Harry
“Psst. Harry, wake up.” Someone shook me. I opened my eyes and groggily looked up at a shadow hovering over me.
“Get up,” he whispered.
“Kyle?” I reached over and turned on the lamp on my bedside table. Looking at Tommy, I saw him putting on a sweater. “What’s going on?”
“Emergency. Jack just texted me.”
“What? Jack? But… what happened?”
“Just change and I’ll explain later. The car’s gonna be here soon.”
“Car?” I got out of bed and went to the closet.
We all snuck out and waited on the porch. Kyle was muttering to himself the entire time, but didn’t explain yet. After a while, the Rideshare car arrived.
“I’m gonna kill them. I’m gonna throw them off the roof…” Kyle’s fists opened and closed as we got in.
“Okay, spill. What happened?” Tommy asked.
“Our dear brother and Diana decided to go partying in the middle of the night,” Kyle said angrily.
“Wait, what?” I furrowed my brows.
“Jack snuck out to go to a frat party, and Diana stowed away with him.”
Tommy’s eyes widened. “A frat party?”
“And she went there with Jack?” I said.
“She was alone. Jack didn’t even know she was there.”
“So… what are we gonna do?”
“He asked us to help him get Diana out of there. He doesn’t want the frat to find out that she’s related to him, or he’ll get in trouble.”
I rubbed my head. “What about Diana? Is she okay?”
“She’s drunk. She played a drinking contest for hours. God knows how many she’s had.”
We arrived at the frat house a little while later. The place was lit, with colored lights glowing from the numerous windows and music blasting loudly. Kyle fumed. “I’m gonna kill them. I’ll drown them in the pool…”
We ran across the huge front lawn to the doors, where a girl was talking frantically to two men wearing the fraternity jacket. “Whoa, hey, who are you?” She stopped us in our tracks, holding up a hand.
“Uh… we got invited here.” Kyle said.
“By who?”
“Henry,” he answered quickly. I glanced at him questioningly.
“Only one guest per member.”
“They’re with me; they’re my brothers. Um… I think Henry’s kinda wasted,” Kyle chuckled. “He must’ve forgotten. But my brothers overheard me, and I couldn’t shake ‘em. You know how little brothers are.”
“How old are you?”
“Uh- I’m 21,” he lied quickly. It was almost the truth; his birthday was in a few months. “I didn’t bring ID, sorry. And they’re with me.”
“It’s not a big deal,” said one of the guys. “Lots of people left.”
The girl rolled her eyes and jerked her head at the door. “Go on in.”
“Thanks.” We rushed inside, searching the crowd for Jack and Diana. We passed a group of girls heading out, leading a girl who was in tears. In another room, a girl was arguing with a drunk frat guy, who called her unbelievably horrible names.
I couldn’t believe she came here. What was she thinking? How did Jack not realize she came with him?
“Who’s Henry?” I shouted.
“Guy in my class. I recognized the letters on the house. He wears the shirt sometimes.”
Jack soon found us, approaching us with Hector— what was he doing here? “Thank God. She’s in the game room watching other people play. We gotta get her out before it’s her turn.”
“You know you’re dead when we get home, right?” Kyle said.
“Yeah, I know. Just help us get her out of there. She won’t listen.”
We soon found the competition. There were two men downing cups of alcohol, standing on stools. Within the crowd, I saw a shock of blond hair.
“Diana!” I went up to her, grabbing her arm. When she turned around, it was an unfamiliar face.
She pushed me away, wobbling. “Get off me, you creep!” she shouted drunkenly.
“Sorry. I thought… sorry.” I backed away and looked around for Diana. I really hoped she hadn’t left. I was worried someone would-
There was a crash, followed by a groan. I went into the next room and saw a guy sprawled on the floor next to a fallen table, surrounded by spilled food.
Diana was standing in front of him, wiping her jeans and swaying back and forth. “You try that again… I’ll kill you! You hear me?” she yelled.
At least she could still handle herself when she was drunk.
“Diana!” I took her arm and pulled her with me, resisting my urge to kill the guy for whatever he did to her.
She pulled away from my hold, raising her fist to punch me. “Hey! Don’t you-”
“Whoa, calm down! It’s me, Harry!”
“You stay away!” She backed away, tripping on her heel and falling backwards.
I caught her wrist and pulled her back up, steadying her and turning her gaze to me. “Listen, we need to get out of here. Just follow me-”
“I’m not following you! Marco!”
“Diana, it’s Harry. Your foster brother.”
She didn’t seem convinced. She was really wasted.
“There you are!” Kyle and Tommy ran up to us. “Okay, let’s get out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere! I’m… I need to…”
Kyle took her hand. “Diana, we’re going home.”
“Get off!” She punched him in the arm.
“She’s delirious,” I explained. “She doesn’t recognize us.”
“Well, that’s just great.” Tommy slapped his forehead.
“Where’s Marco?” She blinked unsteadily, shifting on her feet.
“Who?” Tommy asked.
“Marco!”
“Polo!” A drunk guy approached us.
Kyle wordlessly shoved him away. “Let’s just go. Uh, Diana, come on. We’ll take you to… Marco.” He gently took her by the arm and steered her away.
“You know him?” She seemed to brighten at his name.
He leaned away, gagging at her breath. “Yeah, we know him. We’ll take you right to him.” I took her other arm and we walked her out of the room.
She followed us for a bit, then pulled away from us. “Wait…” She pointed at us, her finger shaking wildly. “This is a trick, right?”
“What?”
“It’s a trick. You don’t know Marco.”
“Diana, listen, just come with us. We’ll take you home,” I said.
“I don’t have a home!” she screamed, walking backwards. “I never… you… I don’t have anything.” Her head sagged.
“We’re trying to protect you, okay?” Tommy put a hand on her shoulder. “I know you’re out of it right now, but we’ll help you.”
“Just get away from me!” She shoved him hard. It was as if the alcohol doubled her strength.
“Hey.” We turned, seeing a sober guy approaching us. He had Greek letters on his shirt, but they weren’t the same as the house. “Are you bothering her?”
“No, no, she’s our sister-”
Everyone paused, looking at Kyle. The hesitation increased the stranger’s suspicion.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“She’s just really drunk, and we want to take her home,” I explained.
“I don’t think so,” the guy said.
“No, she’s our sister,” I echoed Kyle, the word giving me goosebumps. I never thought I’d say that again. “She’s had too much.”
“Exactly. How do I know you didn’t spike her drink? How do I know you’re not harassing her? There’s a lot of ‘jerks’ here.”
“Listen, we get it. Thank you for that, but we swear- here, we have pictures.” Tommy quickly took out his phone.
“What’s going on?” A couple more guys from the stranger’s frat approached.
Diana pushed Kyle away as he tried to lead her again. “I’m not letting you do that to me again. I know you… you tried to…” She suddenly tripped and crashed to the floor, falling down with some other drunk guests.
“Diana!” Kyle and Tommy quickly helped her up. “We don’t have time, let’s go!” Kyle said.
“You’re not going anywhere with her.” The three guys blocked our path.
Tommy showed them a picture we took at the resort together. “Here, you see? She’s our sister. We’re not gonna hurt her.”
“I don’t feel good…” Diana groaned.
Uh-oh.
Kyle quickly turned her away so she could projectile vomit all over the floor instead. Some of it got on the surrounding partygoers, causing them to recoil in disgust and glare at us.
“Sorry.” Tommy winced sheepishly at them.
Diana suddenly fell backwards into Kyle’s arms. “Okay…” He held her upright and nodded at her feet. “Tommy, take her legs.” Tommy lifted her ankles and helped carry her away from the puddle she left on the floor.
“We’re following you out,” the stranger said. “Not taking any chances.”
“Alright, fine,” Kyle said, annoyed. “Harry, text Jack, tell him that we found her.”
“We can’t let anyone see us. He’ll get in trouble.”
“Why would he get in trouble?” Frat Guy said suspiciously.
“I think she’s the high schooler that got in. The girl that was winning the contest?” his friend said.
“Guys, let’s go. She’s heavier than I thought…” Tommy said.
“You’re just weak,” Kyle told him.
“Look, he showed you the picture, now let us go, okay? She can’t be here.”
The men looked at each other, then nodded. “We’ll cover you,” Frat Guy said. “But we’re following you.”
“Yeah, okay, fine.”
We carried her through the crowd. Some sorority girls noticed us, but were thankfully calmed by the frat guys. They also followed us, making it look like a procession. I hoped they wouldn’t attract too much attention.
An old song played through the speakers, giving me a bit of nostalgia. I couldn’t help but tune into the beat.
“I wanna scream, and shout, and let it all out,
And scream, and shout, and let it out…”
“Yeah, the one who’ll be screaming, shouting, and letting it out is me when we get home,” Kyle said under his breath.
We slowly advanced towards the door, not wanting to cause a commotion by bumping into anyone. Kyle continuously muttered about how he was going to murder Jack when we got home, and how he didn’t care about going to jail for life.
We hurried out the door, luckily avoiding the girl in charge of the guest list. She seemed busy with a group of party crashers trying to get in. Jack soon came out after with Hector and Sam— the latter of which was very drunk. He was passed out, carried over Hector’s shoulders.
“Oh, that’s great. We’re gonna have to call another Rideshare,” said Kyle.
“I’ll drive.” Jack held up Sam’s keys. “We’ll take him to his house, then go home.”
Kyle lifted Diana up bridal style, glaring at Jack. The frat guy looked at him, then us. “Yeah, alright. She’s your sister. Now that I can see you guys better, she looks a lot like y’all.”
“Yeah, I see it, too,” said a girl next to him.
I stared at Diana’s sleeping face. Amy’s face. There were lots of differences, but they could be twins.
There should’ve been twins… with Julia. It just seemed so weird. The same birthday?
“Jack. It’s freezing out here. Open… the ‘freaking’… door.”
I shuddered away from Kyle. When he got this angry, he got scary.
Jack used the remote to unlock the car. Tommy opened the back door and Kyle put Diana inside. Hector then put Sam inside. Tommy and I crammed in next to them.
Frat Guy took a picture of the license plate. When we gave him looks, he shrugged. “Can’t be too careful,” he said.
“Thanks.” Jack nodded at Hector. “Thanks, Heck. You want a ride?”
“I brought my car. I’ll see you guys.”
All hell broke loose when we drove away from the frat housing, going towards the main campus. Kyle yelled Jack’s ear off, reprimanding him for everything he did. At one point, Diana moaned, probably getting a headache from Kyle’s yelling, but she was still out. Sometimes, Kyle could be scarier than Dad.
Then again, if Dad found out…
We dropped Sam off at his house, then went home. Around quarter after midnight, we arrived home and carried Diana inside, struggling to not make any noise. It didn’t help that she started snoring loudly as we brought her in the foyer.
Kyle covered her mouth, careful not to block her nose. I was carrying her feet while the other two helped guide us through the house and move things out of the way.
“What did you tell them?” Tommy whispered to Jack.
“Nothing. I just got outta there. If anything, I’ll just say I drove Sam home.”
“Guys, shush!” Kyle said. “Keep us from falling.”
I grunted. “Why can’t you just carry her yourself?”
“I’m tired.”
Lonnie suddenly came down, sniffing curiously. “Lonnie!” Kyle whispered. “Sleepy time! Sleepy time.”
Lonnie ignored him, sniffing Diana. He whimpered and tried pawing her, as trained. His large form was making it harder to go upstairs.
“Lonnie, sleepy time! One of you go to Di’s room and get him a treat.”
Tommy ran ahead of us, quietly opening Diana’s door. We walked down the hall, shushing Lonnie, and finally got to her room. Tommy repeated the ‘sleepy time’ command and gave Lonnie his treat when he finally sat down. He still seemed pretty agitated.
We tucked Diana in and took her shoes off, putting them in the closet. Like robbers at a bank, we hastily left and got back to our rooms. I didn’t even bother to change back into my PJ’s. I just crashed onto my bed and started snoring.
But just as I drifted off to deep sleep, our light turned on.
“Good morning,” Mom’s voice said silkily.
Oh, sh-
~~~
Diana
My head hurt.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had a headache this bad. It was splitting my skull in half, torturing me to the point of madness. Besides the migraine, I was incredibly nauseous. And hot. And then cold. And then hot again. And I trembled furiously.
I felt wet, as if someone had poured water all over me. The room was spinning around, even though I hadn’t opened my eyes. I was also quite thirsty, but I was too weak to get up.
Why was I so sick?
I tried lifting my head, only for light to come through my closed eyes. My headache increased, causing me to groan lightly and plop my face back into my pillows.
What happened? I tried to remember, but I felt like my memories were a blur… did I get sick overnight or something? The last thing I remembered… I didn’t know what it was. I was utterly confused.
“You okay?” a girl’s voice said. I already knew who it was.
“Am I okay?” I said, surprised I could talk. Then again, this was all in my head. “What do you think?”
“It was a rhetorical question, ‘dummy’.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.” I finally opened my eyes. My 13-year old self sat in my office chair, swiveling. “What are you doing here?” I said.
“Don’t ask me. You’re the one thinking about me,” she retorted.
I sat up. “What happened last night?”
“Beats me. You’re thinking a lot about him, though.”
“Who?”
“Him.”
I continued staring at her until someone opened my door. Instead of one of my foster brothers, or Susan and Davis, it was…
“Marco?”
“Hey, babe.” His towering form approached my younger self, who immediately recoiled, hurt and betrayed. “You owe me a kiss, you know.”
“Leave me alone.”
“You’re still mad?” He chuckled, leaning towards her. “Come on, it was just a couple pictures. Nothing that bad.”
“You know what you did,” she said. “You said you loved me. You didn’t have to do that.”
“I do love you.”
“Then why’d you do it? Why’d you share those things?!”
“Because he’s a jerk!” I shouted. “He never loved you!”
“I love you,” he insisted. “I just got a bit mad, okay? Things happen when you’re angry.” He leaned on my office chair’s arms, his face close to my 13-year old self’s.
Now that I saw it for myself, I realized how sick it was. What was I thinking, falling in love with someone 7 years my senior? What was going through my mind three years ago?
“Come on, give me a little kiss,” he said.
“NO!” Young me pushed him away, standing from the chair. “If you loved me, you wouldn’t have done that!”
“I told you, I was angry.”
“I was angry, too!”
His fingers twitched as he approached her dauntingly. I gasped, trying to get out of bed, but something held me down. They were like invisible chains. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything. “Diana, get away from him!” I shouted.
“You’re making me more angry now. I can do a lot worse,” he said, his voice low.
“Diana!” My limbs felt like lead. “GET AWAY FROM HER, MARCO!”
His familiar eyes, which used to bring me so much comfort, now stabbed through me like knives. He grabbed my younger self’s hair and dragged her with him as he approached me. His hand shot out and pressed me onto my bed by my throat. I clawed at him, trying to breathe.
He lowered his lips to my face, just an inch away from touching me. “You should’ve fought harder than that,” he whispered. The lack of air was making me lightheaded. His face blurred, then darkened until everything was black. For a while, I was just floating in a black void, unable to move or speak… or think.
I suddenly heard a loud bang, like a gunshot, that made my head pound with pain. “GOOD MORNING!” The voice came like a huge roar, echoing in my brain.
I yelled out in pain and turned over, clutching my head. The light returned, making it worse.
“HEY, DIANA, YOU READY FOR A NEW DAY?!” Something shook me wildly and my stomach squeezed. I could only groan in reply, dizziness overtaking me. “WHAT’S WRONG? YOU LOOK A LITTLE SICK!”
“Shut up!” I yelled.
“WHAT, YOUR HEAD HURTS?!”
“I said, shut up!” I sort of recognized the voice now— it sounded like Kyle’s.
“Kyle, come on… alone… lot of pain.” I could hardly hear whoever else was talking, but I knew it was one of my other brothers.
“Well, it’s not… that… decided… A FRAT PARTY!”
“Aah!” I put a pillow over my face. The other person spoke again, but I didn’t hear a word. I felt something wet nuzzle my leg. There were more murmurs before the pillow was taken off my face. I covered my eyes again, unable to stand the light.
“Turn the light off!” I said.
“It’s the sun,” I heard someone say; it sounded like Tommy.
“Turn the sun off!”
“IT’S YOUR PUNISHMENT, YOUNG LADY!”
Fed up with his torture, I grabbed my pillows and threw them in succession towards the voice. “Kyle, get out! Out!”
“HAVE FUN!”
I sat up, finally opening my eyes, and threw one last pillow at him. “Shut the f- ow!” I closed them again and fell backwards in my bed. The pain… it was unbearable.
A gentle hand stroked through my hair, giving me a bit of comfort. I moaned, feeling the nausea increase. My stomach contracted and I doubled over the side of the bed, letting my guts spill out. There was a rush of weakness, then a bit of strength, which decreased as I vomited again. Someone rubbed my lower back in circles.
“Ugh…” I lied back down, trying to open my eyes. With my distorted, blurry vision, I could see a shadow that morphed into Susan’s face.
“You have some explaining to do,” she said, her expression firm and quite furious.
I looked to my left and saw Jack sitting on my bed, a sheepish look on his face. “What… happened?”
“How about you tell me?” Susan asked.
I shook my head. “I dunno…” I groaned and clutched my head again. “I can’t remember.”
“Then let Jack explain.”
Jack sighed. “You stowed away with me to a party last night.”
I looked at him with confusion. “From the beginning, Jack.” Susan raised a brow at him.
He sighed again. “I went to a party last night at Sam’s frat house. You stowed away in his car. We didn’t notice. Then you got into the house, and you played a drinking contest for a few hours. I went to get you, but everyone wanted you to stay. They carried you around and called you ‘Liquor Queen’, then you danced on the table, and… you sang ‘Barbie Girl’. And then you kicked a guy who grabbed your… behind, and he broke his arm when you threw him on a table, our brothers came to get you, you didn’t recognize any of us, you kept on calling for… ‘Marco’, then you threw up and passed out.”
I only stared at him, not believing anything he just said. I looked at Susan. “What is he talking about?” I winced at another headache that attacked me, but then felt a flash… a flash of memory.
I remembered changing, then being covered by my coat, then lying to a girl at a table… then I was drinking, then a guy fell while I was yelling… and then it went black. It was all a mess of memories, a total blur.
I groaned again, this time with dread as I pressed my hands on my forehead. “I am such an idiot.”
“You’re both grounded until Christmas,” Susan said. “Your other brothers are only grounded until Saturday because they tried to help you.” She pulled the covers over me and took a wet towel from a bowl on my side table, placing it on my head. “Now, you just rest and get through this hangover. This’ll be punishment enough. No extra chores, okay? Jack’s doing them all.”
I only managed a nod. Lonnie jumped on the bed, lying on my lap to comfort me. I petted him, reassuring him I would be fine.
Why did I go back to all that?