The loss of my mom had made me desperate to cling to people I wanted in my life—I didn’t realize it at the time.
“You could let me buy you a milkshake,” I said and she blushed even harder.
That was the first and the last time I was ever going to ask a girl out on a date.
We rode our bikes together to the diner I used to have breakfast at with my brothers. Everyone knew me there. Hell, everyone had always known me everywhere.
We sat together at a booth in the corner and we ordered milkshakes and fries. Christie was shy and sweet, too nervous to meet my eyes.
She was the first girl I was truly interested in. More than interested in. I thought she was the prettiest thing I had ever set my eyes on and I hoped she liked me too.
I remembered our conversation well even now, even though it happened more than a decade ago. I asked her what her hobbies were, what kind of movies she liked, if she had a boyfriend. She seemed hesitant to answer any of the questions, it was like she hadn’t thought about those things before even though they were regular things.
We finished our food and I knew I wanted to see her again. I wanted to hold her hand and kiss her.
As we were leaving the diner, Christie flipped her hair over her shoulders and turned to me.
“Do you want to meet me tonight? At Brambley Park? I think I’ll be able to sneak out around midnight.” Her eyes glowed with excitement as she proposed the idea and I couldn’t believe my luck.
I didn’t think she had an adventurous streak. Of course I wanted to see her tonight. I figured it’d be my opportunity to kiss her. I excitedly agreed to see her at the park at midnight.
I went back home and spent the rest of the day thinking about her. Daydreaming and fantasizing about her plump pink lips. I used to tell my brother, Brendan, everything. We’d always been best friends, but he seemed busy that day.
Besides, I didn’t want to jinx it by telling him I’d met a girl who wanted to meet me alone at night in a park.
I stayed up all night, pacing around in my room until eleven-thirty. Then I snuck out of the house and got on my bike to ride over to the park, shaking with excitement and joy. I was so fuckin’ naive.
I could see her blonde hair shining from a distance as she stood waiting for me, wearing a bright pink puffy jacket and her cheeks flushed from the cold.
I waved to her and she waved back, but she looked nervous. Even more nervous than she’d looked in the morning. And even as I walked towards her with a skip in my step, I had no idea I was walking into a trap.
Isabelle opened the door with a smile.
“Where’s Elsie? I thought you were bringing her.”
“She’s taking a shower, and I’m not staying for long.”
Isabelle walked into the house and I followed her. She’d already made up a bag with some clothes she thought would fit Elsie. They were about the same size and height, so I figured it wasn’t going to be a big problem.
“I heard everyone’s warmed to her pretty quickly,” she said.
I stood back, watching her, with my hands shoved in my jacket.
“Yeah, I guess,” I answered.
She must’ve heard something in my voice because she looked over at me with her brows furrowed.
“I thought you were on her side.”
“I’m not on anybody’s side. Just trying to get to the bottom of this.”
“Bottom of what? What’s the problem, Tristian? She needs to be kept safe from Aldo Baron and that’s what you’re helping her with, right? Keeping her safe.” She zipped up the bag as she spoke and I grabbed it out of her hands.
“Maybe you’re a little too quick to trust,” I growled.
Isabelle hooked her hands on her hips and shook her head.
“And maybe you need to just relax a little. It happened a decade ago, Tristian.”
I looked up at her sharply and she shrugged. We both knew exactly what she was talking about. I just hadn’t expected her to bring it up.
“I have to go back,” I snapped, but she followed me quickly to the door.
“Tristian!” she barked at me, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“Not every chick in the world is out there to deceive you and lead you into a trap, do you hear me?”
I turned to face her, clenching my jaws to control the rage building up inside me. That was exactly how I felt every time Christie came up in a conversation.
Isabelle tightened her grip on my shoulder.
“You were a kid. You were manipulated and trapped. They knew what they were doing. Heck, it wasn’t even that girl’s fault. She was just following orders and who knows what she’d been threatened with.”
“Yeah, exactly the way Elsie could be manipulated and threatened by Aldo, and being forced to spy on us.”
“Tristian, please, you need to let go of the past. None of it was your fault. Or Brendan’s, or anybody’s from the family. You were all messed up over the death of your mother. None of you were thinking straight. You were all too young.”
I yanked away from Isabelle and walked out of the door.
“Thanks for the pep talk, sis, but I don’t need it.”
“So you’re just going to keep treating her like shit because you can’t get over what happened to you?” she called after me.
But I chose to ignore her and kept walking. Isabelle wasn’t there when it happened. She didn’t know what she was talking about.
Eleven
Elsie
By the time I stepped out of the shower with a big towel wrapped tight around
