What was even the point?
Brook pushed Sophie back, her hands hard on Sophie’s shoulders.
She stumbled back, but caught herself on the dresser.
That was enough!
Sophie put her tablet down and glared at her sister.
She didn’t need this. She didn’t deserve this hostility!
“It’s my life! You are always in everyone’s business! Why do you always have to stick your nose in everything! You’re the one sleeping with two guys! How the mighty have fallen! You’re the slut!” Brooke yelled, and reeled towards Sophie.
She shoved Sophie once more, and this time, Soph couldn’t catch herself. She went down, tripping on the junk on the floor.
It hurt, landing on a pile of stuff. Her ribs ached, but not any less than her heart.
“I’ve slept with less men than you now! But you are so innocent, and I’m a whore. People hate me, but you’re the one who fucks everything up!” Brooke yelled. She shook as she jumped on Sophie.
Hands grabbed Sophie around the neck.
Her sister’s hands.
Choking her.
Sophie tried to scream, to claw at her sister’s arms, but nothing worked.
She struggled to breathe, but she couldn’t. Her lungs burned, panic ate at her like acid.
Sophie didn’t want to die! She didn’t want to lose everything that she had just gotten back!
She didn’t want to lose the baby!
The baby!
It gave her the anger, the will to live, to pull her legs up between them. She pushed her knee into Brooke’s soft chest, getting enough room push the girl off.
Brooke fell to the ground with a scream, more of a screech, giving Sophie enough time to drag air into her aching chest.
Sophie’s sister lunged again, and Sophie moved back, against the side of the bed, reaching around for anything to use to fight.
She didn’t want to hurt her sister. She didn’t want any of this.
She couldn’t even believe that the fight was happening!
Oh, Brooke!
She glared at Sophie. “If you had have been driving maybe Annie would be here and you wouldn’t! You know that Dad cut me off, right? Took all my money. He thinks I’m wasting it now! And none of this shit will sell! And it’s your fault! Dad wants me to be more like you! To get a shit job that I hate, just to survive. To give up all fun. Tim was giving me some stuff, but he died and now I’m high and dry! So, if you really want to help. Give me some cash or some coke!” Brooke yelled.
No! She wouldn’t help her sister die! She wouldn’t hurt her like that!
But how could she leave? How could she let her sister die?
She’d get her sister help. She’d do anything.
“I’ll help.” Sophie signed to her sister. She had lost one family member and she refused to lose another. She couldn’t help Annie. She had done everything in her power to, but maybe she could do something for Brooke!
“I know what you’re thinking. Pitying me, trying to think of how to make me like you. You think I want to be sober? Fuck that, Soph.” Brooke spat bitterly. “I like being high! I like the buzz and the energy. I won’t compete with you anymore! I won’t try to be like you, or get more attention than you. And sure, you wanna help. Then Mommsy and Daddikins will forgive you for getting drilled by two convicts. But guess what! They won’t! And still, I’ll be the crazy off the chain one that they pretend doesn’t exist. They don’t even ask me to come over anymore. But who the fuckity fuck cares? Because when you’re high, nothing else matters. You can relax and just be!” Her words were fast, desperate, angry, but Sophie wouldn’t just accept it.
Soph was automatically shaking her head. That couldn’t be right.
No one could want to live that way. Obviously it messed with the mind. Sophie could see that clearly from where she was standing.
Surely Brooke was just trying to get attention! And Soph would give it to her. She would help, no matter what. She wouldn’t let this take her only sister from her!
Sophie took deep breaths, but she didn’t relax. She didn’t trust that Brooke wouldn’t attack again.
“You know those men don’t love you! I know their kind. They need excitement! Sophia, you can’t excite anyone. Even Annie was bored. She wanted to hang with me but little Sophie had to tag along. You thought that you knew your twin? You didn’t. You always had a bond that I just didn’t fit into. You were in your own little world, but things changed. Annie changed. And she wanted to hang out with me!” She continued to rant.
It was true that Annie wanted to explore life, but she wouldn’t have chosen Brooke over her. It just didn’t work that way. They were two parts to a whole. They couldn’t be separated.
But you’re separate now.
“Stop” She signed, in quick exaggerated movements for emphasis.
Brooke just laughed more. Her voice rising to an unnatural level. “I know that you should have died, not her! I know that it was you keeping her alive when she wouldn’t want to be kept on those machines! Mom and Dad just waited for you to go before unplugging her. We didn’t want her stuck as a vegetable forever. You did! You wanted her to be dependent on you for her whole life! You want everyone dependant on you!”
No, that wasn’t true! She wanted to help, wanted to be needed but she didn’t want people dependant! She wouldn’t have gone to Hell to get Annie back if that was the case! Of course, Annie had been dying.
But no! She wouldn’t believe it!
Brooke would say anything to get her own way. It had always been like that.
It was why she had helped Tim try to
