PART TWO

That following morning, the festive spirit had come alive as Peyton could find the streets littered with supermarket flyers for sales on turkeys and other novelty dishes. The roadsides and doors decorated with wreaths and pine scented garlands.

Sadly, Peyton could not get herself into much of a merry mood after the incident which occurred last night.

The neighbours had contacted the police after hearing her screams which made for quite a sight when their parents arrived to find men in blue uniform at their doorstep.

The situation was dissolved quickly with the officers remarkably understanding to it after seeing their parents, for some reason.

She’d rolled out of bed at the crack of dawn, hardly able to catch a wink of sleep with her head trying to make sense to what she’d seen. Like, it couldn’t have been what it looked, right?

No, maybe the jet lag had her more sleep deprived than she thought and everything in that moment was a nightmare.

Yes. Now that made sense.

She'd made it halfway down the steps, humming a tune under her breath when the sweet scent of butter and flour tickled her nose. Huh, rare for her dad to be up this early. Nevertheless, she strutted in with a big grin.

“That smells great, daddy—"

The words died in her throat at comprehending her brother by the stove and last night’s stranger, wearing her dad’s apron. They were the only two around, but were whispering to one another with matching smiles.

Pearce took notice of Peyton first and quickly scowled. As if she was the one committing depraved acts in broad daylight. Catching the shift in demeanour, the intruder followed his gaze.

Peyton met those warm brown eyes and sheepish smile. It was her. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Pearce answered instead. “What does it look like? She’s making breakfast. Which is plenty more than what you deserve after nearly causing us to go deaf.”

“I wasn’t asking you,” Peyton hissed. She fixed her eyes back to the girl.

“Uh, I had a bit of a problem with my car and Pearce said it wasn’t safe to try taking an Uber so late so…”

With pinched brows, Peyton’s eyes fell to take in the girl’s apparel. Gone was the furry coat and hoodie, hair wavy locks free to drape down to notice a very familiar oversized gym shirt swallowing her inferior frame. One thing that wasn’t inferior being the distinct pair of mounds shaped out below the chest.

Peyton hadn’t known she’d just been gaping at the girls breasts until there was the sound of a yawn. Paris came waltzing in, flashing a bright smile to the girl. “Good morning.”

“Morning, Paris.” The girl greeted back.

Peyton could only stare in bewilderment watching her baby sister skip over, Pearce politely pulling out a chair for her to sit. Meanwhile, the brunette moved around the place in ease to grab plates and top a platter of heart shaped waffles in syrup then placed it at the table.

What the hell was this disgustingly pleasant air?

“Okay hang on here.” Peyton raised up a hand, the other pressing her temple in deep distress. “I’m expected to believe that you…” She pointed to the girl. “Slept over in Pearce’s room?”

“Of course not. She slept with me,” said Paris, stabbing a fork into her waffles. “Though normally when you’re not here, Georgia uses your room.”

“Normally?” Peyton echoed.

“Yeah, as in most of the time—”

“I know what normally means, Paris. And could you guys quit this dumb joke already? It’s not funny anymore, it’s just gross.”

Paris furrowed her brows. “What joke?”

“Her pea sized brain is struggling to comprehend that Georgia’s my girlfriend—”

“Stop saying that word!” Peyton tossed the salt shaker at her brother.
Pearce ducked just in the nick of time, with the girl staring at Peyton in sheer shock.

“Peyton, it was hard for me to accept to but it is true,” insisted Paris. “I mean, you got off easy. I've seen way worse. Like, usually they’re always making out on Pearce’s bed and this one time, we went to the mall—"

The hand of their brother clammed over Paris’ mouth, silencing her. Seeing the urgency mixed with fluster on Pearce’s face, he wasn’t acting. He never got riled up over their little sisters antics if it was just bluffs which meant…

No. God, no this was just too weird.

Peyton drew her bewildered gaze to root of all this internal chaos, nervously stood with a tinge of pink dusting her cheeks. “I’m sorry if this seems really hard to believe but I genuinely am in love with Pearce. I swear.”

The declaration appeared to have caught the very tool in mention with the way he abruptly abandoned gagging Paris. Those cold, soulless blue eyes glistened with some kind of emotion Peyton couldn’t begin to process before it vanished and Pearce cleared his throat. “Could we all just eat now please?”

Peyton was completely onboard with that, gladly helping herself to a stock of crisp gold waffles to stuff in her mouth to rid all else.

***
“So I'm guessing you've met Georgia.”

Those were the first words out of Jessie’s lips when Peyton opened the door that afternoon.

“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t slam this door in your face.”

“Because that’s rude?”

The door went swinging but Jessie acted quick enough to wedge his hand. “Okay, okay it wasn’t cool to just pretend I didn’t know but come on, would you actually have believed me?”

As badly as Peyton wanted to say yes, she couldn’t. From Jessie’s raised brow, the mischievous boy could read that on her expression too. “… That was still pretty shitty to play me like that.”

“Sorry. I might’ve not thought it through.” His apology sounded sincere enough.

“Might’ve? I nearly had a heart attack.” Peyton trudged on to the threshold, carefully shutting the door behind her.

“Um, shouldn’t I be the one going inside?” Jessie questioned.

“I can’t have this discussion with my parents who are treating me like I'm the freak show here.”

Peyton had thought the horrid breakfast scene was bad, once her parents walked in, the situation had official reached the level of an existential crisis. Her mother was eyeing Peyton like she was the nutcase at seeing the supposed honoured guest and their dad wasn’t making matters any better in just quietly eating his own share of waffles.

It was like Peyton had wandered into some parallel universe and she was at her wits end in solutions to get things back to normal. She camped by the fence, separating the neighbour's lawn from their own. Hopefully, they’d be just out of range from her mother’s peculiar radar.

“How well do you know this Georgia chick?” Peyton questioned.

Jessie pursed his lips. “Pretty well. I mean, we'd been going to the same school since literally kindergarten it turns out but I never really talked to her until Pearce met her.”

Peyton crossed her arms. “And how did he meet her?”

“Uh, they share an English class so probably there. I don’t actually know the full details since this is Pearce, y'know. But she just took an interest in him and flirted here and there. One thing leading to another…”

“So she approached him is what you’re saying?”

“I guess…” Jessie narrowed his eyes. “What are you getting at exactly, Peyton?”

“You can’t tell me you don’t see what’s wrong with this, Jessie. You know Pearce and look at her! Something like that doesn’t happen without some other motive at work here.”

“A motive like what?”

“I don’t know. But I'm gonna find out.”

“Peyton I know this is quite a lot to take in but Georgia isn’t going to hurt your brother. You don’t need to be so worried.”

Peyton jerked her head back. “What—?! I’m not worried about him! Gross.”

Jessie's face was nothing short of skeptic and okay, maybe that had come out a little too fast to seem convincing but it was true. It totally wasn’t about that. “Oh, yeah? Then why do you care if Georgia’s got some secret motive?”

“Because the only one allowed to mess with that dickhead is me, that’s why.”

With that, she clicked to her heels and went to initiate her plan to drive the she-devil out of her home.

Peyton was thankfully spared from the madness during Thanksgiving dinner. Everything had felt normal once again and not just in reference to the last couple of months, but the normal before they’d left their hometown. When her mother would be sprinting off with a suit, dad stumbling after late as always and the pair returned too exhausted to make it to their bedroom.

So Peyton and her siblings would arrive from school to find them sprawled on the sofa, watching some corny film then join them while Susan whipped up a meal fit for a banquet.

Peyton had never thought the feeling from those precious times could return but it had that night. She went to bed, so full of bliss and it wasn’t until returning from the early shopping spree with her mother and Paris did she realise it.

Sat as quiet as a mouse was a particular brunette. Her definite double C cups wrapped up in a ridiculously gorgeous blossom pink turtle neck paired with a checkered skirt and this vixen must’ve owned a wardrobe with all the most cutest winter shoes in the world.

“Hello, Georgia,” greeted her mother with that surreal sweetness. “Here for Pearce?”

“Yeah.”

“How was the camping trip?” asked Paris.

“Great. Got to meet up with a really good friend.”

The little chit chatter talked about this good friend who worked in Holland went on for a few minutes before her mother and sister carried on to unload their shopping bags. Leaving Peyton to stand there, cursing under her breath.

She’d had so much fun since dinner that she completely forgot about scheming up a plan to get rid of this fashionable skank.

Sneaking a glance, Peyton came to find the girl hadn’t seemed to be paying much mind to her just standing by the entrance. The girl whipped out her cellphone from her pocket, then looked to the wall clock and went back to mutely watching the car insurance commercial on TV.

Why was she so restless about time?
It hit Peyton right then. “If you’re waiting for Pearce to come down, he usually starts his study session or whatever around this time.”

“I know,” she answered.

“They're quite long. Especially on Mondays. He'll plan to stay there for up to—”

“Four hours.” No hesitation in her answer, like it was drilled to memory. “I’ve got another one hour and forty seven minutes left, so it’s okay.”

Peyton slowly blinked. Warm, brown eyes blinked back.

Wait, what?

“Hang on,” Peyton started. “Have you just been in this house, sitting here and waiting?”

There was a soft nod.

The fuck?

This chick was way more shadier than Peyton thought. Cautiously, she walked over, arms crossed. “Okay, are you gonna end this or do I have to do it myself?”

She slowly turned those brown does eyes up to Peyton with a supposedly innocent look. “Oh, do you have something you want to watch?” She extended the remote. “Sorry. Feel free to change it.”

“Drop the bimbo act already, sweetheart. You know I'm talking about Pearce. I don’t care what you’re after, just go find someone else.”

That had Georgia's eyebrows creasing as she set the remote down, slowly exhaling. “… Peyton, I get it. I have a younger brother myself and I feel the need to keep an eye on the people he hangs around, too. So you don’t need to take my word. I'll do whatever it takes to prove to you that I'm serious about Pearce.”

“And what if I still don’t buy it? Are you gonna dump him then?”

“No.” There was an unmistakable edge to her voice.

Peyton narrowed her eyes. “No?”

“Why can’t you at least give me a chance? I don’t know what I've done to make you have a reason to doubt me.”

“You want a reason? Okay. Then how about you lying about returning Pearce’s headphones?”

Georgia immediately tensed. Bullseye. “Huh?”

“I don’t know what bull you fed to Pearce but one thing I'm sure it’s not the same explanation you gave to me. See, my brother has a tendency to keep things like his headphones at a certain length. He doesn’t throw out the box set it came in and can't stand things disorganised so they're never left out in the open, he doesn't even take them out of his room. So why don’t you share with me what you really came for and maybe I'll consider giving you a chance?”

Those warm brown eyes were saucer wide, face paling and it was evident to Peyton she'd done the little faker in now.

“Not talking? Fine, I'll just tell Pearce—”

“No!” She cried, slightly startling Peyton. “I-I-I’ll tell you, okay? But can we do this somewhere more private, please?”

Peyton certainly didn’t feel too comfortable with the odd vibe she was getting but backing down was not in her vocabulary. Valiantly, she followed Georgia out into the driveway where her cherry red Ford was parked beside the Range Rover.

Georgia stood by the trunk, casting glances over her shoulder that made Peyton feel a bit on edge as she stood a few breaths apart, waiting.

She brought out her phone, scrolling for a moment and then very reluctantly handed it to Peyton.

Okay…

Peyton peered to the screen to find a picture of what appeared to be the interior of a dollhouse bedroom. There was something a little odd about it, though. The design and layout didn’t really give off the pretty or shiny appeal of a dollhouse found in toy stores or that kids would want to play with.

It had the dull sense of normalcy, it was rather bland and in fact, something about the positioning of the furniture and the colours looked so familiar—

Peyton gasped aloud, recognition sinking in.

It was Pearce’s bedroom.

Down to almost every notable aspecg, with only minor details missing like the carpet or outline of the bathroom door. Stiffly, Peyton turned Georgia who had her head hung.

“Is this…?”

She nodded.

What the actual fuck?

Peyton looked to the dollhouse, then back to the girl. “How—?”

“I started taking this arts and crafts class over the summer,” she rushed out. “Everyone got assigned to make model buildings as our final project so I um, kind of wanted to do a little private one to keep for myself. But then I wasn’t sure on the blend for the wall pattern was accurate enough and well, I thought I could just drive over to take a better look and compare a sample so…” She rambled off there, face beet red.

“... Okay, but why?” Peyton stressed, beyond confused.

“I don’t know, I guess I just wanted to make like a memento of my favourite place so I can always have it around me.” Her voice was no more than a squeak, suddenly heavily embarrassed herself. “Please, I swear I'm not a stalker or anything. I just don’t want Pearce getting weirded out.”

Weirded out? That had to be the understatement of the century.

Peyton was off to say that exact thought out loud but stopping her was the flood of old memories coursing through her mind. Long, forgotten adolescent days of foolishly giggling with her friends over boys, hanging around the locker rooms and amorous glances in the hallways with embarrassingly flustered faces.

In that moment, the girl stood awkwardly in front of her was so identical to that. To a former her caught up in cringey blooming symptoms of a first love.

“Holy shit,” Peyton sputtered. You… you’re like, actually into him.”

Georgia turned impossibly redder, nodding again and Peyton couldn’t stand around any longer. She hurried over to wrap her arms around the girl who looked undeniably confused to the sudden embrace.

Holy shit.

**

For the next hour Peyton kept Georgia company and introduced her to one of her all-time favorite medical soap opera. Georgia was instantly hooked just like Peyton had at taking in the devilishly handsome lead actor.

To think they had so much in common— it made Peyton want to tear up all over again such an unfortunate soul could harbour actual feelings to that sociopath toiling away at math equations.

Peyton didn’t dare to think of what the future would hold for the poor girl, but she prayed that perhaps by some chance, this phenomenon could compel her brother to come out of his cold, condescending and demented shell.

Georgia had visibly grown a lot more at ease with her through the small talk they made here and there. She truly wasn’t so bad.

Eventually, Pearce sauntered in and the girl couldn’t have looked more love struck in the way she shot out of the sofa, rushing over in urgency.
What was all the more gut-wrenching was how indifferent the tool acted towards it. At least, that’s what it seemed until he settled down to finish the episode currently on due to Georgia’s pleading.

Never did Peyton fathom the uptight snob would succumb to anyone, let alone sit through a soap opera. His attention did look a bit divided with Georgia snuggling close, which Peyton admit, was kind of amusing.

Then Pearce had to go and ruin it by doing the one thing he did to ruin everything. He opened his big, fat mouth to make comments that any normal person who watched TV would not be making.

“How did she not hear them say her husband is brain dead? They didn’t even leave the room.”

“There were whispering,” said Georgia.

Pearce rolled his eyes. “They’re literally always whispering. Honestly, I'd be more open to believe that most of the people cast in this are just hearing impaired since nobody ever seems to catch them fornicating in closets all the time.”

Peyton had been digging her nails into her arm enough to tear the skin in order to restrain herself from kicking the asshole's teeth in. Thanksgiving might've been over but their mother’s eerie presence could still be felt on the lookout to dispense punishments.

Peyton had no idea what kind of drugs the girl was on to be keeping that dumb, perky smile and listening to her brother’s dribble.

“How much longer until this ends?” He groaned.

Before Georgia provided an answer, Peyton beat her to it. “In about two minutes so don’t worry, Pear Bear.”

The sight of Pearce choking on air served to be quite a treat unlike any other with Peyton savouring every second.

This Thanksgiving sure hadn’t started out like one she thought she'd care to remember but it had paved the path for the beginning of many more unforgettable ones to come.

A/N: thanks for reading! I made this bonus technically for fun since it doesn't really hold any significance to the story as a whole, but I hope you enjoyed it. Please vote and comment if so.