Chapter 6
Twisted Truths (excerpt)

...As though to answer my previous question, I heard the creak of the door. We all instantly straightened as my elder sister stepped into the room.

 From what I’d said before, most people would think of Erica as some annoying blonde bimbo, with the way that my foster parents kept her safely away at college most of the time. In truth, she was petite and sweet-looking, with large doe-like eyes and short-cut sandy hair, with a large smile that showed off her braces. The only problem was that she was a little too innocent for her own good, and guys---good and bad alike---were quickly drawn in by that. It was better that she stayed at college with friends who looked out for her instead in the harsh atmosphere of NYC.

 “Risa!” She squealed as I gave her a weak smile, but the enthusiasm was a little feigned. She seemed tired, and she wiped at a drop of moisture on her cheek. My heart sank even further. What was going on?

“Hey, Eric,” I smiled back, giving her a hug and trying to put on a cheerful face for her sake. “What’s up?”

“Ah, nothing much…oh, hey!”

She seemed to have finally caught sight of Gabriel, who carefully laid Foster down on the old armchair pressed against the wall, and then awkwardly stood to offer my sister his hand.

 “This is Gabriel,” I said nervously as Gabriel gave her a wide, enchanting smile. She looked utterly charmed.

I feel your pain, sister.

“Nice to meet you,” she finally cooed, but more in a big-sister way, not in a way that would make me worried. Not that I had a right to be worried about a guy who didn’t know about my massive crush on him and probably had a girl stowed away somewhere, anyway.

Then, all my resentful thoughts and self-loathing for managing to fall into like with Gabriel was gone, because Erica was giving me a familiar, calculative look.             

“Got over Patrick pretty fast, didn’t you?”

Oh no. She. Did. Not.

“Eric!” I wailed. “He’s my friend!”

Gabriel was giving both of us a startled look.

 “Um…” he began, but Erica was already backing up at the furious look on my face.

“Alright, alright, sis! Easy!”

She held up her hands in surrender, but not before I saw the twinkle in her eye. That was both a blessing and a curse; a curse because she obviously knew now that at least I had more than friendly feelings in this relationship, and a blessing because, whatever was up with our parents, it certainly wasn’t bothering her now. I had managed to distract her and wind her down, and that would help later when Marcus and I teamed up to interrogate her, which is what we always did. It was sort of the good cop, bad cop routine.

“Did you all eat anything?”

Erica patted Gabriel on the shoulder in an approving sort of way that made Marcus glare at her, and then walked towards the kitchen.

 “I’m not really hungry,” I called back.

“Mark?”

Should I have a website?

Chapter 5: Animal Magnetism (preview)

You can probably expect this chapter by the end of the next week, as I have SATs to study for, and this is still half-finished...