Chapter 9

The second I pushed the door open something didn't feel right and then I heard the gentle sound of sobbing coming from my kitchen. "Micah?" I called into the house, the crying instantly stopped with a gasp that was way too feminine to be my nephew's. Was Gypsy here? Or maybe Whitley? She was doing training in Forks at the moment.

I timidly creep into the kitchen and there's a girl I've never seen before sat on my kitchen floor with mascara all down her cheeks. She looks up at me with these puppy dog eyes and I don't know what the hell to do. "HI?" I say carefully but that just brings on another wave of tears.

She looks maybe fourteen at the most, long chocolate brown hair in a braid over one shoulder, huge brown eyes like a baby reindeer, tiny little button nose, beautiful caramel coloured skin and more earrings than I thought an ear could manage. But I still have no idea who she is. "I'm... I'm" she tries to say something to me but she starts choking on her tears, I quickly fill a glass off of the side with water and hand it to her.

The girl gives me a watery smile then gulps down half the glass, she's panting when she hands it back to me.

"I'm so sorry to just show up here but I didn't know where else I was supposed to go" she sobs. What the hell do you say to that? So I say the only thing I can think of.

"That's alright, are you okay?" I ask

"Not really no!" she wails and beings crying again. "It's just Cal's being so difficult at the moment" she sobs. Okay who the hell is Cal?

"He is?" I ask

"He just doesn't get it and he thinks that just because I won't sleep with him he can go behind my back with some other girl" she cries

"Wow, what an ass" I mutter

"Exactly!" she wails and buries her face in her hands.

"Look maybe this Cal isn't worth the effort and you should just dump his ass" I tell her sitting down on the kitchen floor next to her, she sniffles slightly then looks at me like I've quite possibly lost my mind. I'm not the one crying on a strangers kitchen floor.

"But our parents are best friends and we've practically been dating since kindergarten" she says

"So?"

"So? So I can't just break up with him, our mothers have been planning our wedding for years, our dads are already arguing over which of them we're gonna name our first born son after"

"Do you want any of those things?" I ask her

"No, but it's what my parents want" she says

"To hell with them it's your life, and if they love you which they obviously do because well... they're your parents then they'll get over it" I tell her

"Oh my God you're so nice" she says and the tears are back.

"So erm... who are you?" I ask

"Oh I'm Roshni, I'm a friend of Micah's" she tells me and I nod. She's way more than a friend of Micah's she's the Roshni, Micah's kindred sprit.

"Where is Mich?" I ask and she shrugs

"There was nobody here when I got here but the door was unlocked. You must be Micah's sister Fable?" she says and for a second I blank

"Sister?" I say confused. Then I remember at school Micah told everyone we were brother and sister to save on questions about our age difference. It just wasn't realistic for a sixteen year old to have a nineteen year old looking aunt, not in human terms anyway. "Oh right yeah that's me" I say quickly and smile at her. Roshni narrows her eyes at me for a second at my weirdness.

"Thanks for letting me vent by the way" she says and I smile

"No problem. Did you walk here?" I ask her, I didn't see any strange cars out front.

"No I came on my pushbike, I left it by the garage" she tells me.

"Do you like pop tarts?" I say and stand up.

Roshni and I sat at my kitchen table eating pop tarts while she told me about herself, she was turning fifteen in a few weeks that was good news for Micah, she liked swimming and she was really good at math. She spoke to me a lot about her boyfriend Cal and he really did sound like a total douche bag.

"Oh my God I had the shittiest day" Micah moans and a second later the door slams "Your boyfriend is a dick, I have homework coming out of my ass and I think I ate some bad bacon earlier. Why does everything have to suck, and I'm to just sit around and watch while that bastard walks all over..." Micah stops mid rant as he turns the corner into the kitchen and sees who I'm sat with. "Bambi?" he whispers, I smirk at the nickname and Roshni blushes bright red.

"Hey Micah" she says quietly and for a moment they just stare at each other.

"What are you doing here?" he asks

"I... I... well I just came to" Roshni falls over her words

"I invited her?" I say and Roshni shoots me a grateful smile. "I thought Roshni might want to stay for dinner I'm making Taco's" I announce "Do you like Taco's Roshni?" I ask her and she smiles at me.

"I love Taco's" she says then looks at Micah "is it ok if I stay?" she asks him

"Yeah of course" he agrees quickly

"Why don't you two make yourselves scarce? You know I like the kitchen to myself when I'm cooking" I say, Micah frowns at me, probably because I've never expressed the desire to cook alone before but he doesn't argue, he just carries Roshni's book bag for her into the living room.

I spy on them for a little second and watch as they talk for a moment then Micah hugs Roshni and she cries. They look so cute.

"What's going on" Skar suddenly says from behind me, I jump and turn around he smirks knowing he scared me and I swat him in the chest.

"Skar you scared me" I tell him

"Are you spying on Micah?" he whispers and I must have guilty look on my face because he grins at me.

"Maybe" I admit

"Is that Micah's imprint?" he asks leaning around the fridge like I just was to get a better look.

"Yep, she's cute huh?" I say, Skar shrugs.

"Sure, I guess" he says.

"Skar about this morning I'm sorry I didn't mean to worry you or Micah and I should have called and told you both I was staying out late" I say, he looks at me and shakes his head.

"I crashed at my Uncle's last night and I didn't even think to call so don't worry about it" he tells me

"I'm still sorry I made you worry" I sigh

"I said don't worry" he says and and starts to nuzzle his nose against mine. "I missed you last night" he whispers against my lips then starts to kiss me and push me against the fridge.

"I love you"

"I love you" he breaks just long enough to tell me that then his lips are back on mine.

Micah was miserable when he got back from dropping Roshni and her push bike home, I tried to talk it out with him but he didn't feel like it and just ventured off to his room over the garage. He was blaring out death metal not long after. Skar was out on patrol and I was alone. I hated being alone.

Now seemed like as good of a time as any to start working my way through those unpacked crates, so that's what I did. I made my way out to the garage where Skar had moved the boxes for me, taking a mug of hot chocolate with me.

I use a crowbar to rip the lid off the top and move the packaging around to see what's inside. The first thing I spot is a big wad of bubble wrap; I take it out and pick at the tape holding it together. Once it was unwrapped I see a vase I didn't even recognise but it must have meant something to me to have it put into storage like that. I pulled out some old photographs, a couple of painted canvas's that aren't familiar either and a mint condition tiffany lamp. It's hideous I can't imagine why I thought it worth saving; I guess I was young back then and it seemed important to save the materialistic things at the time. I find a drumstick from a Van Halen concert next and at the bottom of the crate was a small metal brief case, I try and open it but it's locked and I have no idea what the combination is.

I spend the next hour trying everything combination of numbers that makes sense, birthdays, significant dates but nothing worked. I tried to break it open but it wouldn't budge.

I sigh feeling slightly pissed off. It's like the me from the past did this on purpose just to torment the future me. I ponder over it for another few minuets then take the crowbar to it. Within an hour it was scuffed and dinted but no closer to being open.

I was about to give up and go inside when Micah came into the garage.

"What the hell are you doing down here?" he asks, I stare at him blankly, the racket that was coming from his room and he wanted to know why I was making so much noise.

"Just going through these boxes" I shrug

"Oh, cool. What's with the ugly lamp?" he asks turning his nose up at it. I laugh.

"I don't know. You know I hardly recognise any of this stuff" I tell him and he frowns

"Are you sure it's yours maybe the warehouse sent you the wrong crate" Micah says

"I was starting to think that too until I found this" I say and pass him the drumstick. "Your Dad and I saw Van Halen play in Las Vegas one time, Gabe caught that when Alex Van Halen threw his sticks into the crowd after this epic encore. It was a really great night" I smile fondly.

"That's really awesome" Micah says admiring the drumstick.

"You can have it if you want" I say and his eyes light up

"Really?"

"Yeah sure" I nod

"Thanks Fable" he says and I smile at him. He probably doesn't have much that belonged to his parents, he only brought a small duffle bag with him from Siberia. "What's in the case?" he asks and I shrug my shoulders

"Don't know I can't get it open" I tell him

"You can't remember the combination?" he asks and I shake my head.

"I don't even remember owning this" I say looking at the briefcase in question.

"Have you tried 0000?" he asks and I look at him

"As if" I say then start turning all the little dials to say zero, the case springs open and my jaw does the same. Inside are rows and rows of polka chips, with the casino name 'mint' printed on them. Micah looks over my shoulder and chuckles. "I think this was your Dad's crate" I laugh

"Do you think we could cash those chips in?" he asks

"Not likely, I'm pretty sure the mint closed down in 88" I tell him and he sighs.