SORROW WOODS (22 page)

“Yes, except I miss you. I wish you lived with me, but I get to wear pretty dresses and go

shopping and have a shower and sleep in a big bed. All that stuff is nice. It makes me happy.”

I smile at her. “Yeah, it is nice.”

“I keep thinking about the chicken,” she whispers.

Chicken? “What chicken?” I ask, dumbfounded.

“The one that was lost. The one we couldn’t find when we woke up one morning and I was

really sad and cried for ages.”

I try not to laugh. “That was four years ago, Elodie.”

“I know,” she agrees, “but I used to think about it whenever we were in the woods. I used to

always wonder if we would find the lost chicken while running through the trees. Can you imagine

how sad our real Mommies must have been about losing us for so long? And we’re not even

chickens.”

She’s done what I failed to do. She’s compared what’s happened to us to a relevant

experience of her own and accepted it. I nod at her. “I remember the chicken and yes, I think our real Mommies must have been very sad.”

She looks at me. I watch her eyes trail up my legs and over my yellow sun dress. “You look

different,” she observes after a few seconds. “I don’t know why you look different but you do, and I think you look older now. Like a lady and not a girl.”

I laugh and tap her nose like I used to do. “You’re still a cheeky monkey.”

She grins at me. “And I bet you still run like a hippo.”

“I never ran like a hippo. You swam like a whale.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

She folds her arms across her chest in a pretend mood and sticks her bottom lip out.

“Come and see my balcony,” I say, indicating the double doors that open out toward the

ocean.

Her eyes go wide in her tiny, delicate-looking face. “You have your own balcony?”

I nod and get off the bed. I hear her feet behind me, padding across the pink carpet. I push

open my doors and let the sea breeze whirl into the room. The white sashes that hang on either side of the doors blow in the breeze and wrap around Elodie’s face. She giggles, unhooking herself from them and then her little mouth drops right open.

“You can see the sea from your bedroom?” she asks with wonder.

I grin. “Yup. I’ve not swam in it yet though.”

“I haven’t got any other clothes with me but when I come again, I’ll bring some. Then can we

swim in it together?”

I nod. “I can’t think of anything better.”

She steps forward. Her head is exactly level with the height of the railing, so she stands on

tip-toe to look out and over the beach.

“It’s amazing,” she says, “just like the pictures we used to look at in those books.”

“I’m glad we had those books,” I say. “Can you imagine how hard it would be if we didn’t

know anything?”

“I know,” she sighs, “we wouldn’t know what a shower was, or money or anything.” She

turns her head and looks at me seriously. “I know lots more things now though. Do you?”

I certainly do, I think, as the image of Kaiden’s face swims around in my head. “Yup, lots

more stuff.”

“My new Mommy says I can go to a real school if I want to in a few weeks,” she says proudly.

School? I hadn’t even thought about school and neither of my parents has mentioned it to

me. I make a mental note to talk to them about it when we’re alone.

“That’ll be fun. I bet you’ll have loads of friends,” I tell her.

She nods. “My new Mommy says that people might ask questions because we’re famous,

but I’m not to get annoyed. She says that people will like hearing about how we swam in the lake

and chased the chickens.”

I laugh. “I bet they will.”

We both look down when we see our Mother’s walk into the garden. I can hear the clinking

of ice cubes in the big water jug before I see it.

“Girls?” Angela calls. “Are you coming to get a drink? It’s very warm today.”

“Yeah, we’re coming,” I yell down.

Elodie turns and grins at me. “Race ya!”

I find myself sprinting across my bedroom floor, down the corridor, across the landing, and

down the winding staircase until we’re out in to the garden.

“Yep,” says Elodie when we stop in front of our Mothers, “you still run like a hippo.”

I shake my head and take the glass from Angela that she’s holding out to me. “Thank you.”

She smiles gently at me and glances quickly at Elodie.

Victoria leans forward and offers an ice-cold glass of lemonade to Elodie. “What do you think

of their house, Elodie? It’s big, isn’t it?”

Elodie nods and then takes a big gulp of her drink. “It’s huge. I love how close it is to the

sea.”

Victoria glances at Angela and grins at us. “I was thinking that maybe we could move down

here, so you could be closer to Serena.”

Elodie and I stare at each other. I hadn’t thought to ask where it was that she lived and what

her house was like. I feel bad.

“Are you being serious?” I ask her.

She looks at Elodie and nods. “We know you two are close and that you love each other, so

we think it’s important for you both to remain in each other’s lives. Elodie and I live hundreds of miles away at the moment. It took us thirteen hours to get to you today.”

I blink. “Thirteen hours? Where did you sleep?”

She smiles. “We stayed in a hotel in town last night. We were driving all day.”

“Wow,” I breathe. “So you really think you’re gonna move here?”

She nods. “We can’t afford any of the houses on this street, but we were thinking maybe a

couple of miles away. If you learn to drive soon, then you’ll be able to come over and see Elodie any time you want.”

“I’m gonna learn how to drive?” I ask.

Angela nods. “Yes. Your Father and I discussed it and we’re ready to teach you whenever

you’re ready to learn.”

“This is so cool,” I say. I want to clap. I want to skip. I want to squeal like a child. “I think moving down here is a very good idea.” I turn towards Elodie. “What do you think?”

She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and nods. “I’d love to live near the beach

and living near Serena would make everything perfect.”

“That’s settled then,” says Victoria. “We might spend another few days in the hotel so I can

look at some houses while I’m here.”

Elodie turns and high-fives me.

We sit on the grass near the shade of the big tree and finish our drinks. When Elodie is done,

she makes the biggest burping sound I’ve ever heard before. It makes me laugh so much that I end

up making a snorting noise and this makes us laugh even more. When we finally catch our breath I

look over to see our Mothers staring fondly at us. I give them a little wave.

“What was your real name?” asks Elodie.

“Ayla,” I say.

“Ayla,” she repeats. “I like it. It sounds pretty, just like you.”

I smile. “Thank you, but I think I’ll always be Serena.”

She nods. “But that’s the name our old Mommy picked. It’s not your name.”

“I know,” I sigh. “What was your real name?”

“Emma.”

“You look like an Emma,” I tell her.

She nods. “That’s what I thought. I like Elodie, but seeing as though it begins with an ‘E’ just

like Emma, I thought I might start using Emma.”

I don’t know how I feel about that. She’s always been Elodie to me and always will be.

“Can I call you Em?”

She grins. “Yeah, I like that. It makes me sound cool.”

“Can I start calling you Ayla?” she asks in return.

I take a deep breath. “I’m not sure. Let’s just stick to changing your name for now and then

we’ll think about mine.”

“Okay,” she says, drawing a picture of our old house in the dirt with a stick, “but maybe if
I
just start calling you Ayla, you’ll slowly get used to it.”

I laugh at her logic and gently push her shoulder. “We’ll see.”

“I still love you, Serena, or Ayla,” she says with a shrug. “Whatever your name is, I guess I’ll

still love you the same.”

I pull her into me and lean my chin on the top of her head. “I will always love you,
Emma
.”

She looks up at me and smiles. “You called me Emma!”

“Yes, yes I did.”

Kaiden

I throw my cue onto the green cloth of the pool table and drain the remains of my beer from the

bottle. Mike grins at me and, even though my cue is now on the table, he still manages to pot the nine ball. I have no idea how he got so good at pool. I used to be able to beat him and now I’m lucky to even get a pot.

“It’s your round, hero,” he says with a smirk.

I grab one of my un-potted balls and spin it up the table. He moves his hands out the way

just in time. The ball bounces off the wall and rolls back down the table to me. “You cheat.”

He laughs. “How can I possibly cheat at pool?”

I huff and leave him standing by the pool table as I walk towards the bar. The waitress who

flirts shamefully with me every time I come in here leans forward over the bar, making her breasts push together. I know what she’s doing. I know all the tricks that girls have. Lucky for her, I’m not interested.

“What do you want, Sunshine?” she asks.

I don’t even bother to look down her top or up at her face. “Two beers, please.”

She huffs and bends down to get two beers from the fridge. She flicks the tops off and places

the bottles down heavily onto the counter. She doesn’t tell me how much it costs. I give her my ten dollars and hold my hand out for the change. When I feel her place the change into my open palm, I snap my hand back and grab the beers.

“Send her my way if you’re not interested,” Mike says, nodding towards the bar.

I shake my head. “She’s nasty Mike, even for you.”

He places his hands over his chest. “That hurt.”

I laugh and make my way back over to the bowling alleys. “Go for it then, but don’t come

complaining to me when you’ve got an itch downstairs.”

He shoves his hand into his back pocket and holds up three different coloured condom

packets. “I always wear one of these, my friend. Didn’t your Mother ever teach you about safe sex?”

I don’t answer him. Instead, I stop at the edge of the arcade games and watch Anastasia

flirting with one of the other guys from the soccer team. I take a sip of my beer. How can she do that when she knows I could be watching her? She’s such a bitch at times. Maybe she does it on purpose.

I haven’t figured that out yet.

“If she wasn’t so hot, I’d tell you to ditch her,” he says.

I take another sip of beer and raise my eyebrows at him.

“What?” he asks, holding his hands up. “I know she pisses you off. Hell, she pisses me off

and she isn’t even my girl.”

“She’s a pain in the ass,” I say. I bet Serena wouldn’t even know how to flirt, let alone flirt

with another guy when she already has a boyfriend. She’s nothing like Anastasia. She’s nothing like any of the girls that I’ve been out with. I hate myself for wondering if that’s why I can’t stop thinking about her.

“Come on,” I finally say, “we’ve paid for a lane. We may as well bowl.”

Mike twirls his blonde ponytail in his fingers and pouts. “I’m only flirting with the other boys

because I’m not getting any attention from my boyfriend.”

I push his shoulder. “You sound just like her.”

He laughs and picks up a big, black ball. “Do you want to bet that I beat you at bowling as

well as pool?”

I grin. “You’re on.”

“Twenty bucks says I win.”

“Forty says you don’t,” I reply.

“Deal,” he grins.

When we arrive at our lane, Anastasia glances my way and slowly removes her hand from

Luke’s chest. He nods at me. I don’t nod back.

“There you are,” she says. She pushes herself against me and I feel her padded bra pressing

into my arm. “I was wondering where you’d gone off to.”

Why has her voice started to sound so whiny and annoying? I flick through the memories I

have of her, trying to figure out if it’s always been that way or if it’s that I’ve only just noticed it.

“I’m here now,” I say, placing my beer bottle onto the bench. “Let’s get bowling.”

“I want to go first,” she says, skipping across to the computer where she quickly types her

name in, followed by Luke’s. She’s like a child at times, but instead of complaining I sit myself down and wait for her to figure out that she’s forgotten to put my name on there.

An hour later, I pat Mike on the back and grin at him. He didn’t win. He might have learnt a few new pool tricks, but I can still thrash him on a bowling alley.

“Yeah, yeah,” he says.

We return our shoes to the front desk. As I’m pulling my own shoes back on, I see a tiny pair

of boots standing next to me. I smell the sickly sweet scent of her perfume and roll my eyes because I know she can’t see me doing it.

“Am I coming back to your place?” she asks. She bats her eyelashes at me and purposely

licks her lips.

I stand up and thank the guy behind the counter. I let her take my hand as we walk through

the arcade and out into the warm night air.

“Well?” she asks, blinking at me. She’s wearing false eyelashes. I don’t know why she wears

them because it’s way too obvious that she’s got them on. Isn’t the point of them that people are supposed to think that they’re your own lashes?

“Well, what?” I ask, distracted.

“Am I going to your house?”

I think about it. I mean I actually stand in the parking lot and think about whether or not I

can be bothered to have sex with my girlfriend. The fact that I have to think about it should be telling me something.

“Let me see if this persuades you.” She leans forward and presses her sticky lip-gloss covered

lips on top on mine. She moves slowly, testing me and teasing me to respond. I don’t at first, but when she starts to slide her tongue into my mouth, my body instinctively takes over. Despite the lip-gloss and the fact that she’s really annoyed me all night, I find myself kissing her back.