“He didn't kill anyone did he?” Andre practically yelled this and jumbled his words together.
Desiree looked at him blankly, as if she was having problems processing his words.
“...Nooooo,” she pronounced slowly. “Well. As far as I know. He's a weirdo. I heard he does drugs and parties a lot, too. He's at the smoking square with his brother and sister everyday, though he's the only one that smokes. He claims to be a triplet with his brother and sister, but they don't look anything alike. Heck, his sister is Asian. I think she was adopted or a step sibling or something. And he dates her, too. Adopted or not, she's still his sister. That's practically incest. That's gross. And he hangs out with college students. He has no friends that aren't his family here. He like distances himself from all the students in our school. I think he's emo, too. Because he's always wearing dark and depressing clothing, skinny jeans, fingerless gloves, and eyeliner. And rumor has it that he's even in a gang. He's dangerous, Andre.”
Andre took her rant in slowly. A lot of what she said seemed to be rumors, so they could be wrong still. There was something about the fact that Luke had a girlfriend that irked him, but he wasn't sure what.
“Triplets? Wait. The Luck Triplets? I think I've heard of them.” How could he have forgotten? They were really popular in his school because they were really good looking. Now that he thought about it, he was sure their names were Luke, Markus, and Jackie. How stupid could he be? Could Jackie have been that little sister Luke had mentioned?
“That's the one.”
“I have him in one of my classes. He's really distant, but does really good in the class. He rivals my work!” exclaimed Keo as he idly kicked his legs in the air while laying on his stomach. Even though Keo was really strange and childish, he was an honor student at school. That fact still baffled Andre.
“There's something about them that seems different from everyone else. It's as if they know something we don't,” Phoenix said in a dazed voice.
Phoenix noticed it, too, thought Andre. He wondered what it meant. Blaine and Mallory had been like that, too. Even Jarrett and Journey had. But sometimes, Phoenix and Celine had that aura. It overwhelmed Andre's brain, so he didn't have the slightest clue what the answer was.
“Promise me you'll be careful around him?” requested Desiree sincerely.
“Of course,” smiled Andre. At least he would try.
~*~
As Andre laid in bed, he stared at his package of cookies sitting on his nightstand. His teacher had told him to give them to his friends and family. He wanted to give some to his parents, but he wouldn't see them again until Sunday when it was time for church. But, then again, he doubted they would even try them. He closed his eyes as he felt tears caress his cheeks and let nightmares consume his mind.
~*~
Andre and Desiree sat down at a table with their lunches and began to eat. Phoenix and Keo were on their way over, but someone beat them to the seat in front of Desiree. The chair was turned around and Luke sat in it, leaning forward on it until two of the legs were in the air. Andre's friends sat down by Andre instead.
“Hey. You're Desiree Mitchell, right? The girl that babysits?” he asked.
Desiree stared at him wide-eyed, her fork halfway to her mouth. She slowly placed it on her tray as she nodded.
“Great. Can you babysit my baby sister later today?”
“Yeah. Sure. I can do that today. How old is she?” she asked after she quickly recovered from her shock.
Andre was mind blown that Luke was here and in front of him. He couldn't seem to get over how gorgeous he truly was. He didn't even know they had the same lunch. What else had he completely missed? ...Speaking of things he missed, he just noticed two people standing behind Luke, one on each side. To Luke's left was Markus and to his right was an oriental girl. She was about half a foot shorter than Markus and had dark brown hair with vibrant orange streaks that went to her shoulders. It was perfectly straight and her eyes were brown and almond shaped. She had a silver lip ring on the right side of her mouth and pale skin. She was wearing dark clothes that covered almost her entire body. The only skin visible on her was her head and fingers. She must be Jackie, their “triplet”.
“She's thirteen. I don't want to leave her home alone because she's small. If someone broke in, she'd be defenseless,” Luke explained.
“How long will you be?”
“About three hours. It will be eight to eleven. Something came up and my siblings and I have to go somewhere. Our parents will be out, too. She can't come with us.”
“Understandable.” Desiree went through her backpack and pulled out an index card with her address, phone number, and how much money each hour was written on it in pen with neat handwriting. She handed it to him, which he pocketed it.
“Excellent.” He graced them with his perfect smile before getting up and leaving. His siblings followed after him, easily matching his pace.
Keo whistled. “Talk about smooth,” he remarked.
Phoenix nodded in agreement.
“I thought you said we should stay away from him. Why did you accept?” Andre inquired.
“Because I wasn't sure what he'd do if I said no. That's why you're helping me babysit today. I need a man to protect me.” She gave him a puppy-dog look. It wasn't long until he caved. Dang it. He wasn't very good with kids. Mostly because he never really had to deal with them often.
~*~
Andre entered Desiree's house with her after school. Luke hadn't been in culinary arts. He wondered where he had went and how important that thing that came up was.
“My dad's still at work, but my mom and sister should be here,” she declared as they made their way into the kitchen.
Desiree's mom and sister were sitting at the kitchen island. They looked a lot alike. Desiree had her mom's elegant face while her sister's face looked more like a girl version of her dad's,which was still beautiful. Both her mom and sister had brown hair and pale skin, though her mom, Teresa, had curly and her sister, Iridian, had straight hair, while Desiree had naturally wavy hair. All of the girls had their hair to their elbows. Teresa had the same dark blue eyes as Desiree while Iridian had their father's gray eyes. Iridian was almost a foot shorter than her mom, making her and Desiree only a few inches apart with Iridian being the shorter one. She was only fourteen, so there was still a chance she could get taller. Teresa smiled warmly at them.
“Hello, children. Welcome back from school,” Teresa greeted them.
“Hi, Mrs. Mitchell,” responded Andre.
“Hey, mom. I'm going to be babysitting today from eight to eleven,” she told her in advance as she hung her backpack on a hook on one of the walls.
“Alright. Is the child old enough to eat snacks?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I'll make some.” Teresa went over to cook something, excited to get a chance to use her new cooking utilities.
“How old is the kid?” asked Iridian with interest.
“She's thirteen.”
Iridian smiled widely, got up, and ran off; probably to get her toys together for the girl that hopefully might become her friend. Desiree grabbed Andre's hand and dragged him to her room. After the door was closed and locked, she planted her lips against his. It had been awhile since they had a room all to themselves. He kissed her back happily. He really did love her.
~*~
Andre was watching a Nickelodeon show with Iridian while Desiree was talking to her mom in a different room when the doorbell rang.
“I'll get it!” called Desiree as she went to answer it.
Andre got up and stood beside her as she opened the door. On the other side was Blaine and a little girl. She looked no older than ten. She had wheat blond hair to her hips, lightly tanned skin, and pale brown eyes with a gold tint to them. She had chubby cheeks, wasn't even five feet tall, and had to be one of the cutest little girls Andre had ever seen. She smiled up at them with a sweet grin while Blaine gave Andre a hard stare. Andre found himself withering under that gaze.
“Hello,” Desiree greeted them with a slightly confused look.
“I'm Annabelle!” introduced the little girl as she gave them a small wave.
“And I'm Blaine. I'm here to drop off Belle. I'm a friend of Luke,” he explained.
“Ohhhh! Okay. I'm Desiree and this is my boyfriend, Andre. Why don't you come in, Annabelle?”
“You can call me Belle,” she announced to them as she entered by going between them.
“I guess we have met again after all,” Blaine whispered so low that Andre had barely heard it and he was sure Desiree hadn't before he turned and left. “I'll pick her up again at eleven,” he called over his shoulder as Desiree closed the door behind him.
Iridian came into the room and looked at Belle with wide eyes.
“Hey. I know you. You're that loud giggly girl in my class,” Iridian said.
Belle smiled. “Hi. I remember you. You're that shy nice girl. Iridian, right?”
Andre swore he saw Iridian blush as she nodded.
“Wanna play? Have any dolls?” Belle requested.
Iridian's cheeks became red as she nodded sheepishly. “Y-yeah. This way is my room.” She pointed upstairs.
“Okay.”
They ran up the steps to go play.
“This seems like it's going to be a lot easier than I perceived. Why do the all the Luck siblings look nothing alike? Though, I do think Belle has the same strange eyes as Markus,” said Desiree.
Andre had thought that, too. But kept quiet about Luke's third sister that looked like Luke as well as Markus. He didn't want her to know that he had been to his house before and he had met Blaine before along with getting a ride home with him. He wasn't sure why he was staying quiet about it all. But there was a fear deep inside of him that if Desiree made him cut off all his connections with Luke, that... he didn't even know. What would he do? What would happen? He barely knew the guy and already he was attached to him. Which was bizarre. Andre usually ran away from attachments. They always hurt in the end.
