BOYTOY

~ Chapter 1 ~

  That afternoon, like every afternoon, I turned the radio on. In the kitchen, as I went about making a sandwich, Amber sat at the table picking at her nails. With her head bowed and her long golden hair folding around her face, the old jealously hit me, but I bit it back. Slapping ham and cheese together between the bread, I took a large mouthful, turning to slip up onto the bench only to jump back down when a good song came through the speakers. I turned the radio up, plucking a pencil from my hair and a slip of paper from a book by the phone.

'We spent some time, together walking, spent some time just talking about who we were...'

I scrawled down the lyrics quickly on a piece of paper, while behind me, Amber asked suspiciously, "What are you doing?"

"Writing down the lyrics," I said distractedly.

"Why?"

"So I can search them later, to find out the name of the song and the band..." She was silent for a long minute, and when the song finished, I glanced over my shoulder to find her staring at the table top with a deep line in her forehead. Frowning, I asked, "What's wrong?"

Amber's head snapped up and the eyes she got from our mother, a dark royal blue, widened, giving her the look of someone much younger than her near-eighteen years. "Nothing," she said quickly. She stood up, brushing her hands down the front of her white and red knee-length dress. "I'm going upstairs for a minute."

And then she was gone. I stared after her, frowning. For the last month or two, my sister had been acting weird. Distracted, almost like she was hiding something. I knew it had something to do with her boyfriend, who I hadn't met and only seen once, which was strange considering they had been together since November; and it was now mid- January. Amber wasn't usually one for secrets. Despite her being my older sister, we had always been close, sharing thoughts and moments and memories. But since she had been with this...what's-his-name...she had been acting weird. Not necessarily a bad weird, but just a weird weird, if that made any sense at all.

There was someone at the door; I heard them knocking, two long and three short knocks, the same type I used. I made my way out of the kitchen and through the hall, calling up the stairs to Amber, "I'll get it!" But just as I reached for the handle, my sister came flying down from the second floor. I only had time to glance at her before she had shoved me aside.

"It's for me," she said breathlessly, taking a possessive hold of the doorknob.

My eyebrows shot up. "O-K..." I waited for her to open the door, but she merely stared at me in wait. "What? I can't even see who it is?"

"I just told you," snapped Amber. "It's for me."

I took a step back in surprise. "But—"

"Tell mum and dad I've gone out." She adjusted her dress and hair, smoothing a hand over her face to check for imperfections. She opened the door quickly, just a foot or so to squeeze through. I heard a voice murmur something, probably a greeting, and I stood on my tiptoes to see who it was. But all I got was the top of a black, beanie-clad head. Amber shot me an almost frightened look, catching me trying to peek. She said a short and quick, "Bye!"

I opened my mouth, "But—", and the door clicked shut.

Like I said...weird.

Someone was at the door.

From beneath my pile of blankets and sheets, I peeked out at the neon green numbers on my alarm clock. 8.02. I groaned, burrowing back down in my bed, waiting for the knocking to stop. After a while, when no one else in the house had gotten up to answer the door, I swore and swung myself from the mattress. I walked down the hall, glancing at my sister's closed door and scowling.