The Mystery Fighter II

The Mystery Fighter II (4)

The sound of the doorbell could be heard from where I stood on the front porch of Kingston's house; a long chime ringing through the house.

Tugging the worn bag in a more comfortable position on my shoulder, I kept my face neutral as I waited, staring at the white door in front of me. With Celine beside me with a schoolbag on her back, we looked like we were coming for an after-school visit. Little would people know that in these backpacks was everything we owned.

I was about to ring the doorbell a second time when the white, pristine door opened. A middle-aged woman stood on the other side, holding the door open enough for me to only see her and not the living room behind. I presumed this was Julian's mother. I had never introduced myself to her.

"Hello, can I help you?" I recognized her voice from my last visit. She had brown hair so light it could have been mistaken as blonde. Her eyes drifted to my little sister, the surprise and confusion evident in her eyes.

"Is Julian home?" I asked, relieved that I had remembered his name. Her attention was back on me. I could feel her analyzing me; the curious look lingering in her warm brown eyes.

"I'll check. Hang on." Leaving the door open she moved further into the house and called on Julian. Throwing Celine a small reassuring smile, I heard someone jog down the flight of stairs inside. Julian rounded the corner from the bottom of the stairs and halted for a second when he spotted me on his front porch. As he closed the short distance to the door, his eyes went from me to the bag hanging from my shoulder before landing on Celine with her backpack.

I hated knowing that this decision was my last resort.

Before I could say anything, he spoke.

"I'm guessing you just couldn't let my amazing offer pass?" The smirk plastered on his face was ridiculous.

You guessed that all by yourself? Wow.

I reminded myself that we would be staying here for free as I restrained myself from snapping back a reply. In a matter of a week or two, I'll be out of his presence.

"I figured sleeping in a house beat sleeping in a storage room," I shrugged.

He seemed amused as he opened the door for us.

"I'll deliver the wonderful news to my mother," he said mockingly. I grabbed his arm as he started to walk away. He whirled around and looked at my hand on his elbow before looking back up at me. I quickly dropped my hand.

"She can't know about us living alone. I don't care if she's your mom, she will contact someone to 'take care of us'. Nobody can know, you hear?" I kept my voice low and hard, but I knew he understood my desperation. Not even the cold look on my face could hide that.

"Don't worry, Cass. I figured as much," he simply answered.

The woman from before appeared from a room to the left, further in the house.

"Mom, Cassie's parents are on vacation and their house is being redecorated so I offered our guestroom for her sister and her to stay in the mean time."

He gestured toward the front door where we stood; me attempting to offer a friendly and open expression to the mother, and most probably failing, while my sister looked around the house in awe. I couldn't help but be slightly impressed by how smoothly he'd made up the fake explanation.

"Oh, and you offered, I gather?" she looked at him with open amusement and raised eyebrows, as if she knew he was lying about the reason to why he would have me live here. "Nobody else could?"