Arianna's Tale: The Beginning (11 page)

“You’re my brother,” I blurted almost
silently, it was the only coherent thought I could latch onto.

“You know I’m really not…” he mumbled,
sighing. “I won’t be upset if you say no… just don’t be upset when
I ask again after a while… and I don’t want things to change. You
can trust me, and you can rely on me; I will take care of you.”

“Jason, I…” I faltered, making the mistake
of looking at those adorable blue-green eyes and the way they were
watching me. “You’re my brother….”

He sighed and let his eyes close, taking a
deep breath before beaming that bright smile at me. “All right, for
now I’ll accept that,” he decided, his lips curling into a grin,
“But this is definitely not the last you’ll hear from me. I saw the
way you looked at me just then… and last night when I let you in my
room….”

The memory of my very attractive-looking,
disheveled
adoptive
brother made my heart skip.

“You’re twelve,” I added seriously, not only
to him, but to me, “You’re way too young, Jay. Even though you may
act… and sometimes
look
… older than you are, doesn’t change
the fact that you’re
twelve
and that would just be
wrong.”

“Almost thirteen,” he defended with that
grin still playing across his face, “It won’t seem like as big of a
difference once school starts and we’re on campus together every
day.”

“Then we’ll be around people who know you’re
my little brother,” I argued seriously, easily snitching the snow
globe out of his hands and leaning up to put it on my bookcase. “Is
Austin making breakfast or do I need to go fix something?”

“I’ll make breakfast,” Jason offered. He
waited until I sat back down to lean up and kiss my cheek and then
he darted out of my room and down the hallway. “What do you want to
eat, Austin?” I heard him ask, but my wide-eyes were staring into
the remaining items in my box as my hand fluttered up to my
cheek.

“I can’t even think about this…” I murmured,
resuming my unpacking until Austin knocked on my open door.

“What did he do?” he quietly asked when I
looked over my shoulder at him, “He was too excited to have not
done something.”

“Nothing,” I lied, sighing and turning back
to my work, “What could he do that would compare to you stealing my
first kiss?”

He had started into the room, but his feet
scuffed to a stop at my words. “You’re saying I messed up… and I
understand that…” he whispered, kneeling down beside me, “I’m
sorry… for messing up… forgive me…?” I just kept staring into my
box and heard him sigh. “Do you want to talk about this?”

“You’re my brother…” I murmured, “You’re
both my brothers… you always have been, and you always will be, and
it’s a little different with Jay, but….”

“You’ve only just found out you were
adopted… maybe over time you’ll change your mind,” he cautiously
suggested and I sighed, shaking my head.

“I need space,” I mumbled and with a sigh he
was gone, closing my door behind him. I did something then that I
hadn’t done in a long time; I dug through the only box I hadn’t
started on yet, and pulled out my journal.

May 19, 2008

There are some things I have to think out,
and this is the best way to do it. On the one hand, I have just
found out I’m adopted. This should be more of a shock to me than it
is, and I suppose if I had grown up with the stereotypical home
life with a mom and dad that were there all the time and involved
in my life, it might affect me more. As is, I barely notice a
difference. I never connected with Mom, now I can’t stand her; and
Dad was never around. My problem that I’m having, the one thing
that’s changed, is my adoptive brothers. We were inseparable when
we were younger, Austin grew distant, but Jason and I were still
attached until......... recently.......... But now they’re both…
they both like me and more than as their sister… and… Jason… Jason
breaks my heart, but he’s TWELVE. Austin is… Austin. He’s gorgeous,
of course… he’s the perfect guy, but the distance that he put
between us… But the thing is… if I looked at either of them in an
honest, open, light and didn’t consider them my brothers, I would
have to move away or something… and I can’t imagine being away from
them… but with things the way they are right now, I can’t imagine
being here with them every day.

“I don’t know what to do,” I groaned,
dropping my pen and journal on the floor as my hands slid up into
my hair, nearly pulling it out from its roots, “And Jason really is
about to be thirteen… four days… but I’ll be seventeen in two
months… that’s four years… which, really… I know it’s not that much
of an age difference… but….” I screamed, out loud, and bit my lip
hard when I heard feet running up the stairs. “I’m fine!” I yelled,
but they still pushed the door open and looked inside anyway and I
rushed to scrub the tears out of my eyes. “I said I’m fine….”

“Yeah, tear-streaked faces… especially
yours… really emit a sense of ‘fine,’” Austin uttered, running his
hand over his head through his hair, “Arianna… forget what I said…
I want you here, with us… forget what I’ve said and let things go
back to normal….”

“You’ll go back to ignoring me, then?” I
whispered and he laughed distantly, shaking his head as he looked
up at me.

“Not
that
normal… Just back to
brother and sister and nothing else,” he explained softly, “Just
know… should you
ever
change your mind… all you have to do
is tell me.”

I barely nodded and Jason sighed. “Me too… I
don’t want you upset like this because of us, Anna,” he added and I
glanced up at those distant blue-green eyes and felt my heart
wrench in my chest and the tears sting my eyes again. “Anna….” He
sounded as torn as I felt and I forced a smile and shook my
head.

“I’ll be down to breakfast soon, it had
better be good,” I managed, though my voice sounded ragged from my
scream and Jason sighed again before running downstairs.

“Anna, do you need help with your boxes?”
Austin offered, but the tone of his voice had changed and I glanced
at him only to see something in his blue eyes that I didn’t truly
recognize.

“I’m almost finished,” I answered, smiling
again, “So why don’t you like Jack and Alex?”

“There’s a whole slew of things around here
that are all connected that I don’t very much like,” Austin
commented evasively, “But I’ve got no real idea how they’re
actually connected… so if you ever figure it out… let me
know….”

“They’re part of this group of things you
don’t like?” I wondered, putting away the remaining things from my
opened box.

“They are… deeply involved, actually…”
Austin replied quietly, “I don’t trust them with you….” His voice
was closer and I darted my gaze up to him as he knelt down beside
me. “He’s four years younger than you, Anna… when he’s eighteen and
you’re twenty-two, it won’t be as big of a deal… but right now…
right now you’re extremely different… he’s so young… he’s
immature….”

“I wish I could agree with you… but he’s
not, Austin… and I know he’s younger… and I know you would be upset
if I even considered it… but I’m
not
considering it,” I
stated, tears welling up in my eyes again, “We need to go
eat….”

Austin only nodded and helped me to my feet
as we both went downstairs and into the kitchen where Jason had
prepared omelets. I honestly hadn’t known he could cook anything at
all, much less omelets.

Breakfast, which when I glanced at the clock
had really become brunch, was awkward and I could only hope things
would settle back out to some kind of normalcy.

We worked together through the afternoon to
get our rooms set up and throw out the boxes. I didn’t realize
until I was in the shower, that I wasn’t the one to put up my
journal, but it had definitely been up on my desk when I’d last
seen it.

“Crap, crap, crap,” I muttered while I was
wrapping up in the towel, “Which one of them read it…? Either way
is bad.”

I was really glad to realize that Dad had
done renovations since I’d been to his house as a kid. He’d added
another bathroom right next to my room, which Austin automatically
deemed mine and that Austin and Jason would share the original
guest bathroom. It was nice to have my own bathroom, for the first
time in my life, and Dad had sparsely decorated it with a note that
we’d go shopping and I could get whatever I wanted to for it. It
was really a comfort that I hadn’t expected, but when I stepped
into the hallway, wrapped in my towel, at the same time that Jason
stepped out of their bathroom with his towel around his waist, we
both froze.

“Y… your cheek’s doing better,” he
stammered, but my face flushed red before I darted into my room and
closed the door behind me.

“You were just staring at a
twelve-year-old,” I scolded myself beneath my breath, leaning hard
against my door, “My god he looks way older….”

I took several deep breaths before I went to
my closet and pulled out a pair of dark wash jeans and one of my
favorite burgundy silk halter tops. I slipped my feet into wedge
sandals, not knowing what kind of ground we’d be out on next to a
lake, and fixed my hair into soft curls and did a quick covering of
light makeup.

So by the time Austin knocked on my door to
announce that we were leaving, I was completely ready and stepped
into the hall to find him in jeans and a button-up blue top and
Jason just down the hallway in cargo shorts and a brown tank with a
button-up deep teal shirt thrown on, unbuttoned, over it.

“You are not going dressed like that,”
Austin blurted but I laughed and grabbed his arm.

“Are you going to drive, or do I have to get
us lost along the way?” I asked, grabbing Jason’s arm when we
passed him and pulling them both down to the garage.

“You’re seriously going to go dressed like
that…?” Austin reiterated and I only answered by looking from his
car to mine. He sighed and let us into his new sports car where I
climbed into the backseat, much to Jason’s confusion. “Get in, Jay.
Front seat,” Austin instructed and Jason climbed inside and buckled
in before turning in the seat to face me.

“What are you doing?” he questioned and I
shrugged, only briefly looking into those suspicious blue-green
eyes. “Why won’t you look at me?”

“Leave her alone, Jay,” Austin insisted,
glancing at me in the rearview mirror, “She’s got to sort through
some things… leave her alone.”

And I realized then, that Jason definitely
hadn’t seen my journal, if anyone had, it was Austin. I smiled up
at him in the mirror and he faintly laughed, shaking his head.

He was racing through the streets and I
gripped the seat until my knuckles turned white. “Austin, slow
down,” I insisted, staring out the window and swearing I saw
something running in the tree line again.

“Quit looking out the window, it makes it
seem like I’m going faster than I am,” Austin argued, but the trees
stopped passing quite so quickly before I stared down at my hands
in my lap. A howl reached my ears and had my gaze darting back out
the window in shock.

“Did you hear that?” I gasped, it was so
loud, even inside of the car going as fast as we were.

“Coyotes,” Austin dismissed, “It’s really
not safe outside after dark. The cops are keeping under wraps just
how many people have gone missing… but I know Dad… someone else
disappeared yesterday… So any of these bonfires you want to go to,
you make sure Dad knows about them.”

“Coyotes… yeah…” I mumbled, the car slowing
drastically when we pulled off onto a dirt road. The sun had
started setting before we’d left the house, and by the time I
started to see flames flickering in the distance, it was completely
dark and my nerves suddenly set on edge.

“Holy crap,” Jason muttered beneath his
breath and my gaze darted out the front windshield to the crowds of
people and lines of parked cars, but even more to the humongous
bonfire that stretched up above the trees.

“Welcome to the bonfire, guys… Anna, stay
where at least one of us can see you at all times… we still don’t
know where Mark went… and I’m not risking your safety for some
stupid party,” Austin instructed, following the people waving him
over to park at the end of the line.

When we got out of the car and headed
towards the crowd, there was a hush that followed us and worsened
my nerves. A hush that seemed to grow worse until Jack jogged over
with a smile covering his face.

“The Grays! So glad you found us,” Jack
greeted cheerfully and the hush grew louder, “Come on, come meet
everyone.”

“Everyone?” I whispered and Jack laughed,
his smile softening when he looked at me.

“Everyone being my closest friends,” he
reasoned with a faint chuckle, “You don’t like crowds, do you?”

“I’m not used to them,” I admitted with a
shrug and his emerald eyes briefly darted to Austin, but he
suddenly spun around and all I saw was a blur of shaggy blonde
hair.

My eyes scrunched in confusion, he’d acted
like he’d been called, but there was too much noise and I hadn’t
heard anyone. When I spotted Alex off in the distance walking
toward us with the prettiest girl beside him and realized that it
was Alex that Jack was looking at, my confusion grew worse. With
how far away Alex still was, there was no way Jack could’ve heard
him even if he’d yelled. My attention was pulled to the girl beside
Alex; young woman, I decided, who twirled in circles randomly to
the music that pulsed in the air. Her long, flowing light gray
skirt swirling around her ankles revealed her bare feet, and her
white top was ruffled and fell off the shoulders, like something
straight out of the eighties. Her long deep black hair fell in soft
waves past her shoulders as she laughed, but the split second when
she met my gaze, I gasped; she had a slightly lighter shade of
Alex’s strangely aqua eyes and had to be his sister. I let my gaze
shift to Alex to find him staring at me with an amused smile on his
face and my heart skipped. It was strange, the way everyone just
seemed to clear out of their way, the way they moved with such
confidence; all of it struck a chord of oddness in my mind.