In Which I Have One of Those Siblings…

Hey! Short story time. This might be a couple of parts… depends on my mood and your demand. Let me know in the comments if you want more of this story. 

I grab a couple bags and haul them from the car. I’m so dumb with this crap. It is three flights of stairs to my apartment and I have a lot of plastic bags. I grab as many as possible and start to lug them to the stairs. I can’t us the elevator, they charge me. I’m not even sure why it’s there, no one uses it. I heave an epic sigh that breaks records and start to climb up. This sucks… Why do I have to be on the top floor? Someone honks a horn in the garage. I don’t even turn around. They honk again, laying on it. I slowly turn around, my most pissed face on. It’s Legend. She waves. I regret telling her here I live. She smiles. Seriously, not my finest moment.

“Want help?” She asks.

“Nope.” I shake my head. She gets out, not even parking the car. It’s still running. She grabs a few bags. “Your car?”

“Someone’s picking it up. I share it with a few people,” She slams my trunk and we walk up the stairs. Legend talks the whole time. Talking about her new job. She apparently does make up. Her new friends. Don’t forget her new boyfriend. Who is different from all the others. And her new apartment.  I honestly don’t care about any of it. She hasn’t called me in three months. Which may not seem like much but it was a long three months. A lot has changed. And not just who she’s dating. We get to my hall. “Wow. Charming.”

“It’s all I can afford, plus I’m not even supposed to be living on my own,” I sigh as I unlock the door and step in. It is a mess. One of the windows doesn’t even have a pane. Good thing I live in freaking LA which is always warm. Even winter. Which is great sometimes but occasionally I don’t wan tot be sweating from the heat. It has a bed pushed into a corner. My clothes are piled in one corner or all over the floor. I do have a kitchen though. No running water but there’s a fridge. Which makes no sense but I don’t complain. I start to put the food on the table and then put the perishables in the fridge. I stick all the fruit in the non working sink and the water jugs in a corner.
“Dang, you’re set for life,” She scoffs. She sits at the folding table in the middle of the room. She plays with a strand of her hair which has been dyed blue. To match her eyes I would imagine. “So uh, Ellis come over a lot?”

“Nope,” I sigh. This is why I don’t like her coming over, she’s nosy. She asks questions and digs through my stuff. “Why would she?”

“I  don’t know…” She shrugs, “But I do remember you telling me something about a kiss.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” And its true, I never kissed Ellis. She never kissed me. Well, not really. We had to do it, once. But that was only because we were pretending to be a couple. It was nothing. I pray that’s not what Legend is talking about.

“Ugh, have you even tried finding someone?” She grabs an orange from the sink and start peeling.

“I’m seventeen, I don’t need a soul mate. Otherwise I’ll end up with 27 by the time I’m 20. Sound familiar?” I grab the orange back, “You have a job, you pay for your own food.”

“Shut up.” She sighs. “You’re so uptight.”

“I have a lot to be uptight about.” I sigh back. Then stick the orange back in the sink. “Why did you come?”

“Well…” She puts on a look I know way too well. The I’m-in-trouble look. The one where she smiles weakly and shifts in her seat. “I’m in a little pickle.”

“I don’t have money,” I finish putting everything away.

“I know that, I wouldn’t come to you for money,” She scoffs, “I just need a place to hang for the next day or two, my boyfriend’s mad at me.”

“Again? What did you do this time?”I shake my head and sit down across from her. “And I’m your little brother you’re supposed to be taking care of me.”

“I just borrowed something from him and someone stole it from me…” She licks her lips, “I need to steal it back… And since you have experience in these things, I figured you could help me.”

“No,” I get up and shake my head. “No. No. NO.”

“Come on Phoenix,” She gives me a pleading look. I continue to shake my head.

“I stopped that,” My jaw is clenched, “I told you I was done with that.”

“Please? I really need you to do this,” She pinches her brows together. “Please.”

“I… I…” I cover my eyes with my hand, “Fine.”

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She squeals and gives me a hug, “You’re the best.”

“What am I stealing?” I sigh.

“A car. A sports car.” She blushes a little, “A Ferrari.”

And that my friends is how I landed in jail for stealing a really sweet ride with a messed up paint job.