I? tossed and turned all night, not getting a wink of sleep and that was mostly because I had slept for the whole day.
Every time I replayed what had happened, I’d feel bad and guilty. I tried distracting myself by watching a couple of episodes of a show but then I soon got bored of it as it didn’t really catch my attention.
It felt like a long night. It was really weird how you could sleep for eight hours on an average and still think that you just slept for a minute but when you’re awake for the same eight hours at night it feels long and unending.
Once it was six in the morning, I trudged downstairs feeling much better now. Although I still had a little bit of cold it was still better than what I was feeling the other day.
No one was awake at this time, probably except for Ethan. He must be getting ready for the day.
As expected the kitchen was empty as well. Everyone was sleeping and I tried to be as quiet as possible as I tried to get myself a cup of hot coffee.
Taking the tray with my coffee and a few cookies with me to my room, I set up a chair in the balcony.
Wrapped in a warm blanket and watching a sunrise on a cold morning in a dead silent surrounding with a hot cup of coffee and delicious cookies was my favorite thing.
After I was finished with eating, I didn’t even realize when I fell asleep to the astounding sight of the sun gracing us with its warmth and reassurance that there was a next day although I had had coffee which was supposed to do the opposite.
I was woken up when the warmth was too much to bear. That was my cue to shower and get dressed.
At the breakfast table, it was quiet as usual. Olivia, Ethan and I didn’t talk at all. All the talking was done by my parents. It was as awkward as it had been these few days.
My parents were talking about my upcoming college plan. When Juliet ran away, she had just graduated from high school and had applied to some colleges. Those were good colleges that she had applied to and got accepted in some, not some ivy leagues but definitely better than the one I was currently in. To my surprise, Juliet was actually better in academics than I was. She was also active in sports, had been the girls basketball team captain in high school and had won quite a few tournaments. But then she ran away and then two years later they found me. Now they’re deciding to send me off to college from the month of January. I couldn’t do anything about it because that meant more questions. I couldn’t tell them that I was already in a medical college in my second year because I was sure they’d investigate into it and chances were high that they’d come across a girl who looks exactly like me and of the same age as their beloved daughter, not knowing that both were the same person. But it wasn’t that hard to guess. They could easily put two and two together and then I’d be busted which would land me in big trouble.
I was tempted to abandon my old life and live my new one here. That way I wouldn’t even have to worry about money and I’d get to go to a good college, have a fresh start. I knew I was just building up my own world in the air and that nothing like that would actually happen because two people here already knew about me and when Juliet returned, I would’ve to return to my old life too.
So all I could do as my dad droned on about college was to nod along to it and later try to figure out what to actually do about it, preferably with Heather and Amelia so that I didn’t panic and would make a right decision.
The thought of Heather filled me up with more guilt than was anymore possible. I didn’t know how I was going to face her when I’d betrayed her trust. Now she’d definitely think I was a gold digger and was after her soon-to-be fiancé. She herself might even reveal things about me to the family.
No matter how things would go, I could see that I was slowly getting into trouble. Every way from here on presented a threat to my secret. Everything was slowly starting to fall apart. I could feel it.
After breakfast, two cars drove into the mansion. They stopped at the entrance and two women stepped out from their own cars.
“Heather? Amelia?” I said in surprise. I hadn’t expected them at the mansion in the morning right after breakfast.
“Hi,” Amelia said and grinned at me. Heather just gave me a small smile. We all walked in and sat on the couch.
“What’re you guys doing here this early?”
“Get ready. We’re going to hang out together.” Amelia answered.
“What? All of a sudden? Why? Is everything all right?” We had just hung out at the stables the other day albeit without Heather.
“Of course, what could be wrong? We’re just going to catch up on everything.” Once again, it was Amelia who spoke.
Heather seemed strange to me today. She looked impatient and a little troubled. She was furiously texting someone.
“Are you okay, Heather?” I was almost scared to ask. Her behavior was making my heart beat fast in the fear that somehow she got to know about Ethan and I.
She shifted her eyes to me. “Yes, I am.” She gave me a tight lipped smile. It wasn’t even a smile, just a tiny twitch of both side of her lips. “Change quickly.”
“Okay,” I said in a small voice and rose up to go change in my room.
By the time I changed and went downstairs, the two girls were ready to leave.
“Is Olivia not coming with us?” I asked.
“She’s already in the car.” Amelia said and then quickly diverted the topic and started talking about where we should go.
I could see Olivia in the car. She had her head down. She wasn’t looking at me. She had worn a loose hoodie although it was a little too warm for that.
After I was done talking to Amelia I made my way to the car in which Olivia was sitting. I went to open the car door but Heather suddenly intercepted me.
She smiled widely at me. “Go into the other car.”
“Uh… can I sit with Olivia? I actually want to talk to her about something.”
“No.” Heather said without hesitation.
“Okay… but why?”
“Just go with Amelia.”
She didn’t give me any reason as to why I couldn’t sit with Olivia. She just turned around and slipped inside the car. Olivia was on the other side of her. I ducked to get a look at her. She was wearing sunglasses and had the hoodie up. She was facing away from me so I couldn’t see her face.
Heather ordered the driver to drive away and so he did. I was just left there standing, staring at the car as it drove away.
What was up with them?
It was times like this that I assumed the worst of situations. Right now I felt as if Olivia was been taken far away from me and I would never see her again.
“Julie.” Amelia called from behind me. I turned to look back at her, to search in her eyes for signs that would indicate that something was wrong. But she just smiled at me, giving nothing away. “Come on, get in.”
And so I did. Because I didn’t know what else to do. Maybe I was thinking too much into this. Maybe Heather and Olivia just wanted to sit with each other and I’d see them again at the place where Amelia was taking me to.
After some time, we arrive at the beach. I wasn’t really in the mood for this but complied nonetheless. We changed into our bikinis and just had fun in the water. I thought Heather and Olivia would have already arrived but they were nowhere to be seen so I just thought that they might be stuck in a little traffic.
I waited for about twenty minutes during which Amelia taught me the basics of surfing after which they still hadn’t showed up.
When I asked Amelia she just said that they’d be here soon enough and then we went back to our surfing lessons.
Amelia was a pretty good surfer and she even taught well. I was having so much fun with her. She was teaching me how to surf and every time I tried to I would fail and fall into the water.
Time flew away like this that by the time I told that I didn’t want to surf anymore, it had already been an hour since we came here. And I realized that Olivia and Heather were still not here.
“Amelia, why are Heather and Olivia still not here? Where are they?”
“I’ll call Heather and ask.” She pulled out her phone and dialed her number. After a few seconds she pulled the phone away from her ear. “The call is not connecting. Don’t worry she’ll be here. Let’s not surf anymore. Do you want to make sand castles with those kids there?” She asked, pointing at a bunch of little kids who were attempting to make one.
“Okay.”
I was a little worried about the two girls who still hadn’t gotten here. We helped the little kids in building the sand castles. Our castles weren’t big but they looked cute and small. We had tried a lot of time to make bigger ones but we never succeeded mainly because my efforts were halfhearted and my mind was constantly filled with thoughts of Heather and Amelia.
Once all the kids had gone back to their parents we also decided to leave.
“Amelia, seriously tell me what’s up with those two girls? Why didn’t they come to the beach?”
Amelia who was looking at her phone showed me the screen. “They didn’t want to come to the beach. They had gone to the amusement park.” She showed me her WhatsApp where she was chatting with Heather. Heather had texted saying that she wasn’t in the mood for going to the beach. But the thing that caught my eye was that there were a series of deleted messages before that. Amelia must have sensed my eyes on it as she quickly stuffed her phone in her pocket.
“Why didn’t they tell us?”
“Come on now, we aren’t kids. Let them do whatever they want.”
“I want to go to the amusement park. The one where they are at.” I said pointing at her pocket which had her phone in it.
Amelia groaned but it felt as if she was faking it. “I don’t really want to go to the amusement park.”
“Amelia. Amusement park. Right now.”
She sighed. “Fine, let’s go.”