Chapter Six

I'm a bit thankful I didn't woke up to a "more polite" neighbor, but no notification from Anne this morning is sending me to a loop hole of panic. I'm anxious because something bad must've had happen to her and I won't know about it. What if she got hit by a car on her way to school? Or maybe even get kidnapped or worse... what if she's dead? No. No. No. Erase that. But still, nothing is going to calm me down until I know she's okay.

I spammed her with messages although I see her not active. I just want her to know that I'm still bothered by little stuffs like this. Like her not texting is never not okay. I don't want the time to come when us being silent about our day would be normal. There's already many miles of gap between us, it scares me how one day that gap would widen and widen and then who knows what!

I kept sighing on my way to our family's car. Today is Saturday and my eleven year old brother, Evan, asked me to drive him to his friend's house. He said he wanted to buy this rare spider specie he's been keeping an eye on for months.

"So that's why you asked me for money? To buy a darn spider?"

"Big sis, Sergei Dragunov isn't just a darn spider, okay? He's a part of the family now," He said with his high pitched voice.

"Sergei drug a what? I don't get it's name."

"His," Evan corrected.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, just give me the address,"

I should be doing something productive today, like homework or maybe doing a workout routine, and not being a driver for Evan. He gave me his phone which gives me the directions on where to go. It's a bit far from our house that's why Dad didn't allow him to go on bike. Evan almost lost hope of getting the darn spider he wanted for so long, so being the good sister that I am, I volunteered to get him there. Sometimes, it's just a pain hearing him talk about it all day. Blah blah blah spider blah blah spider, even when we're at the dining table it's always those goddamn spiders he talks about. Like what do you even do with spiders? You can't walk them. They don't bark at bad guys. And specially, they're most definitely not cute. They just eat, sleep and play dead.

"That's Tyrone's house! Park there." He grinned from ear to ear while unfastening his seatbelt.

Even before I turned off the engine he was already running off to his friend's front door and banging it loudly. Jesus Christ I hope their parents aren't home. I don't want to get accused of trespassing.

I sluggishly followed behind him with both hands buried deep on my jacket's pockets. It's a cold afternoon, and neither going out and not a single notice from Anne is doing justice to this. Once again I reached for my phone, but still nothing. I wonder what she's doing today.

The door opened wide and a boy greeted us. I think this is the Tyrone Evan is always referring to.

"You made it!" Tyrone said as he high-fived my brother. After that, Tyrone put his arm over my brother dragging him up stairs and into their their own little science world that I couldn't quite understand.

They couldn't just leave me like that, shit, what now?

"Hey are you the sister of my brother's friend, Evan I think?" A girl came down the stairs as she aimed a question at me.

I was about to go back to the car but she made me turn around. Thick curly hair, brown skin and narrow eyes. She's tall too she could be in a magazine cover.

"Yeah, I am," I nodded. "Sorry if we're bothering you guys I know it's pretty late." I scratched my head.

"No, no. Evan and my brother are the best of friends. And Tyrone barely gets close to anyone from school so you're both welcome in our house." She said with a feminine soft voice. "Do you want to come in our living room? Our parents aren't here yet so feel free to get comfortable in here."

I walked with her to their living room. They own a big flat screen tv built in to the wall. Couches are in a half circle guarding a shiny purple crystal coffee table. I'm no expert when it comes to rocks but that looks like it's worth $$$.

"By the way, my name's Chelsea. You can call me like that. What's your name?"

"Ellie, and you can also call me like that." I responded as we exchanged smiles.

We sat on one of their couches. A tiny fridge was also built in on their wall, it was right next to the TV. Chelsea grabbed two cans of pepsi then she handed me one.

"Thanks," I said as I drank plenty of it to refresh my throat.

"So what school do you go to?" She asked.

"WRHS."

"Really? I used to go there too."

"Why'd you transfer to other school?"

"Uhhh...personal stuffs..." She let out a breath.

I nodded. The expression on her face gives it all away that she doesn't want to talk about it. Her eyes landed on a PSP controller and as soon as she grabbed one I immediately knew what's going to happened next.

"You play video games?"

"Sometimes with my brother yeah... But I'm not really the best. I die like, every four seconds." I rolled my eyes then laughed.

She opened their TV and PS4. A video game suddenly appearing on the screen and it said Tekken 7. That sounds familiar.

"Evan loves this game," I said as I grabbed the other controller from Chelsea's hand.

"And so does Tyrone. But he's literally the worst opponent ever,"

"Well that's about to change now,"

We both laughed at that as she starts the game. When we came to the character picking round I just chose the prettiest one out there. This Alisa Bosco-whatever looks like a robot fairy... So I picked her and Chelsea looked at me.

"That's a good one she's really hard to beat."

"Uh yeah," I laughed nervously. I don't even know that character's skill fuck.

We both started and I was up against a muscular dude with red mohawks I think he looks badass and mad scary.

I just pressed random buttons scoring here and there.

"You can't just press all the buttons on the right! Press the left buttons too!" She shouted as she saw me ganging up on the right part of the controller where all the X, square, triangle and circle are. It works pretty well with just that, I don't know what she's talking about.

Alisa flew high chainsawing the mohawk dude and I busted out laughing but regained my self composure quickly because I noticed I was being too loud. Then the mohawk dude dragged Alisa to the ground and the match ended with a K.O.

"Oops better luck next time Ellie," She smirked.

We played a couple more rounds. Never had a chance to win except for the last round when Chelsea halfheartedly stopped moving her character for me. It's only fair to treat your guests right.

The two boys finally came down stairs. Evan carried a small transparent container with him. The look on his face says he couldn't be more happier. Though I still have no idea what's so joyful about having a spider. But whatever, as long as he's smiling.

"Ellie we have to go home, Sergei would be stressed out if he's left in here for too long," He said as he pointed to the box and tapping on it making the tiny spider move.

I looked over to Chelsea as she stood up as well. She then smiled and nodded.

Evan, as the disrespectful boy he is, he walked pass the owner's house only saying good bye to his best friend. He was the first one to climb on the car. I face palmed myself mentally because he couldn't be anymore rude to Chelsea.

"So that's that." I sighed. "We should go,"

"One more thing Ellie, I want to ask you something." She said in a whisper while she glanced on his brother minding his own business on the other side of the room.

I waited for her to spill, she was hesitant but asked me an unanticipated question. "Is Ms. Miller still teaching at your school?" I don't know why she asked it out of the blue. Are they connected to one another?

"She is." I said.

A look of dismay flashed on her face. "Nevermind. I-I just wanted to know..."

I tilted my head at her expecting more to come but she said nothing else.

...

Me and Evan left their house at sunset. My ears are tired from hearing Sergei this Sergei that. That he reused the old fish tank and built a mini forest of some sort with it.

"Wouldn't he feel sad? He doesn't have a playmate." I said as we were walking up to our porch.

"I'm his playmate, I think I'm enough. Am I enough?"

I pet his head and messed up his long brown hair but he find it annoying so he slapped my hand away. "Well, if he's happy, and you're happy. I couldn't think of any more reason why you're not enough."

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