Louis’ POVI came to her rescue with another towel. Pulling the ruined towel off her lap, I pulled up her skirt to her already reddened thigh. I wiped the soup off. I got her on her feet and discarded her wet skirt and sat her back down. “How much does it hurt?” I asked her. “I am fine, Louis,” She responded. “You screamed,” I countered. “It was a reflex, it didn’t hurt that much.” She maintained. “ Now can I get my skirt back?” It was not only her thigh that had reddened.“No,” I said curtly, picking it up and walking away. I could not bear to see her like that. She was so alluring and I was losing my mind.“No?!” She got up and limped after me. “It is mine for goodness sake.” “It is wet,” I countered.“I am half naked.”God, why did she have to say that? I paused and held myself back from turning around and seeing her like that. “I’ll get you something else to wear,” I walked off. When I came back she was sitting on another couch, she got up as she heard me come from behind her.
Louis POVI tried to be gentle at first but soon I was taking her in like she was air and I had drowning been before. I probed and nibbled at her lips. They were alluringly warm and soft. My mind drifted to thoughts of how many others had had this experience before me. She was not fighting me anymore, she felt numb beneath me probably with surprise. Against every longing that threatened to smother me, I drew back but just enough to rest her forehead on mine. I let go of her hand and held her face. I took in a breath of her and had to force my eyes from rolling back. I could have devoured her. She did not push me away, she let the silence wash over us. I was the first to oust some distance between us but only to be able to look into her eyes. She looked up at me searchingly. For what I suspected was reassurance that I was not just deceiving her. After what I had done to her in the past combined with the incident today, she had every right. I let her find what she was looking for, me
Zoe’s POV“Happy birthday, dear,” Mum said as she placed the box in front of me on the dining table. “Sorry, it coming late but with this that will never happen again.” I eyed the box instead of looking at her. “Come on, open it up.” She pressed. I sighed, still keeping eyes on the box and not at Andrew who was still right in front of me. Mum did not need to force him to be here if did not want to. It made the situation even more awkward. I placed a tentative hand on the pink ribbon that tied the lid closed before tugging on it. It fell away and it lifted the lip and peeked inside. It was a white box with the image of a flip phone. My eyebrow almost disappeared into my hairline. “A phone?”Mum jumped a bit, obviously happy with my reaction. “Come on, check it out, everything has already been set.”I discarded the white box and pulled out the phone. I could have giggled, it was so darn shiny. “Oh my gosh.” I could not explain my excitement. “Now you can call your new friend,” Mum
Zoe’s POVWe had to talk but ruining this moment felt like sin. It had been about two weeks since the whole birthday party incident and things between Louis and I were smooth. Sandra had not reached out to me at all. I was hurt by her actions but I could not hate her. I was hoping that not all we had had been a charade on her part. I remembered the look on her face in the elites’ classroom. The agony and vulnerability. She had not jibed at me like the rest of them. Even though, deep down I knew that if the prank had ruined my relationship with my brother, I would feel differently. But Andy did not alienate me like he alienated Regina. I was glad that he did not understand the complexities of the situation. He did not need his innocence tainted more than it already was. Yet he took it maturely and said, “Kissing is what grownups do and that those mean kids should mind their business.” He had told me that the only reason he had cried was because he did not like what they were calling me
Zoe’s POV“Where have you been?” Mum turned away from the stew she was stirring. “It is late.”“Out with a friend,” I lied. Her gaze narrowed on me. The way I had let my hair down must have aroused her suspicion. “It must have been a lot of fun,” She suddenly flashed me a mischievous smile. She walked up to me and I fought every urge to run. She reached out and pulled a small leaf out of my hair. “Lots of fun,” She repeated. “Anyway dinner will be ready soon so maybe you should take a shower. She walked back to the stove. “Yeah, maybe I should,” I chuckled nervously. “Andy’s in my room by the way,” “Okay,” I said. Even if he was cool with the ‘grown up stuff’ but there was no way in hell that he was seeing me like this. On my way to my room, the door opened and out came Regina with my savings purse. She paused at the entrance and gave me a disapproving look. “Mum’s broke, you’re broke, Is there any useful person in this goddamn house?” She disappeared for weeks only for her to
Zoe’s POVI jumped out of bed with a yelp. I looked around and panicked. Regina was still in bed blissfully unaware of the danger. I yanked off my covers, rushed to her bed and shook her by the shoulders. She stirred a bit before falling back into slumber. I glanced back at the fire to see it was spreading even faster. Soon the entire room would be engulfed in flames with us in it. Without a second thought, I slapped Regina hard across the face. She jolted awake, cursing. “What the fu…” But the sight of the fire left her speechless. “Let’s go,” I Pulled on her arm. For the first time, she actually listened to me and stepped down off the bed. She gripped my arm like a lifeline as we tried to escape the room running through a path in the fire that was least likely to cause us too much harm. The door was locked shut which was strange because we had not locked it.“We have to break it down,” I told Regina. She nodded and we moved back a bit and ran into the door. It took about five tries
Zoe’s POVThe world was swallowed in darkness, no light in sight. It was suffocating. I could hear a beeping sound somewhere not too far away. I flexed my fingers and felt them move. I searched through the dark for light again and slowly my kids started to open. Light flooded in, blinding me. I groaned as I tried to turn my head away from the light. Pain tore through me with my attempt. My head was pounding and my throat felt like it was someone else’s. I tried again to open my eyes but even slower this time. The illumination was slightly more bearable now. My eyes watered from the stimulation. I closed them again and tried using my ears. The beeping around me was now closer, it was coming from behind me. Where was I? Why did my whole body ache as I walked through hell? Then it flashed through my head. The fire, the smoke, mum, Andy… It hit me too hard and I suddenly found it hard to breathe again. I had really walked through hell but where was everyone? Did they all make it? Why was
Zoe’s POVMy world stopped at that moment and I gaped at my sister. My lips quivered as I tried to retrace my step. Where had it gone wrong? Had we been so late? “But it's not what you are thinking, “ She continued, picking her words carefully. “What?” I managed to ask. “What do you mean?” “They are not dead, they have disappeared,” She revealed. At this point, I did not know what to think. First, there was a relief and then questions started to mount each other again. “When, where, and for how long?”“After you got Andy out of the fire, the ambulance carried all of us here,” She said. “You and Andy were in the most critical condition, you have been asleep for four days,” I kept mute so that all the details would sink in. “Mum woke the next day after we got here, she was okay until she started acting weird.”“Weird?” I asked.For a second Regina kept quiet again. “You were stable but Andy’s condition got worse. The doctor believed that he wasn’t doing too well because he is you