Never Let Go - Page 2

y e a r s

a g o

“Come on Sisi!” Begged my sister Mahogany. “When’s the last time you watched The Cosmo Show from someplace other than the window?”

I lifted my eyes from the romance novel I had my face in and pushed my seeyers (glasses) up the bridge of my nose. “I can’t remember.”

“Exactly,” She said before snatching my book from me and tucking it into her armpit. “And that’s ridiculous.” Pausing, she shook her head. “Actually… when you think about it, it’s pretty sad, considering it is your bloomday, too.”

I sat up and crossed my legs with a sigh. It was sad. Very sad.

“You’re turning eighteen,” Mahogany continued, steady trying to get me out of the house. “It’s time to loosen up, Si. It’s a beautiful day, too. You cannot and will not stay cooped up in this bedroom all day!”

Rolling my eyes, I swiped the floral drape hanging over the window to look outside. There were crowds of people, heading in the same direction. The entire ‘zone’ was trekking towards the hill, where the best seats for The Cosmo Show were. They carried portable lounge chairs, tuneboxes, mini coolers, and big, fluffy throw covers draped over their shoulders or around their necks too.

Shifting my attention away from the crowd and put it on the little blue house across the street. Instantly, my eyes found his. A cool breeze ran up the nape of my neck, making the thins hairs there stand. I swallowed and quickly swiped the drape back into position. Pulling my legs from underneath my bottom, I bent them and wrapped my arms around them.

Mahogany popped her lips and swiped at the curtain to look out of the window. “Worried about the crowd?”

Worried about him.

There was this boy. Well… ten years ago, when he moved into the zone, he was a boy. Today, he was a man. And he was… He was a lot of things but most of all, he was intimidating. I didn’t like him. Really couldn’t say I didn’t like him. What I didn’t like about him was the way he made me feel. He pulled me. He… made me feel things without any physical contact. Insane, right? Exactly. It didn’t make any sense. So, I kept it to myself. Had been since the day he and his family moved in. I’d rather people assume I was just… shy. I would rather deal with that than to deal with people calling me weird.

Instead of telling her the truth, I sighed and rested my head on my knees. “Yep.”

She took a deep breath and stood at the towerbed I shared with her and my little sister Hazel, in front of me. Grabbing my arms, she pried them away from my legs and gripped my chin to turn my head in her direction.

“I know how to fix that,” she told me.

I snickered. “Yeah, okay. How do you think you’re going to do that?”

With a smile, she bit her bottom lip and glanced over at the closed bedroom door. “Liquor,” she whispered.

“That’s your plan?” I asked with my brow lifted.

She smiled and nodded. “Yeah, and a damn good one too.” Pausing she reached for my hand, pulling me up on my feet to drag me over to the closet. “So, come on. Let’s get ready. Today is going to be a great day. We’re celebrating your eighteenth bloomday at The Cosmo Show. You only turn eighteen once! It’s the first day of the rest of your life!” She exaggerated.

Mahogany let my hand go and fingered through the unflattering clothes on my side of the closet, with her bottom lip pinched between her teeth, while I just stared at her. She had this hopeful, excited gaze in her eyes that made me pity her. There was no fixing my problem. Liquor would have worked if I was actually shy. I wasn’t shy. I was actually pretty outgoing. Before he moved into town, I was a bright-eyed, bubbly little girl. But… then they moved into the zone, and I changed because… the air around me and everything in it changed.

Liquor couldn’t fix that. I would be okay until he showed up. And he would show up because he always showed up. Everywhere I went, he would end up there. And that was where the true problem lied. I couldn’t relax because there was the anticipation. I didn’t look out of the window earlier because I was curious about the weather, or because I wanted to see who was heading up to the hill. I looked out because he was out there. Only looked over, because his eyes were on me. His eyes were always on me. Didn’t do any of those things because I wanted to. Did it because he… pulled me. Had been for a while. Some times, I ignored it. Could only ignore it if something else had my attention. Today, my novel, Tokyo and Haram: Solace, kept me distracted for a good thirty minutes before Mahogany snatched it from me.

“Your bloomday outfit, Sisi,” Mahogany pressed.

“I didn’t get anything. Mom bought me a new dress for Saturday service. Maybe that’ll?—”

“Sienna Mills, you are not wearing a church dress for your eighteenth bloomday,” Mahogany interrupted with a pinched-brow frown before taking a deep breath and turning to sift through more suitable clothes. Clothes that showed more skin. Hers. “Today, you’re a woman. You’re going to dress like the beautiful goddess you are.” She paused, looked over at me and smiled before shrieking with excitement. “Tonight, is going to be amazing!”

“If you say so,” I grumbled, fiddling around with my braid.

On cue, her eyes went straight to it. “And we’re changing that hair too. Call for the girls! It’s makeover time!”

I sighed and prepared for what I knew was about to be a draining day.

Hours later, I was dressed in an uncomfortable pair of light denim shorts, a sleeveless light pink shirt with a dainty white rose in the top left corner that showed too much cleavage for my taste and strappy sandals with a low, chunky heel that showed off my freshly painted pink toes. None of the clothes belonged to me. The sandals neither. The only thing I had on that belonged to me were the clothes underneath.

Mahogany stripped me of my seeyers and made me swipe them out for the falsies (contacts) I hated. She said the seeyers hid my natural beauty. I did look better without them, but I was a girl who was all about comfort. I hated the falsies. It always felt like I had something in my eye, because, well… I did! Anyway, Mo took the two braids out of my hair and straightened it.

I looked like a completely different person. So much like a different person that when our parents saw me as we were leaving, their jaws dropped. My father was concerned about my comfort and my mother complained that I was dressed too provocatively. Mahogany was dressed in a skirt shorter than the shorts I wore, but that wasn’t addressed. I got it. I was the quiet, quirky, reserved daughter. Well… that’s who I was supposed to be. Who I’ve always been. However, I was more than that. The only reason I was piqued as quiet and reserved because I lived in my mind. I was constantly thinking. And… feeling.