The Pretty Sister

The Problems With Being in the Limelight

Chapter 4

Over the next two weeks, she continued to receive messages and flowers. She became afraid to open her door for fear of running into the person leaving the gifts. Instead, Fiona curled up in her room with the door locked. The scattering of wrappers and cartons of past ice cream cravings littered the ground. She kept herself to her room only venturing out to give Choco to Vinny and go into the kitchen to restock. As she laid in the bed once again, she heard the unmistakable sound of a keyhole being opened. Choco was by her side. Anyways, Vinny didn’t have a key. Fiona stood on her side of the door, silent as a mouse. She heard the sound of footsteps heading to her room. She held her breath as she felt the presence of another on the other side.

“Fi. What the hell is going on?” yelled Chris from the other side of the door. Letting out her breath, Fiona threw the door open. She hugged Chris tightly, relieved. How would the stalker have a key anyways? She was being ridiculous.  

“Actually, what happened to your room? When did you become a hermit? A break does not mean you become a bum. Look at your room. Hell, look at you.” Fiona turned to look at herself in the floor-length mirror on the wall. Her once luxurious blond hair was flat and obviously in need of a wash. Her blue eyes were surrounded by bags from lack of sleep. She didn’t even want to look down at her ratty clothes.

“I found this box of flowers outside. Looks like you have an admirer. Shouldn’t you be on a date or something?” Fiona winced as she took the box. She didn’t want to alert her sister, but she didn’t want to even hold the damned thing.

“Fi, are you okay? Why don’t you open it?”  Fiona shook her head.

“It is from someone that won’t take a hint,” said Fiona, horribly failing at concealing her true distaste for the admirer. She walked into the kitchen and added it to the pile that was growing under her sink. Chris lifted her eyebrow, but said nothing.  

“Period.”

“For two weeks.”

“Cold right after. The darnest thing, isn’t it?”

“Yep. So unfortunate. Umm. Fiona, I have to go. I’m meeting up with some of the girls from the team. I’ll call you later.”

“Sure. Talk to you later.” Chris waved bye and headed to the door. Somehow, Fiona knew that was not the last time she would hear from her. She was up to something. When something made Chris curious, she didn’t let it go so easily.

**&**

Just like she thought, Chris had not let it go. Instead, she made it worse. Fiona tucked her legs under her lap as she picked up her remote. She finally gained the courage to move to her living room. She had just begun watching The Golden Girls. It was her favorite since she discovered it at 15. She pulled her blanket close as she laughed at another of Dorothy’s sarcastic comments. Blanche merely brushed her off. As a young girl, she vowed that she would age like Blanche. She was an ageless beauty; still charming men way past what people say is a woman’s prime. Fiona's beauty was the only thing she seemed to have. Great. Now she was into her self-deprecating stage. A knock woke her up from her mini-depression. She wavered over whether she should open it or not. The messages may not be coming every day, but they hadn’t completely stopped.

“Fi. I know you are there. Chris told me. Open the door,” yelled Cole. Nope. No way. She was not opening the door.  She could just tell that Cole was in his big brother/father mode. She did not want his help. He would probably make her come live in his apartment. It had taken her forever to convince him to let her live on her own. She was not going to be a 29 year old who still lived with her brother.