Chapter One
The pink confetti spread across the orange carpet was heart-shaped and those two colors looked hideous together, but at least they had her favorite color on the carpet. I tried to deny the fact that she looked beautiful, because I didn’t feel comfortable just thinking about how beautiful this girl was, but I couldn’t help but admit to myself that, indeed, she was beautiful. Each of her steps towards her family was shaky and that couldn’t be blamed on the heels as she had to be used to walking on heels by now.
Suddenly, I noticed a shadow from the corner of my eyes and turned around jerkily, facing the window. The guy was standing in the garden as if this wasn’t a place where he had no right to be. Instead he was walking next to the black roses with a chain of shark tooth around his neck and a careless face. In the moment he turned his head to me, I glanced back at the TV quickly, shuddering as his light blue eyes met mine, before I reminded myself that I wasn’t the one who had no permission to be here.
“What are you doing?”
His eyes were as light blue and piercing as hers. “Waiting to wish her many happy returns,” he said, his smile bright and fake.
“You don’t belong here.” My hands were shaking, resting on the door knob as I didn’t know what they might do otherwise.
His face stayed cold. “She does neither.”
Something cold appeared in my chest, the bit jealousy that was left and had mingled with a variety of other emotions. “Let her alone,” I hissed, about to slam the door shut when his right foot was in my way.
“I will.” His foot disappeared from the threshold. “As soon as you do, too.”
The marble staircase was as white as the walls which were covered by paintings that were probably extremely expensive, although I couldn’t tell why. Entering the bedroom, I couldn’t get those piercing blue eyes out of my head, because I had seen them so many times – not on him, but on Jolie. I could remember them on her face in all those years when I had watched her growing up from that tiny kids to a young woman, always in the background, always just watching while she was shining.
When she entered the house, I was watching her, too, from the upper window this time, hiding behind the curtain. I could hear voices in the house, other people, but for a moment my eyes were stuck on her. She was holding her shoes in her hand, walking carefully with those bare feet, which made her look even younger. Still there was something strong about the image, something that made her look not breakable but as if each of her bones was iron. There was a strength in her eyes that scared me in the moment she looked up, so that I escaped the window.
I knocked on the door carefully, but then I didn’t wait for a response. It had become rather thrilling than normal over the weeks to be able to enter when you want to as if we could be together at any time.
“Tori?” I whispered, leaning against the threshold.
Inside, the brunette stripped down, left the red dress on the floor and slipped on a white tank top and black jogging pants. I wrapped my arms around her waist, lifted her off the ground and let my lips touch hers. My free hand ran through her reddish hair that was glued together by all the hair spray.
“Ssh,” Tori shushed me, pulling away from me with a strength I hadn’t expected. I placed her down on the floor again and watched her pulling a clip out of her hair. “She may not know.
I only shrugged, climbing on a shelf and dangling my legs. “I know,” I only said. Although I had already said it plenty of times, I had never before said it this emotionlessly. She was beautiful in a way many girls were beautiful, not breathtaking but pretty, and deep down in her heart she was the most unique girl I had ever met.
Suddenly, she turned back to me and her eyes were hollow. With two fast steps, she was standing in front of me and she leant towards my body until the top of her head was against my chest. I touched her hair slowly, not knowing whether she would let me, and put one hand on her shoulder. She was no delicate girl, but inside she wasn’t always strong.
Eventually, she straightened her spine slowly until she looked at me. For a moment, our lips touched, hers tender, mine asking. “I must leave,” she then said, turning around.
As she went down the staircase, I was left with the mirror. It wasn’t supposed to be difficult to look good in designer jeans and a white tee, but there were dark circles around my eyes, my lips were less pink than usual and my cheeks had sunk. I felt like a girl, staring at my reflection, but there was nothing beautiful I could find about it. I thought of Jasper and wondered why I had no such charisma in such a rebellious way, but it took me minutes to tear my eyes away from myself.
I was tired of seeing my own face.
In the middle of the house, there was an inner courtyard and it was surrounded by glass walls. I could see Tori walk to her changing room with fast steps, confident in her own way, but when she came back, she her steps were slow and she was staring down at her hands. I couldn’t read emotions on her face and I couldn’t tell what was going on in her head. She was difficult in a good way.
Downstairs there was noise, a lot of noise. So much fuss, again and again, because of one and the same subject.
