Nine Days: Chapter 20

“the world would break us out we weren’t wrong”—and by EDEN

After spending the morning of my birthday with Colin’s family, I’m relieved to finally be at my father’s house.

I adore Colin’s parents. His father is much nicer than I imagined he would be. And his mother has such a kind soul, I adore her even more than little Reece who wouldn’t stop babbling about Paw Patrol. That kid loves his animated animals that go out for rescues.

And Eira, where should I begin? Eira is amazing and truly funny. Despite having caught a flu—that is supposedly not contagious—she is joking around and enjoying every bit of life she’s been given. Eira is so energetic, I wonder what she is like with more strength and less flu in her body.

His family even went as far as to gift me a couple of things. These people don’t know me one bit and yet they all ended up having a present for me.

I didn’t even want to accept them.

Eira gifted me a designer dress. It still had the price tag attached to it.

Mrs. Carter, who I’m supposed to call Elena, gifted me a pair of new high heels, expensive ones. Mr. Carter added a new purse, fitting to the shoes. Reece drew a couple of pictures for me. I like his pictures the most of all the presents. Mainly because he didn’t pay for it.

I didn’t want all those presents, neither did I ask for them, and they were a total waste of money. Nonetheless, I am grateful for them.

And Colin, well, he insists I get my present from him later tonight. That’s totally not freaking me out.

‘Good morning there, dimples,” Colin greets Ana when she comes downstairs to get breakfast. Her hair is still messed up from sleeping, she’s still in shorts and a tank top, indicating that she’d just woken up.

And judging by her flushed cheeks when her eyes meet Colin’s, she doesn’t seem pleased by seeing him.

“Morning,” she mumbles as she walks past him, heading straight to the coffee maker.

“She’s always cranky in the morning,” dad tells me, like I didn’t know that already. To be fair, I never stopped by in the mornings. The only times I’ve come over to visit was late in the evenings. Yet I still know Ana isn’t a morning person at all.

“Oh my God,” Ana breathes. “Lily!” Her excitement to see me throws me off. I’ve never been nice to Ana, yet whenever she sees me, she acts like I’m her favorite person. “Happy Birthday!”

“Thank you.” I don’t offer more than a slim smile.

“Where’s Aaron?” Ana eyes Colin with caution. Of course, she knows Colin as the guy being her brother’s best friend, and somehow that annoys me.

“Not sure, home, probably.”

“Then why are you here?” I’m not sure if Ana likes Colin a lot or loathes him to death.

“Meeting my in-laws.”

My father laughing, covering it with a cough when he sees my serious face. Ana looks just as serious as I do.

She’s a lot like me. Always serious when she doesn’t like someone’s comment. She won’t even act like it was funny, just like I wouldn’t. My father once told me she used to say she wanted to be just like me. I always dismissed that thought. Ana couldn’t possibly like me, given how I’m treating her.

But despite me mistreating her for envious reasons, I like Ana. She’s such a sweetheart and a genuinely nice person, always there when someone needs her. I’m sure she’s a great friend to her people. Hell, she’s a great friend to me and I never even gave her one reason to like me.

“That’s not funny.” Ana picks up the cup from the coffee maker, taking a sip. Apparently she likes dark coffee. No sugar or milk. Just plain coffee, right from the coffee maker.

“It’s not,” Colin agrees. “I am deadly serious. I’m getting married to my girlfriend tomorrow.”

Ana’s jaw drops to the floor, her eyes widening like there is a ghost across the room. “You’re shitting me.”

“Watch your language, Ana.” Dad always disliked mature language. Cussing is a complete no-go for him.

“He’s joking,” I reassure Ana. “We’re not getting married.”

Ana visibly calms, letting out her breath as she shows her relief. I wonder why that’s such a relief to her. Is the thought of me marrying Colin such a bad one? Is she worried he might regret marrying me because she knows I’m a horrible person?

“Who said I was getting married to you?” Colin looks at me, smiling. “I already signed the contract to marry Ana. Right Emerson?”

My father chuckles, shaking his head in disbelief. My father has never looked at me with such amount of amusement in his eyes. I wouldn’t know if he ever looked at Aaron this way, I wasn’t around much. But he sure didn’t look at me like that. Not once.

My father was always proud of me. Always. After every new stunt I’ve learned on the ice, dad used to throw a tiny party for me the following Sunday. I really miss those days a lot.

Ana disappears upstairs, but comes back twenty minutes later, fully dressed and with a touch of makeup on her face.

She dressed up. Not like a normal Saturday morning outfit. No, I’m saying full on spending a night out kind of outfit.

“Where are you going dressed like that?” my father asks.

“Picking mom up from work.” Ana grabs the car keys and puts on a jacket.

“Your mother has a car, Ana.”

“She didn’t take it.”

“She did,” my father says. I’m sure he knows whether or not his wife would need a ride home from work or not. “So, where are you going dressed like that?”

“Just driving around.” She sighs and drops the keys back into the bowl by the front door. “Why can’t I ever spend some time out alone?”

“You can. Just not dressed like that, Ana.” I’m not blaming my father for calling Ana out on what she’s wearing. Especially not when she only wants to “drive around.” I mean, Ana put on a really short dress with high heels that end up brining her to my height. She straightened her hair, even put on red lipstick. And the cleavage from the dress is definitely way too much for a sixteen-year-old.

This outfit seems so familiar to me. Kind of like I’ve seen it before. Or worn it before.

“Go upstairs and get dressed. Properly.”

“Colin likes it, don’t you?” Somehow I keep forgetting that Colin is actually quite attractive when he’s not riding high on his ego horse. Okay, even then he’s this handsome guy girls tend to gawk at.

“It’s too showy,” Colin says without even looking at her once. His eyes remain on our intertwined hands, watching as his thumb brushes my skin ever so lightly.

“You like showy though.”

“Says who?” He—finally—looks at Ana.

“You’re dating Lily. She always walks around dressed like this.”

Colin looks me up and down, frowning. He has every right to frown at me. Colin has never seen me truly dressed up, mainly because I haven’t done that in two years. At least not in a short dress with a ton of makeup.

These days I prefer to fade into the background instead of standing out.

Self-hatred aside, I know I’m not bad looking. I’m aware of my curves, some girls would kill to have. I used to embrace them. But then I stopped because I didn’t want any more attention than I’ve already gotten.

All I wanted was to be on my own, be forgotten so I can leave this world without anyone noticing.

“Never seen that on her.” Colin shrugs, looking at me with a softness in his eyes.

Ana rolls her eyes as she storms upstairs. My father is about to go after her, clearly not tolerating Ana’s behavior. But I stop him, going after her instead.

It’s not like I have much to lose.

I knock on her door, waiting for her to let me in. But what comes instead is a “go away.”

“Ana? It’s Lily. Can we talk?”

“You never speak to me. You can ignore my existence now as well,” she snaps. I totally deserved that.

“I need some advice.”

“Get it from someone else.” Her voice is quiet, suppressing tears. “Or ask your boyfriend for it. I’m sure Colin would love to hear you talk.”

“I’d rather get some advice from my sister.” I decide on cutting the word “step,” knowing calling her my sister only would have her cave.

“Come in.” Called it. I suppose this is my time to rectify my relationship with Ana before my death. Personally, not in form of a letter.

I walk into her bedroom, finding Ana sitting on her bed, crying. Closing the door behind me, I make my way over to her, taking a seat across from her.

“Ana,” I say, almost whispering. “What is going on with you?”

“Nothing.” She groans, knowing I will continue to ask until she spills out the truth. “You. That’s what’s wrong.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You’re the perfect daughter. Everyone always praises you. I’m living in your shadow and you’re not even around.”

I had no idea. All this time I thought Ana is the favorite. I mean, my father sure loves me, I know he does, but ever since Ana was in the picture, everything is always about her.

“And now you even got Colin.” She takes a few deep breaths, toning down her anger. “You weren’t even supposed to know each other. And you keep lying to me, Lily. You need my advice, on what? How to steal my whole life?”

“Actually, I wanted to say I’m sorry.” Ana’s eyes dart toward me in shock. There is no going back now. “I know I haven’t been the nicest to you. I was jealous of you. You just came and stole what was mine. You stole my family, not that it was your fault. But I made it yours,” I speak slowly, calmly.

“You’ve got all the attention from my father. You got to grow up with the man that was supposed to help me grow up. You even got to see my own brother more often than I did. I envied that. So I made it my own personal mission to hate you.”

And then we spend the next twenty minutes talking about how much I’ve messed up ever since Ana is here as well. How messed up it was of me to hate on a little girl, one that couldn’t even comprehend what was happening when she first got here.

I apologize a couple of times, but each time Ana tells me to stop apologizing and goes straight to hugging me.

And just like my father and Colin told me, Ana does look up to me. I don’t quite understand why, but it feels good to know.

“So, you like Colin, huh?” I offer a slim smile. Having a crush on someone you can’t have sucks. And having a crush on Colin Carter can never end well. I’ve witnessed more girls crying over this guy than I’ve seen planes in the sky.

“No.” Ana denies it, but when I raise my eyebrows at her, she admits to me hitting the nail right on the head.

“You know he’s a bit too old for you, right?”

“It’s just five years,” Ana says as her cheeks flush. “16 and 21 sounds wrong, it won’t sound wrong anymore when it’s 20 and 25. Or even 18 and 23.”

“Well, good luck stealing his heart. You will lose a lot of nerves to get through his ego.”

She laughs, but it quickly dies down. “He loves you.”

“He sure as hell doesn’t.”

“You did see the way he looks at you, right?” Ana’s eyes light up like the Eiffel Tower.

“How does he look at me?”

“The way I’ve wanted him to look at me for a while,” she says, but I don’t quite understand. “Like he’s in love with you.”