sister sister // heathers au

five

Nothing about this makes sense.
-  Jesse Dean

"You know, I think this is rather funny." Said the voice of a young man. On his doorstep were the Dean sisters. His sisters. A lit cigarette dangled from his mouth as he spoke.

"Jesse, are you gonna help us or not?" Emily asked in that annoyed tone teenagers pull off effortlessly.

"Why wouldn't I help my sisters?" He snorted in reply. His demeanor shifting from playful to serious at the flip of a switch.

Behind Emily, Chloe muttered to herself. "Jesus Christ."

"Got something to say, Chlo?" Jesse asked, staring over Emily's shoulder and at the blonde hair of his younger sister. Chloe shook her head no.

"She has to pee." Emily defended, despite knowing that Chloe simply didn't want to be here.

"I thought we were going to Gramma Camille's." Chloe told Emily when she found out that the real destination was to their brother's apartment in Cleveland. In fact, Emily had taken a route to circumvent Columbus where their Gramma Camille lived.

"Don't be a pillowcase, Chlo." Emily replied. This caused Chloe to shove her nose into her book and shut up for the rest of the ride. Emily felt like their great grandmother would turn them over to the police, send them back to Sherwood. She purposely lied to her father. He couldn't know where they have gone.

"Mom and Dad are in jail?" Jesse asked, pulling Emily away from the image of Chloe's tear stained face.

"Yeah. I'll tell you why once Chloe goes in." Emily answered, nodding her head as she spoke.

"Don't I get to know why?" Chloe questioned.

Emily looked at her little sister. Innocent Chloe couldn't possibly handle the truth of this situation. She was barely thirteen, she didn't need to grow up so soon.

"I don't want to upset you. Go inside." Emily said, her voice soft. Chloe sighed and did as told. Once Emily was sure Chloe was out of listening distance, she explained. "Dad had weed, heroin and Mom's Xanax in the Porsche."

"You're joking." Jesse said.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Emily asked, their blue eyes meeting.

Emily always found it strange how her Biology teacher said brown eyes almost always dominate blue ones. All three Dean children had blue eyes like their father. She was happy that she wasn't looking into brown eyes, it would remind her too much of her mother at this moment.

"Get your stuff inside. You two can stay in the guest room." He told Emily. "I won't have my sisters sleeping in a car." He mumbled, going back inside.

Later that night, Emily and Chloe sat in the guest room. Emily graciously took the air mattress while Chloe had the futon. It wasn't a very comfortable sleeping situation but it was better than the backseat of a Subaru. Emily was playing on her phone while Chloe read her book some more.

"Why are Mommy and Daddy in jail?" Chloe asked after the silence dragged on for far too long for either sister to be comfortable with.

"I'm not telling you. It's inappropriate for you to know. I shouldn't even know." Emily answered.

"I'm not a baby." Chloe told her sister, pouting her lip.

"But you are a child. I'm not telling you and that's that." Emily said, getting up and leaving the room because she didn't want to hear Chloe argue or whine. "She's going to be the death of me." Emily told Jesse, who was on the couch watching TV.

"I take it she still wants to know." Jesse said.

"She just doesn't get it." Emily groaned into her hands.

"Does she ever?" Jesse said, posing a question to Emily. This was a common thing between them. They were older and Chloe was so naive to their dirty jokes and slang. "Listen, some friends were already coming by tonight. I'm not cancelling because of you two just showing up."

"Okay, I guess. Can we hang out too?" Emily asked.

"They'll probably be here past Chloe's bedtime." He laughed.

They didn't notice as the night drew on that someone snuck into the guest room, had their fun and left a young girl to cry.