Examine

three

MICHAEL

Ten years earlier

"Can't you guys play in your room?" I cajole Jack and Ashley.

Jack raises his eyebrows at me from where Ashley is playing with his console.

"No, the play-station is down here," Ashley answers, without looking up, as she shoots men on the screen in the head.

"Yeah." Jack looks plaintively at me over the shoulder of the couch. "Come on Michael, you know Mum and Dad never let me play when they're home."

"Fine," I grumble, feeling like an intruder in my old home. "Can you turn it down at least?"

Jack picks up the remote and does what I say. Ashley's character dies, and she hands the controller to Jack. 

"Your turn," she says with a challenging smile. "See if you can beat that."

Ashley has a competitive streak a mile long, I'm not sure if I'm impressed or terrified for who'll find themselves saddled with her when she's older.

She brings her long tan legs up and tucks them beneath her, for a moment I'm mesmerised by the movement. Then her golden hair shifts as she throws it over her shoulder, turning her head to pierce me with her warm, amber eyes.

"What's got you in a tizz?" She asks, a little smile quirking her mouth.

If any other girl asked me that question I wouldn't deign them with an answer. But this is Ashley, or Scottie, as I like to tease her, and I've known her for as long as I can remember.

"My date is coming over," I admit, running my hand through my dark locks to fight the bashfulness creeping over me. I've been such a geek this year, my head stuck in the books, and it's been a while since I've had a girlfriend.

Ashley blinks at me before her expression transforms into a smile. "Good for you," she says softly, before turning back to the television.

That's weird. Normally she was like the Spanish Inquisition in trying to glean information about my potential girlfriends.

I shrug off her uninterested response as I hear the doorbell ring.

I rush to the front door and can't contain the smile that stretches across my face as I open the front door and see Isla smiling shyly before me.

"Hey," I say leaning against the doorjamb, slightly embarrassed at the way my eyes instinctively want to rove over her.

"Hey to you," she replies with a little laugh. That tinkling laugh is what drew me to her in the first place, as her chemistry experiment bubbled over its beaker, that little laugh had caught my attention from across the room, as I immediately rushed to her aide.

"Do you want to come in?" I ask, opening the door wider for her and feeling a rush of something run through me as she moves past me.

"Ha suck it!" Ashley yells triumphantly from the other room.

Isla stops and turns toward me. "Should I be worried?"

I shake my head. "No, it's just my brother and his friend."

"His girlfriend?" she asks, as she walks further into the kitchen.

"Nah, they're just friends, she's actually our next-door neighbour," I explain.

Isla smiles. "I wonder how long that will last."

"What do you mean?" I ask, as we continue down the hallway and I push open my bedroom door.