. Everything else seems pretty normal. She was happy again. But near the end of that diary she talks about something that makes her life very difficult. Some other event that no one knows...

I rummaged through the pages a bit to see if I could figure out what it was. But I dropped the newspaper on the floor, rather, I had accidentally thrown it because a noise around the house scared me. I put everything in its place and ran out of the room.

I immediately got into mine without closing the door or anything. I should already be sleeping for the hours that were. I turned on the light from the lamp, which was softer than the light from the ceiling, and got into bed.
At that moment, I heard someone in the hall and I could see that it was Melanie entering her room. But before she walked in she gave me a little look like, "What the hell are you doing up?" and I just looked back at her.
When I was able to realize her, I already had her there. She was standing next to the bed.

"You should be sleeping" she told me.

"Same here" she didn't say anything. She just looked at me suspiciously as if she suspected something "I can't sleep"

"Why?"

"Because you weren't home" she laughed "What are you laughing at?"

"And that has to do?"

"It's that don't know where you are or what you do don't let me sleep"

"I don't do anything special out there"

"Nope? Is there also nothing that makes you sad or angry?"

"If there were... don't you think that's my psychologist's business?"

"You could be hiding something from him. Also, sometimes a psychologist is not the best option. You have more options..."

"Who do you want me to tell my biggest secrets to? To you?"

"You can do it"

"Jodie, I don't understand why you want to know so much about me"

"I like... Is it that you don't want to know anything about me?" Melanie laughed again. Then she was thoughtful.

"Maybe... For example, if I told you a secret and it was very strong, would you tell your friend?"

"Well, I never betray anyone's trust"

"Would you hide something from her?"

"Yes"

"So, to keep a secret from me you would be able to lie to your friend"

"Right"

"So I'm more important than her?"

"Well, we're not that close friends. We are more partners than anything else. That's what you wanted to know about me, right? How close are Kat and I?"

"Not quite. I wanted to know if you had friends. Those who know everything about you and from whom you don't hide anything"

"Oh, well no. Did you do it to make sure you can tell me this so-called secret of yours?"

"Yes"

"So are you going to tell me?"

"No"

"But...?"

"Good night, Jodie" She gave me a small kiss on the forehead and covered me a little more than I was.

"Good night"

In the end she left and went to her room. I finished settling in and turned off the light.