Chapter Forty-Seven

Cat

Never had I ever felt such hatred for a man than I had in that moment. There was something about Owen that oozed the kind of sickening energy that just made me boil with rage. It wasn't that I didn't believe my twin when she told me that he'd done nothing to her, but the look in her eyes begged for me to back down. The look in her eyes didn't say that it was the truth, and honestly that part was a little disturbing to me.

I caught her eye after I heard the front door shut after him, and searched for something, but she'd closed her shutters in the way I always did with her. I felt an invisible wall being built between us, brick by brick.

"Do you promise he didn't hurt you?" I asked her again, holding her gaze steadily this time.

"It wasn't like that," she replied firmly, turning away from my gaze and looking past me to our bedroom door where he'd left.

"That guy is a twat," I said finally. I sighed heavily as I passed her, going to our wardrobe and throwing open the doors.

Alice shook her head and returned to her crouched position on the bed. She held a towel over her nose and her voice was muffled when she spoke. "He's not that bad, you just don't know him very well."

I tsked at her. "And I don't want to either. I swear you could better, you don't need to settle you know."

I'm not settling," she said, her voice sounding even further away.

I slid the clothes across the wardrobe, checking out each item in turn before dismissing them. "At least you'll be away from him soon, a break will do you good and give you a chance to meet some other guys. Maybe you'll find someone better."

I paused my slinging match with the clothes hangers, finding a little white summer dress covered in sunflowers. Very pretty, very girly, not very me. "Hey, can I borrow this dress?" I asked, taking it out of the wardrobe and holding it against me.

When she didn't answer straight away, I spun around, the skirt of the dress flowing out like I was Marilyn Monroe. She was staring down at the ground in a world of her own. "Hey," I repeated, waving a hand to get her attention.

Alice jerked back to the present, her head jolting up to mine. "What?"

"This dress," I said, giving her a funny look. "Can I borrow it?"

I waited for some jokey reply, making fun of me dressing up and pushing me for details as to why I was making an effort. It didn't come.

"Sure," said Alice, and went right back to her staring.

My eyebrows shot up. I'd been all ready with my sarcastic comeback, what a waste. I stripped off my clothes and pulled the dress over my head, moving to the mirror to check myself out. It was weird to see myself in such a getup, it didn't feel comfortable on me at all, yet I couldn't deny I looked good in it.

I ran my fingers through my hair, fluffing it up. "Did you decide on your third choice for your study abroad?" I asked, glancing over my shoulder to see if she was paying attention to me this time.

Alice grimaced in response, her eyes flashing to meet mine and then looking away again. "No, I'm not going."

"Not going?" I reached for some watermelon lip balm on our dresser and applied it generously to my lips, then pressed them together to get an even coating. It was Alice's kissing lip balm, so it was exactly the thing I needed. Not that she'd touched it much recently, it had been in the same position on our dresser for weeks. "Are you allowed to apply with only two choices? What happens if neither are available?"

"No," Alice said quietly. "I decided not to do the trip at all."

I scowled and crossed the room so that I was right in front of her. "What do you mean?"

"Just what I said, I'm not going to go anymore, I'm going to stay here for the rest of high school."

My jaw dropped when her words sank in. "Are you serious right now? You can't be serious. You've been wanting to do this since they brought in the scheme our second year of high school. You were so mad when they said that only the older years could do it."

"Yeah, well..." She gave me a half shrug.

"Is it Owen? Are you not going because of him? I swear to god I'm going to kill that guy," I said, riling myself up.

"It's not him," she yelled suddenly. I jumped; she had never yelled at me before. "Why do you always have to blame him for everything, I have my own voice, I can make my own choices!"

I blinked a couple of times, my brain struggling to deal with a version of Alice I had never met. "Oh, okay."

"If you're going out, can you just hurry up and go please," she uttered, getting to her feet and leaving the room.

I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. "Yeah, sure," I said to an empty room.

My phone began to ring and for a moment I didn't recognise the peppy tune playing, not used to hearing my phone ringing at all. I glanced down at the screen and the words Wilted Rose flashed at me. I clicked answer.

"Hey Addie," I said, balancing my phone between my ear and my shoulder as I dug around in the cupboard for some shoes. "What's up?"

Hey babes," she replied, her tone as peppy as my ringtone had been. "Not much, just wondering what you were doing."

I frowned at the nickname. "Can you not call me babes; it makes you sound like an eighties pornstar." I grabbed a pair of white sandals belonging to Alice, they would do. "And I'm just on my way out the door."

Addie giggled in my ear. "I kind of like that idea. I'd look great dressed up in eighties garb, I could do my hair in a big ass fro."

"Uh, huh." I buckled the sandals onto my feet and went back to look in the mirror again. I looked summery and delicate, that's the look guys loved in girls, right?

"Are you going anywhere exciting?"

I hesitated before answering. "Just to hang out at a friend's house."

"Sounds fun, what are you going to do?"

"Erm, just watch a movie and stuff..." I said, letting stuff fade off as though I was releasing it into the wild to be free. "Anyway, I've gotta go, he's waiting for me."

"He?" Addie sounded surprised. "Is it a date?"

My cheeks flamed as I looked down at myself and the way I was dressed. "No," I said, though it had taken me so long to reply that it sounded off when I said it. "No, it's not a date, he's just a friend," I said, trying to sound more certain this time. It still felt like a lie though, especially with my intentions for the evening.

"I guess I'll see you later then?" All the peppiness had drained from her voice and somehow, it felt like it was my fault.

"Yeah, okay, bye." I clicked to end the call and dropped my mobile into my pocket.

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