Missing a Human Heart

A place to live and roam free? I didn’t know where Pamela was going to find a real home like that for the guys. All I could really think to offer them is our guestroom. The transfer student thing was another story, however. The staff at our school loved Pamela. Her good grades on state exams alone fund a fifth of the school’s state funding. And I was her lovable, little sister who’d never done a bad thing in her life. Adults tend to turn a blind eye to anything suggesting we Vail sisters were going to do something wrong, just because they were so use to seeing us being good.

Pamela and the guys didn’t talk very much. I hated driving, and was only able to focus on the road. Even if I was able to talk to them, I doubt I’d be able to hold much of a conversation. These guys wouldn’t answer any question I had for them and I was quickly getting annoyed with their hesitation to share.

We finally reached our home and I parked the car in the driveway. “Now just wait out here until we call you in,” Pamela instructed Damon, Tempest, and Charlie as we unbuckled and got out of the car.

I unlocked the front door and heard the television sounding. “Mom! Dad! We’re home!” I yelled in a singsong voice.

We walked into the living room and greeted them casually as they smiled in acknowledgement. “You two have been out awfully long,” Mom said.

“Yeah, well I had to wait for Camel,” I replied, going along with Pamela’s former lie.

“Well, we could have gotten home earlier if Panda didn’t keep driving into the wrong street,” Pamela shot back nonchalantly. I grinned at that fact.

“They’re old enough to stay out a few hours after school,” Dad stated, still focused on the television.

“Just tell us beforehand,” Mom reminded us.

“Why is Dad home early?” He usually comes home right before dinner, long after Pamela and I usually get home.

“Today’s a holiday, or to my work it is,” Dad answered.

“Not fair… We had to go to school,” I complained.

We walked up stairs and put our things away in our separate rooms, before pacing back down the stairs. I stood at the corner leading to the living room from the front door as Pamela opened it. The guys were already standing on the porch, facing the door as though they were about to knock. As Pamela led them upstairs, I walked over to the door and closed it, slamming it by accident.

“Pamela? Pandora? Where are you going?” Mom called.

“Oh! I thought I heard something. I think there’s a dog outside, that’s all!” I lied, locking the door.

“And you’re not asking to take it in?” Dad asked sarcastically as I could just sense mom cringing.

“Very funny!” I yelled as I ran up the stairs again and smiled to see that they were already in the guest room. How fun this will be!

“You take in stray dogs?” Damon asked with scoffing amusement.

“I can’t tell you that,” I answered in an excessively serious tone. “I’d rather you not ask any personal questions,” I continued mocking.

“She found a puppy running around the neighbor’s hedges one night and thought it was a stray. The neighbor came over the next morning, demanding his dog back,” Pamela informed them as she pulled extra comforters out of the closet. “It was his son’s birthday present. We’re friends with him, actually.”

“Camel! You promised not to tell that story!” I yelled, embarrassed, as the guys laughed. Even Charlie couldn’t suppress his bright grin. I stormed out the guest room and to my bedroom. I was wrong, this was not going to be fun. These guys were worse than that puppy that peed everywhere. At least I knew that the puppy was unable to answer my questions rather than to just outright refuse to. Oh curse my wretched, bleeding heart.

“Sorry Panda! I forgot!” I heard Pamela yell from the guest room.

“It’s okay,” I muttered back after a minute, not really meaning it.

“Liar,” I heard a low voice speak. I turning around, I found Damon leaning against the door frame. “You’re red with anger,” he leered.

“No, I’m not,” I answered pleasantly, still seething beneath my smile.

“It’s obvious you’re just faking all that sweet talk. You should stop, nobody likes a pushover,” Damon announced as he left. I rolled my eyes. This was supposed to be fun.

Despite that, I decided to try and help Pamela welcome them in again. I went into my closet and grabbed three oversized tee-shirts from a stack I’ve saved to cut up shirt designs. I proceeded to run downstairs to Mom and Dad’s closet and found three sweatpants Dad almost never wore. With the three pairs of makeshift pajamas, I returned to the guestroom.

“Here you go!” I cheered as I passed an outfit to each of them.

“I guess you want us to go commando,” Tempest posed.

I simpered a second. “Do you really want to wear other’s underwear?”

“That’s just disgusting,” Pamela muttered.

“Exactly. We can buy… We can lend you money to buy some stuff tomorrow. Mom and Dad probably won’t want us out anymore for today.” I walked to the bathroom and grabbed three toothbrushes and three towels from the drawers and placed them on the counter. We were lucky that our bathroom had two doors; one for the room with two sinks and the other room held the bathtub and toilet.

I was fairly sure that Pamela and I were done helping them settle in. We left them and returned to our daily routines, giving them some time to themselves. I took a bath and proceeded to start the painstaking work of beginning my homework. It was already eight when I finished, dinner time. I walked over to Pamela’s room and found her typing on her laptop.

“Oh my gosh, did I really finish my homework before you?!” I cried in exaggerated enthusiasm.

“Of course, not. I’m emailing Mrs. Evington about the guys…” Pamela replied. Mrs. Evington was one of the nicest counselors at our school, she’s the guy’s way into our school.

“Okay. I’m going to go see how our house guests are doing.”

“I’ll come with,” Pamela clicked the ‘send’ button and closed her laptop.

We walked to their room and I leaned into the door. I was planning to open the door quickly and suddenly to catch them off guard. But before I was able to even touch the doorknob, the door flew open and I fell into the person at the door, Tempest.

“Oops!” I smiled, standing back from the inadvertent embrace.

“If you wanted a hug, just say so,” Tempest laughed. “And I’ll bet you wanted one, too...” he continued to hug Pamela next. She rolled her eyes, waiting for him to let go, but I could tell she was quite amused.

“Actually, we’re just here to see how you guys are, you know, if you need anything,” I inquired.

“We’d like some food, if you don’t mind…” Charlie answered from his seat on the chair.

“Oh right! We have dinner soon,” I said to myself.

“We’ll get you guys some snacks and bring some leftover when we’re done,” Pamela decided.

“And when Mom and Dad go to bed, we can just heat up some TV dinner,” I added.

“Yum… I can’t wait,” Damon mumbled sarcastically.

“Hey, you were living in the woods before we found you guys, be thankful!” I scolded him.

“What have you guys been eating anyways?” Pamela wondered.

“They can’t tell us, Camel, remember? We’re not allowed to ask personal questions,” I glared at Charlie. He smiled but still wouldn’t answer.

“Pandora? Pamela! Dinner!” Mom yelled. We followed her voice to the kitchen. I cleared the table while Pamela went to the pantry and snatched a few bags of chips and ran back up stairs. She returned promptly and we had dinner as usual. When we finished, Mom and Dad left the dining room and got back to their paper work. With three bowls of left over spaghetti in hand, we marched back upstairs to feed the freeloaders.