Trembling With the Strings

Plan B

“Grace is here?” I heard a girl shriek, slamming the door behind her.

I grinned at Marcy as she gawked at me. I stood up from my spot on the couch, and she tackled me to the floor suddenly.

“I missed you, too,” I teased, laughing as I pushed her off. I scrambled to my feet.

“Goodness, where have you been? I swear, every time I came around for the past month you’ve been gone! Darius would be waiting by the door, telling me that you either took Kai out or just went by yourself. I thought I was never going to see my soon-to-be-sister again!”

I nodded, glancing over to Darius as he walked into the room. He looked down. He obviously hadn’t told anyone about our breakup, but I sighed and covered for him.

“I’ve just been so busy lately, you know? This baby has me running all over the place.” I smiled apologetically.

She waved it off, pushing herself to her feet and glancing to her brother. “I hope Darius is changing his share of dirty diapers.”

“He’s been great about the whole thing,” I told her truthfully, looking at him and immediately looking away when he caught my gaze. “Kai and Dray are so cute together.”

“Speaking of the little rascal, where is he?” she asked. I pointed up the stairs, and she nodded, putting a finger to his lips. “I won’t bother him then. I bet it’s hard for him to get to sleep when you and Darius are going at it every five minutes!” I cleared my throat, choking on laughter. Darius made a face, glaring at me and Marcy. “What?”

“He isn’t getting any,” I told her proudly, smirking at Darius as he pouted.

“Oh? Why’s that?” she asked, grinning childishly.

“He told me that I want it more, so he thinks I’m going to crawl to him. But I’m not caving, and he’s going to come to me,” I told her.

“Yeah, right!” Darius scoffed, trudging up the stairs.

Marcy watched him walk away, and she grabbed my wrist and pulled me closer. She whispered in my ear, “I think you’re making it too easy for him.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, don’t you want to make him suffer? I’m his sister, so I know how dumb he is. I could help you, and then he’d be so whipped! It’d be funny! Plus, think of it as payback for all of the stupid things he said and did. Don’t you want revenge?”

I grinned, nodding furiously. “What did you have in mind?”

She grabbed my wrist and pulled me up the stairs, tiptoeing past the nursery. She pushed me into Dray’s bedroom and shut the door carefully behind her, locking it.

“Darius is a boy,” she told me.

“I should hope so!” I laughed, shaking my head at her. “The point?”

“I was getting to it,” she grumbled, sitting down on the bed and lying back. “My brother is planning on making you dinner, so you don’t starve and die. I think that’s a plus. Anyway, I’ll go out shopping and buy you a super hot outfit. You should see the hookers my brother used to date. It was awful, but he seemed to like it enough. I’ll tell you what to do from there, alright?”

“I don’t want to dress like a hooker,” I told her, making a face.

“Don’t you want to win?” I nodded. “Then you have to make some sacrifices. I’ll take care of everything; you just have to be sexy.”

I rolled my eyes. “And how is this going to help me win?”

“He won’t be able to even think about keeping his hands to himself. Trust me on this, alright? I grew up around two boys. I know plenty about them.”

“Okay…” She certainly knew about Lyndell, too. Speaking of which... “Marcy, best friends don’t keep secrets, do they?”

“No, I suppose not,” she told me, putting her finger to her lip. Her eyes lit up. “Why? What did you do?” she shrieked, laughing and grabbing my hands. “What? What?”

“I didn’t do anything, you psycho!” I told her, smiling. “I just, well, it happened a while ago. It’s something you did.”

“Oh. What did I do?” she asked me, furrowing her brow and releasing me.

“It has to do with Lyndell.”

“What about him?” She walked over to the mirror, messing with her hair for a bit.

“I saw you in the barn, and you were…making out with him.”

Marcy went into a fit of coughs, gasping for the breaths that she didn’t need to take. “Excuse me?”

I chewed on my lip. “It was around the time my sister came around. I was looking for you, and I was told that you were in the barn. And you were with Lyndell…”

“I honestly haven’t a clue as to what you’re talking about,” she told me, giving me a funny look. “Lyndell and I weren’t in a barn alone, ever. And I certainly did not kiss him, I can guarantee that.”

“Then who was it?”

“I don’t know, but it wasn’t me. Look, I’m going to go buy that outfit. I’ll talk to you later, when you’re not insane,” she teased, humming and skipping out of the bedroom.

I nodded, slouching on the bed and sighing. If it hadn’t been Marcy, then who?

“Kai wants to see his mommy,” Darius told me, appearing before me and holding out a coughing child. “He woke up, and he won’t stop wheezing. I thought maybe you could help. You were around three babies. Why is he so sick?”

I smiled at Kai, taking him into my arms and kissing his cold forehead. He started crying, and I shook my head.

“I don’t know, Darius. I don’t know a lot of things, I guess.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, sitting down beside me and watching me through cautious eyes.

I leaned against him, letting out a heavy breath. “Life is so confusing.”

“This isn’t about me, is it?” he murmured, hesitantly wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

“No, it’s not.” I shrugged. “It’s only going to get harder, isn’t it?”

“I’ll be here every step of the way, as long as you’ll let me,” he promised, kissing my hand.

“That’s the best thing anyone’s said to me all day.”
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One-thousand readers! Oh, I am so happy! And I've run out of pre-made chapters again! Well, I have some typing to do. I have no idea how things will pan out for this little bet either!