Ivory

FIVE*

Brooke

Day four crept up to me during a sugar high crash. Talia had insisted that we have a movie marathon and to stay awake all through the night. We ate sugar, sugar, and more sugar. We actually made a fairly large dent in the Hope families movie collection. We had started by watching Disney princesses, but somehow we finished by watching this random box set of a random British television series called Fawlty Towers.

It was the weirdest show I had ever seen.

Right now I was sprawled out on one of the giant leather couches in the theatre in the basement, massaging my throbbing temples. Talia was sound asleep on one of the other ones a few feet away.

At some point during the marathon Josh had come in to see what we were doing, and I think we may have been watching Jane Eyre. He got out as fast as his legs could carry him.

I was regretting having so much sugar. I had been insanely hyper for a few good hours; I couldn't stay still for a second.

I stretched my arms over my head and heard my wrists and my spine crack in a few places. It felt amazing. I stood up and walked around to Talia, who was peacefully asleep in a mound of candy wrappers, the majority of which were Rockets. I smiled and walked upstairs. I needed water as well as an ice pack; I had no doubt in my mind that when she woke up and recovered we would continue our epic marathon.

Once I made it to the kitchen I began to look around for a cup. Since I was the one that did all of that cooking at my old pack I was a master at locating things in a kitchen, all you had to do was notice which cupboards had the most wear on them and that would tell you which one was used the most. This kitchen was no different. Though all the appliances were fancier and more expensive and the decor was modernized it was simple to find what I was looking for.

I opened the freezer to begin my epic search for ice cubes, or an ice pack, or a bag of frozen peas. Anything, really, that was frozen and I could press against my throbbing cranium.

The only thing I could find was meat, gads and gads of meat. It was the most repulsive thing I had seen, I had cooked enough meat to want to gag whenever I came within three meters of the stuff. So I stayed away from most meats, actually every type of meat.

I sighed and began to search for something that wasn't meat. Some form of veggie or anything that was not meat. Easier said than done.

"Watcha' looking for?" someone asked behind me. I jumped, bashed my head against the top of the freezer and spun around to face whoever it was. Parker leaned against the granite island counter top with a can of cola in his hand. A crooked smile played across his lips as he observed me in front of the fridge.

I stared at him, not at all amused with how relaxed he always seemed to be. It was impossible to tell what he would be thinking, and I did not like it. "If I thought for one second you would actually help, and then I might consider telling you," I retorted with the sass that I had held back for years.

Parker smiled and took a swig of his soda. "No need to be snarky, princess."

"Oh, there's always a need to be snarky," I replied with a sly smirk of my own.

His smirk widened and he pushed himself away from the counter. "You really have no life, eh?" he asked, and I could tell he was joking by the laugh at the end.

But it was the cold hard truth. My face went blank and stony. "Never have, probably never will," I stated darkly before turning around and grabbing the plastic cup I had placed on the counter. My life wasn't as happy as most people were, I knew that, and I wish that I could change that fact but I really couldn't. I hadn't asked for this to happen but I was actually thankful that it did.