The Secret Sister by M. DeLuca (leveled readers txt) 📗

you’re saying. I’ve tried to help you. My friend Colby – he’s gonna get us both out tomorrow. We’re gonna stay with his buddy. We’ll be safe there.”

“Too late for that,” she said, slumping deeper into the cushions and hiding her face. “Ew, this chair reeks of armpits.”

I grabbed her arm, shocked at the brittleness of her bones. “What do you mean too late?”

“You’ll see,” she said, hoisting herself out of the chair. “You’ll see.”

“Stick around, kid,” Patti yelled as she, Lester and the two ghouls shuffled in from the kitchen. Lester had a piece of macaroni in his moustache. Birdie’s shoulders dropped. She frowned.

“Cut the attitude,” yelled Lester, holding out two bowls of macaroni. “Sit down with your sister and be grateful for the food we’re putting in your stomach.”

“Good on you, Lester,” said Tray. “Kids today have no respect. You show ’em who’s boss.”

Tray’s wife, Anita, sniffed and wiped her arm across her nose. She had wrinkled smoker’s lips and hair so bleached it stuck out in fried, blonde wisps. “You and Patti sure have big hearts taking in kids nobody else wants. Too bad they’re just trash, taking you for all they can get.”

Patti shrugged and nodded her head towards me. “The dark haired one’s all right, but the skinny one. She’s a little witch. Can’t trust her for a minute. She’d strip us bare and sell us for a few cents.”

Birdie’s whole body tensed until her sinews were two taut chords in her neck.

“I said sit the hell down,” yelled Lester. “You look like a goddamn scarecrow. So eat.”

I grasped her wrist. “Do as they say. Please.”

Birdie’s eyes burned into mine with such hate I wanted to retch. But she slowly sank down onto the chair, her head bowed. Lester clunked the two bowls down in front of us. I was famished but nauseous at the same time, so I dug into the noodles and shoveled them into my mouth. It was a rare occasion that food came our way without us scrounging through the cupboards for it. Birdie sat unmoving.

“Eat,” I whispered. “Don’t piss them off.”

In slow motion she reached for the spoon, picked up one piece of macaroni and placed it on her tongue. A look of utter revulsion flickered across her face. I tried to remember when she’d last eaten something more substantial than a handful of crackers.

Lester and Patti settled themselves onto the couch while Tray and Anita fumbled with the brown paper bag, pulling out a plastic baggie tied with a twist tie and a hollow glass tube with a bulb at one end. Tray held the pipe like a sacred artifact while Anita tipped a tiny chunk of ice into the bowl. He reached into his pocket and took out a lighter. Flipping it on, he held the flame under the bowl. A fizzing, bubbling sound was followed by a sweet stink of burning plastic. Birdie’s eyes tracked the pipe as it rose to Anita’s lips. Her spoon hovered in the air. I wondered if she’d already tried it with Loni and was craving a hit.

Anita fell back against the chair back, a blissful grin cracking her face. Tray beckoned Patti who sprang forward and wedged her squishy butt on the corner of a cushion, then closed her eyes as he slipped the pipe into her mouth. The lighter clicked and flared. The meth sizzled, and all eyes followed the magic pipe as it rose through the air. Patti inhaled a lungful of smoke and sank back with a blissful grin on her face. Lester took his like a starving baby craving milk, and soon all four of them had blasted off to oblivion, chattering and blabbing about how great they felt and how Lester was going to get right up and whip up a batch of strawberry waffles from scratch, but maybe he’d wait till he had another hit.

“Stupid junkies,” mumbled Birdie. “Look at them.”

“Let’s get out of here. Go to our room,” I whispered. “They’ll be out cold soon.”

“I’m not moving from here. I got friends coming. Friends who’re looking out for me. Unlike my dumb sister.”

I put a finger to my lips and shook my head. “If we lock our bedroom door they won’t notice. And tomorrow we’re getting out for good.”

“Too late, baby. Loni called this morning. She’s got friends who’ll get me out of this shithole. Connected friends.”

I was cold and prickly all over. It wasn’t supposed to go like that.

Loni wasn’t included. It was just going to be Birdie and me like it always had been. I wanted to argue, to beg her not to go with Loni, but I stifled the urge and instead kept an eye on the crazy quartet who were struggling to their feet and trying to dance to ‘More Than A Feeling’ as Lester cranked up the music.

“When is Loni coming? When?”

Birdie barely glanced at me. “Any time soon. And she’s gonna teach these losers a lesson when she gets here. A big, fat lesson they’ll never forget and I’ll be laughing my fricking head off when it happens.”

Sick apprehension clenched my stomach. The macaroni sat like a heavy lump in my gut. Birdie watched the door and cracked her knuckles. Watching. Waiting. For freedom and revenge.

I called in at the outlet mall on the way home. I knew Guy would be at some downtown bar having pre-stag drinks and I had a whole lot of time to kill. Besides, all this stress and worry had drained me and I needed a shopping fix. It was time to find some office chic stuff for my new job with Gord’s company. Jeans, denim skirts and plaid shirts wouldn’t cut it in Gord’s upscale empire. Slim, tailored and sexy was the look I was after though not too provocative. If Gord attempted to touch my ass the way he’d done with Nancy, I’d waste no time plowing him in the jaw. To hell with his stupid ego.

After a major shopping