Olivia
The next day, I was at Karen’s house to talk about our holiday plan. I was so excited about this. I needed this.
We had decided to go to Malibu and stayed at Brad’s beach house. He was Karen’s cousin. Apparently, Karen’s parents also wanted to have a vacation themselves for three days and we couldn’t borrow their beach house and Brad was kind enough to let us stay there for five days.
“I’m so grateful that Brad is going to let us stay at his beach house. Mom and Dad are so terrible,” Karen whined.
“I don’t mind, Karen. Maybe they need their own vacation as well.”
“Yeah, but to the point of kicking us out…that was just horrible.” Well, I guessed they needed their own time. Alone. “I’m going to introduce you to Brad when we get there. He’s a nice guy but he’s already married so scratch him out of your list.” I giggled at her information. It was not like I was going to chase him anyway. I already knew he was married and I was not the type that would be chasing over a guy who already committed with someone else.
“I won’t do that.”
“Oh, right. Because you already have Blake with you.” I immediately lost my smile. Remembering the shirts that I found yesterday.
A little stain of blood. I presumed it as blood because of the smell. I was hoping it was not blood but my mind refused to listen.
“Liv? What’s wrong?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.” I didn’t want to think about it now. “It’s just…I need some refreshing and I hope we can go sooner.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, babe. It’s all because of me.”
“No, how come you say that? It’s work.”
“Well, that’s the reason. Work. I have to work for a whole week because my stupid agency allowed me to do the festival.” To be honest, I was amazed because her agency allowed her but she had to work her ass off starting tomorrow. “Oh, I know! You have to come with me tomorrow. I want to show you the studio and everything. What do you say?”
“I can? Of course, I want to! I want to see how photoshoot doing.”
“Great!” This would be the first time I could see Karen doing her modeling work right in front of me. Actual modeling. I’m so excited.
For lunch, Karen ordered Burger King because her parents were currently out. She said it was their usual routine for going out just the two of them every Sunday. Since her father worked for a whole week, her mother deserved some attention and they always did it on Sunday because sometimes the company still bugging him on Saturday and her father didn’t want any of that while they were on a date.
I admired her parents so much. They loved each other. Cared for each other. I wished I could see mine but that was not possible.
I would never see my mom with my real dad. I assumed he never cared about me or even my mom. I never got the chance to see my mom with Blake. God, I miss her.
While I was busy thinking, I could feel a wet and sticky liquid on my finger and when I cast my eyes on my burger, Bailey-Karen’s dog was licking my burger.
“Bailey!” Karen shouted at her dog as he moved away from me. “Oh, man. I’m so sorry, Liv. Jeez, you can’t eat it anymore. His drools are all over the burger.”
“That’s okay. It’s my fault for dozing off and I forgot he’s here,” I said and put the burger down to the paper.
Bailey was walking towards Karen. “Bailey, how could you do that to her?” Karen asked while holding his cheeks as he whined. Knowing that he just did something wrong. How cute. “You just had your lunch before us. Are you still hungry, boy?” And he barked at her. Replying yes to Karen.
Bailey was a year-old Alaskan Malamute with grey and white fur. Karen loved and adored him so much. And he was big, literally big. Bailey’s breed was the same as Siberian Husky but larger. I remembered when she just adopted him, Bailey was still small but his size was massively huge for a puppy size.
I loved Bailey too and he was cute as hell. And so smart as well. I wished I could have a pet of my own but that would be impossible.
“I’m so sorry, Liv. You’re such a bad boy, Bailey,” Karen scolded and Bailey lowered his head down. His pointy ears lowered as well. He was just so damn cute!
“He’s really cute,” I said.
“The cutest,” Karen added. I knew Karen wasn’t really mad at him. Just look at him! How could we get mad at him while his face was…like that? Looked so innocent. He literally made us unable to be mad at him. He held us on his fluffy paw.
“I adopted him straight from the rescuer. Said that the mother probably gave birth and the owner threw the puppies away.”
“That’s horrible!”
“Yeah and I’m so grateful to the rescuer since all the puppies were saved. They saved them on time. I took Bailey in when he was still four months old and since then…he became my best friend. Right, Bailey?” Bailey barked at her question. Although we couldn’t understand what his bark meant, I knew he was grateful to Karen for taking him. Making him a part of Karen’s family.
“I guess he said yes, we are friends.”
“Yeah. Do you know? By having a dog, made me learn something.”
“What is it?” I asked as Karen still rubbing Bailey’s head and then she turned to me.
“Loyalty. Unlike humans, dogs won’t abandon their owners. No matter how hard the owner treated them. I had a soft spot towards dogs and I pitied Bailey because he was thrown away when he was still small. Maybe the owner couldn’t handle them and just abandoned the puppies.”
I agreed with Karen.
I watched movies and videos about dogs. They were probably the most beautiful creature ever walked on the earth. And as Karen said, their loyalty was amazing. They never asked for something fancy. They only needed love from their owner. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I could see Karen adored Bailey. Even though she was rather lazy and never took the school’s matter seriously, she loved Bailey unconditionally. And Bailey loved Karen as well. His eyes when he was looking at Karen…full of affection and adoration. He was thankful to Karen for adopting him.
I wanted a dog of my own. If Blake was not by my side because of his busy jobs, I could play with my dog. But then again, I was in school and Blake in the office. No one would pay attention to the dog later because we were going to leave them for probably around eight or nine hours. They were going to be so lonely without anyone to play with.
“Are you going to take Bailey as well to Malibu?”
“Of course! I’m sure Bailey will protect us from anybody,” she said and kissed his cheek.
I couldn’t wait for the holiday.
My holiday, please come soon.
***
Blake
I finally finished my work. It was tiring as fuck but I managed to get it all done.
I didn’t know what else to do besides watching TV. There was no interesting movie or something from FOX or others. Maybe I should try the one that Olivia always watched. The Netflix, I guessed?
As I wanted to change the channel, someone knocked on the door. I put the remote down and headed to the door. I opened it and there she was…the very last person I wanted to see right now after my tiring day.
“Hello, brother,” Cindy greeted with her usual wide smile. “Can I come in?” I was too lazy to meet her. I wanted to be alone and let me rest. But I knew better than kick her out and have her coming to my house every day until I allowed her in. Or worse, coming to my office and cause any drama.
I allowed her as she walked in. I closed the door as Cindy walked towards the living room. “Where’s Olivia?”
“She’s staying at her friend’s house.”
“Oh, that’s too bad because I want to see her as well.”
“Well, what do you want?” I asked, straight to the point. Cindy turned to me and then sat on the sofa.
“First of all, are you going to give me a drink? I’m still a guest here,” she asked.
“It depends on how you answer me.”
“Fair enough. Let’s get to the point, shall we? Have you told her?”
“…No. I told you before and I’m going to say it again because I think your brain is defunctioning. I said when it’s time.”
“And when that will be?”
“You are so persistent, little sister.”
“I’m doing this for you, big brother,” she countered while standing up.
I scoffed at her words. “You don’t do this for me, Cindy. You are doing all of this to make your fiancé happy and that is not a good sign at all.”
“You’re underestimating me, Blake. I know exactly what you have been through. We might be not related but we are still siblings and I care about you. I love you like a real big brother. You still remember?” she paused and sat back again. “When you first came to the house, I was so happy and excited because I’m going to have a big brother. I’m not going to be alone anymore.”
“I remember,” I remembered that day when my step-father introduced me to Cindy who was hiding behind my step-mother. Cindy shyly came to me and when she saw that I was no threat to her, she smiled at me and gave her hand to me.
Let’s play, big brother! That’s what she said.
We became close very fast but now…everything changed.
“It was a good memory and that’s why I couldn’t understand your decision.” I closed my eyes and moved closer to her. Standing behind the sofa. “Your fiancé only wants you because of our family’s name, sister. He never loves you. I tried to make you understand that there’s nothing good came from that bastard and it’s about damn time for you to open your eyes!”
“Why are you acting like this? You two used to be friends!”
“Everything changed when he betrayed me and Chloe! He destroyed our friendship when he accidentally made her fucking pregnant and you remember what he did when he found out? He fucking ran away and asked Chloe to abort the baby!”
I still remembered what he did that day.
The betrayal.
The disappointment.
And what made it worse…
“Even to the point accusing me as the one who made Chloe pregnant.”