Let's Bend the Rules.

Rhydan
“Fourteen days to go, I got fourteen days to go, I got fourteen days to go, ‘till it’s my birthday!” I sing to myself waking up in an empty bunk. Quite depressing really. Danny had to go to another interview this morning. Oh well.

“WOOH!” Zaria screams. I look in the bunk across from me and up on the top bed, Zaria is listening to her I-pod and smirking at me.

“Yeah! I know!” I laugh. She shakes her head.

“You are such a nutter woman, I have no idea how I lived with you all these years” She sighs and jumps out of the bed - fully clothed? - landing strangely on her ankle. I swear she’s looking for another reason to get that thing in a cast.

“Awe you love me, how long have you been up?” I ask her. She shrugs.

“Dougie left and woke me up” I crawl out of the bed and walk with Zaria to the kitchen, “He said they’d be back for around three” She’s too chipper. She has been ever since we stayed at that hotel two nights ago. I’m not retarded, I do know what happened, but it’s not like it was her first night!

I look at my phone, “Well it’s… one now. What do you want to do?” I ask her. She shrugs and takes two mugs and the coffee pot, pouring me and herself coffee. I take the mug and drain the contents. The warm liquids run down my throat, I can feel it running down my oesophagus it’s that warm. I sigh feeling a little more awake.

“I know!” I scream. Zaria flinches while warming her hands with her mug. “Lets go shopping!”
Zaria moans and shakes her head. I laugh.

“C’mon! Danny said that for my birthday we’re all going out to dinner or something and I don’t have anything to wear” I pout.
Zaria rolls her eyes.

“Dude, you’ve got too many clothes. How can you have nothing?” She asks me, cocking an eyebrow.

“I don’t have any with me” I explain. My younger sister sighs once more.

“Fine, we’ll go shopping, but you will buy me lunch” She tells me. I nod excited and run into the bathroom. I wash quickly then run into the bedroom where I get changed. All in all, I’m ready at half one. Quite a record for someone like me.

“Where are we?” I ask her. We had gone driving last night, I had never asked where we were staying the night. We step out of the warm bus and the cold air hits me, I pull my scarf around my neck a little tighter and cover the small area on my chest that is exposed to the wind. My long black jacket is buttoned up over my long black top and faded blue skinny jeans. My knee high boots keep my legs protected.

“Uhm… as the sign says ‘Brighton’ I’m assuming that’s where we are” She says pointing to a small sign.

“Okay” I spin around. “How’re we going to go shopping?” I mutter to myself and spot a tube station sign just down the road in the small town. “London is just a forty minute ride on the tube” I tell her, grabbing her hand.

“How do you know that?” She asks me. I shrug.

“I’m weird like that” I say.

We get to the tube station, buy our tickets and find our way to the right platform.
“Did Dad call you at all?” Zaria asks me. I look up from my phone.

“Nope” I reply simply, then look back down at my phone. I’m trying to decide if I should ring Danny or not. Maybe I should text him. Would he be out of the interview by now? Maybe I should wait until later, but he might get back early and wonder where we are. We should’ve left a note.

“Oh, I thought he might have called” She mutters.

“Nope” I repeat. She doesn’t ‘get’ dad. He’s a very forgetful person who tends to be lost without the assistance of his assistant, which so happens to be myself. So him away in France on his own, well it’s a wonder how he made it on the plane by himself. I’ll be surprised if he rings to be honest. I know how busy he is with work, I do work for him after all, he tends to forget about us sometimes.
Zaria doesn’t understand though. It’s hard to explain to her when she hasn’t ever worked with him properly.

“Is he going to be home for your birthday?” She asks me. Ugh, she’s trying to make conversation. I may as well talk to her, nothing else to do [strike] other than thinking about Danny[/strike].

“Yeah, he gets home in three days” I tell her. “He’ll be meeting us in Sheffield to see how everything is” Zaria nods. I look at her carefully. “You won’t crack will you?” Referring to herself and Dougie.

Zaria looks up, looking slightly… worried. “I don’t know” She tells me honestly.

“Look you’ll be fine” I reassure her. “Seriously, you’ve been doing great so far” Well it wasn’t a complete truth. They where caught a couple of times by various members of the McFLY tour, I managed to hush it up. Zaria nods and the tube pulls up.

The two of us stand up and get on, thankfully it being a weekday and in the middle of the school year the car is practically empty. I take a seat opposite Zaria and flip open my phone again.

“Dan?” Zaria asks. I look up in response. “Do you ever get scared about the future?” She asks me, seeming slightly hesitant.

The future? The only future I think about is the future I have with Danny. That’s really the only future. Why would someone be scared about it though? There is nothing scary about thinking about what will happen to you.

“Why?” I ask her, answering her with a question, it’s always a safe answer.

“I just… I get scared sometimes. I don’t know what’s going to happen to my life. I still don’t know what I want as a job. I might end up a complete useless prick with no job or money. It scares me” She whispers, picking at her nails. I frown at her slightly.

“You’ve never said that before”

“I know, I just… I don’t want to be a failure. You’ve no idea how hard it is for me Dan, you were the perfect student, you had straight A’s, you got really high points in you’re A Levels and you’ve been working with dad since you were seventeen. I wasn’t that good in school, it was so obvious dad thought you the brighter child. He tried not to favour but he always did in little ways. He’d never have offered me a job without your persuasion”

I sit in shock, staring at Zaria. Has she gone demented? Seriously. I wasn’t the perfect student, sure I got straight A’s but I studied blooming hard for those grades! I knew what I wanted to do with my life and yes I went after it and aimed for high points. It just so happened Dad needed an assistant and, yes one day I will be taking over the company but I work hard at my job.
And dad doesn’t have a favourite, he loves us both equally. I think someone needs their brain checked,
But I don’t say this, I’d just upset her.

“Zaria, you’ve got as much time as you need to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life, points don’t mean anything in real life. Maybe dad thinks they’re a big deal but it’s really skill that matters” I try to console her. She doesn’t seem convinced. “Well… what did you have in mind as a career anyway?” I ask her, changing the subject.

Zaria shrugs, “No idea, but I’d like something to do with music, I just don’t know what” She says. I nod.

“Well there’s a lot of choice. You could be an artist, manage, produce, do designing, filing…” I say naming a few. Zaria just nods and starts staring out the window.
Small droplets of rain fleck the glass windows as we speed by. Just great, it’s going to rain.

We arrive in London at a quarter past two and I rush Zaria straight to a well-known shop for gorgeous dresses.

By half four we’re sitting a small café, by the window. Watching the people rush past as the rain beats down on them. Cups of lukewarm coffee placed between our hands and a piece of chocolate cake to share between us, half eaten. Eight bags placed at our feet and a peaceful silence. A small buzz is around us from the other customers of the café, chatting loudly.

Zaria sighs and starts messing with her fork. I look up at her. She hasn’t been the same all day, she keeps worrying about her stupid future. Why can’t she just live today and worry about it tomorrow?

“Quit it Zar, you’re annoying me” I tell her, picking a crumb off the plate between my fore-finger and thumb and squish is gently.

“Sorry” She mumbles. “Are we going soon?”

“Yeah” I tell her, taking a sip of my colder coffee. My phone starts ringing in my pocket and I answer it. “Hello” I smile.

“Where are you? Have you any idea how crazy Dougie’s going that Zaria isn’t here? Why didn’t you tell anyone you were going? Why didn’t you leave a note?” Danny asks me. I smile at him simply.

“Relax, I’m in London with Zaria, we went shopping for dresses and such. Tell Dougie not to worry and that she hasn’t been kid-napped” I laugh a little.

“Okay, why didn’t you text me telling me you where gone?” He asks. I love when Danny gets all overprotective-boyfriend on me at times like these, it makes me feel loved.

“Dans, I forgot” I tell him, “That’s a lie, I was going to but then I thought maybe you were still in the interview and me texting you, well your phone might have gone off as you know yourself you forget to turn it off sometimes. So yeah, that’s why” I explain and look at Zaria from across me whose twiddling the fork between her fingers.

“When will you be back?”

“In around an hour” I tell him.

“Okay… so, what did you buy?” I can tell he’s smirking on the other end, if I didn’t know him so well, his tone changing would’ve given it away.

“Stuff”

“Will I like any of it?” He asks. I laugh a little.

“Yes, I bought something you’d like” I tell him.

“Okay. Love you”

“Bye” I hang up the phone. “We’re going” I tell Zaria and drain the rest of my cold coffee. She stands up automatically and takes her three bags. I reach for my five and we walk out of the shop.