AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 3
Tilly
I’d known that my first day would be bad, but I hadn’t thought that I’d be leaving with my bra on show. When that jerk had knocked into me, I hadn’t known how to react. I’d felt the room turn to look at me and I’d know that it hadn’t been an accident. Our eyes had met for a moment. I’d tried to ignore the fact that his were beautiful. Like spring leaves on the trees. I’d thought I’d seen an apology in them, but he’d made no effort to ensure that I got it, and the only thing I could do to keep some of my dignity was to walk out.
That had been half an hour ago, and since then, I’d been walking around the city, lost. My mom had given me directions to the new house, but she must have written them down wrong, because they led to some little restaurant right on the brink of the city. My feet hurt and I could feel strangers’ eyes attack my breasts as the red drew their curiosities in.
I stopped and held out my arm for a taxi. I couldn’t walk any further and I was sick of hiding my chest underneath my crossed arms. I was tired. I wanted to go home, wherever that was. I gave the taxi driver the piece of paper with the street address on it and he laughed when I told him where I’d ended up.
“You took a left instead of a right? That’s big mistake. Huge. Those parts of town are total strangers to each other,” he said in a thick accent that I couldn’t quite place.
“Can you take me home, though?” I asked him as I let my head fall back against the rest.
“Yes, yes, I’ll get you home,” he said with a cheery smile as he pulled away from the sidewalk and started speeding down the street at an alarming rate, considering the congested traffic.
I watched as the world slipped into a blur and then I let my attention drift to what my new house might be like. My mom hadn’t told me anything about the man she was marrying, other than the fact that I’d like him. I didn’t know whether he had money or whether I’d be living in a trailer park. The city started to fade into the background as the driver took us further out of the center, and I noticed how the houses started to change.
We were driving through a posh part of town. The lawns were perfect, green and manicured. The houses looked as though they could house ten families without them ever having to meet. I noticed the cab slowing down and I thought it was because of the sudden interest I was paying to the scenery, but then he pulled up one of the long driveways and I realized this was where he was dropping me off.
“Are you sure?” I asked him with dubious eyes as I looked out of the cab window.
“Quite sure,” the taxi driver said as I passed him the money for the ride.
“Thanks.” I stepped out of the cab and looked up at the gigantic white-washed building that was filling my peripheral vision. It was majestic. I didn’t have any other words for it. The driveway was lined with perfectly cut spheres of rose bushes. The house had great supports that looked as though their first home had been some great colosseum in Rome.
I walked up the stone steps slowly and pushed on the golden door bell; it rang a pretty little tune that seemed to carry through the air. The door opened quickly and I had to hold back laughter when a small, plump woman in a maids’ outfit ushered me inside.
“You are the new mistress of the house, yes?” she asked with a heavy Spanish accent. Her skin was olive-toned and tired, but she had a friendly face and bright, young eyes that told me she was a lot of fun to be around.
“I think so, yes,” I said with a small nod.
“You think so?” she asked with a soft frown. “You are Tilly, yes?” she asked me, as though she wasn’t sure whether I knew my own name.
“I am,” I said assertively, so she knew that I did in fact know who I was.
“You are early,” she said with a click of her tongue as she started to turn me by my shoulders.
“Hey, where are you taking me?” I asked as she pushed me towards the stairs.
“The house isn’t ready yet, young miss; I’m going to put you in your room,” she said as she continued to push me up the stairs.
********
Chapter 4
James
The new girl didn’t show up for any of her afternoon classes. I kept my eye out for her at the end of school too, but I didn’t see her leave. I’d heard a rumor going around that she’d quit because of what I had done, but I doubted it was true. That being said, I did feel kind of bad. No one had spoken to her for all the hours that she had been here, and then I’d knocked fruit juice all over her and the book that she’d been happily reading.
I’d noticed the front cover after she’d walked out of the dinner hall. She’d been reading Pride and Prejudice and I made a mental note to replace it as soon as I could. I’d spent most of the day thinking about her, which was infuriating because I’d been intending to take Poppy to the winter formal, but now Poppy seemed like such a small fish in comparison.
I felt like Romeo the day that he’d met Juliet. He’d woken up that day crushing on Rosaline. He’d thought that he’d never known love like what he’d had for her, but then by the end of that day, everything had changed. Rosaline wasn’t anything anymore. She was barley a shadow of thought, because Juliet had walked into his life and brought with her so much sunshine that darkness could no longer exist. Yes, I felt just like Romeo and the new girl was quickly turning into my Juliet.
Sam had offered me a lift home after school, but I decided to walk. My dad had been bickering on about some kind of surprise that would be happening today, so I decided that he could wait. I walked around the sidewalks of the main streets of the city, until the sun had sunk low and the buildings had long shadows hanging from their sides, before I caught a cab and headed back to what my father considered the right part of town.
The house was busy when I got in and I could hear the staff dressing the table for dinner. I rolled my eyes at the thought of another awkward meal at the table with my father and headed straight for the stairs. I hit them two at a time until I’d reached the top, then headed down the familiar white hallway that led to my room. The normal still air that came from my side of the house seemed disturbed slightly and I stopped as I tried to work out what was different.
I could hear the shuffling of feet coming from one of the spare rooms that looked out over the back garden and I turned to push open the door, expecting to find a maid in there taking an early break or something. There was no maid, though. I pushed open the door and standing in front of me was the new girl from school. The girl who I’d spilled juice all over. The girl was still wearing the red-stained top, as though I needed that much proof that it was really her.
She looked at me with surprise, the same kind of surprise that I could only imagine had settled across my face too. “What are you doing?” she asked, as I just stood there not moving or speaking.
“What am I doing?” I asked her with a puzzled look. “Why are you in my house?” I asked her, as though she was an intruder who had just been caught. I could see mountains of boxes filling most of the floor space in the room and my brain was slowly working out the situation, even though my words weren’t conveying the fact.
“Your dad didn’t tell you either, huh?” she asked, as though she was in the know about something I wasn’t.
“Told me about what?” I snapped as she looked at me in a condescending kind of way that was starting to get on my nerves very quickly.
“Oh, I’m your new stepsister,” she said with a casual shrug as she pulled over a box and started to yank at the brown tape that was keeping it closed. The tape finally came away and the top popped open to reveal a ton of books.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I said. I could feel my brain starting to work overtime. She had to be lying. There had to be some other reasonable explanation as to why she was unpacking her stuff into one of the spare rooms.
“I wish I was,” she said as she pulled out a fresh copy of the book I’d ruined earlier. “It’s really nice to meet you, by the way, you’ve made a great impression,?
?? she added with a sarcastic pull to her tone as she started to fan through the pages of her book.
“Well, that’s good. Everyone at school loves the impression you made,” I said with a sneer before I could remind myself that she hadn’t done anything wrong and her actions were only because of the side I’d shown her earlier in the day.
“I’m sure the snobs loved it,” she said with a sour laugh.
“That’s sweet, you think we’re snobs because we have money?” I said as I prepared to scold her for being so small-minded.
“I don’t think that at all. I think you’re snobs because you all judged me without even speaking to me.” She shrugged and then gave me a bored kind of look.
“Right, well since you’ve got me all worked out already,” I said dryly, “I guess I’ll go. I’m James, by the way, in case you were wondering,” I said with a kind of sharpness that cut through the air.
“I already knew you were James,” she said with a small smile that seemed to illuminate the rest of her face. I could feel my brain quickly trying to remind myself of the fact that I hated her. “I bet you don’t know my name, though,” she said as her smile faded away and her attention turned fully to the book in her hands and away from me.
*******
Chapter 5
Tilly
