The Love in You

I suppressed the squeals I wanted to make, and I turned around and gave Janelle a big hug. She laughed before hugging me back. As we broke apart, her phone alarm went off.

"Time for me to go beautiful. Remember, don't go to any secluded places unless you're with Bill." She said, heading out into the main room to grab her bags from under the table.

"Thanks for the advice Janelle," I said smiling and following her out.

"Now go get laid and have a fun time. Use protection," She said happily before blowing me an air kiss and running out the door. I tried to protest her, but she had already closed the door and was gone. I wasn't going to sleep with him. We just met. I'm not going to let a pair of pretty eyes and a nice body take advantage of me again.

My cheeks were a little red as I took a deep breath and went over to my suitcase. I searched through a pile of shoes before finding a pair of black heels that weren't six inches tall. I took off the flats and slipped the heels on before sitting down on the couch. I leaned back on the couch, but my nerves and excitement were keeping me from sitting still. I tapped my feet against the floor for a few minutes, keeping a steady beat as I began humming a familiar melody.

I got up, still humming to the song in my head, and walked over to a small stack of books in the one lone bookshelf next to the TV. I know it wasn't polite to snoop, but I figure she wouldn't mind. I picked up the stack of Cosmopolitan magazines to see what was underneath. It was a photo album I didn't recognize. I picked it up before dropping the magazines back on the table and walking over to the couch.

I opened the book and saw the first page was a baby picture of Janelle and her four sisters Kira, Lena, Mary, and Nancy. I smiled at the photo before turning to the next page, seeing Nancy all over the two pages at various ages with Janelle. Nancy was the oldest and a rebel. Once she was 18, she left town and never spoke to anyone back in Rhode Island ever again. She did send my mom a letter once though. Nancy was now the president of a small chain of organic food stores in California, and a mother of two.

I flipped the page and saw Mary smiling up at me. Mary was the second oldest. Because of how Nancy had been turning out, their parents pushed Mary into religion. Mary entered the nunnery on her eighteenth birthday at the request of her parents. Mary was a very sweet girl, and her parents wanted to keep her safe, figuring a church would be the safest place. Mary asked to help the poor in Africa, and she died there after the orphanage she was working in collapsed. Apparently after a fire, she was making sure everyone had gotten out, but the building collapsed before she got out. As I saw a picture of her a few weeks before her death, I shuddered and turned the page quickly to see Lena.

Lena was the middle child. Lena loved books more than people. Her parents wanted her to go to Yale more than anything in the world. Lena fell in love with a boy in a band her senior year of high school. She ran off at eighteen to tour with him. He's now in the band Fall Out Boy, so she's now a rich, married, stay-at-home mom. Her parents refused to have contact with her after she left their Yale dreams in the dust. I smiled at the fun and exciting pictures, lingering on a few before turning the page to see Kira.

Kira was born about a year before Janelle. Their parents had gone to a psychic, who said naming their next children interesting names would keep them safe and at home for a long time. Their parents worried almost to death about Kira. They watched her like a hawk, and they home-schooled her and Janelle. Kira had an internet boyfriend named Mike. On Kira's sixteenth birthday, she begged to be let to go to a sleepover at a cousin's house. Their parents trusted her, so they let her go. Her cousin let her go and meet Mike, where she got pregnant. When she refused to get an abortion, her parents kicked her out. She now lives with Mike and little Timothy in an apartment in north Rhode Island.

Janelle was their last hope. When they smothered her, she left them in the dust. i felt bad for my aunt and uncle, but I also felt bad for Janelle and her sisters as well.

I flipped through the next few pages, seeing pictures of Janelle's journeys through New York City. There were pictures of her partying, of her dancing, and of her with many different guys. Throughout all of that, I noticed she was usually with the blonde headed boy from the other night. The way she looked at him was different than just lust. It was love.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into getting too involved in Janelle's personal life. I had enough trouble in my own life. I'd be there if she asked for help, but I better keep my lips shut otherwise. I shut the book and put it back in its hiding spot. I sat back on the couch and sighed, turning on the TV. I let all the bad thoughts go away as I got re-excited for tonight.