Alone Together

Once the black car that Mary-Kate’s dad had sent for her pulled to a complete stop at the curb, Mary-Kate opened the door and climbed out. As the driver scrambled to the back of the car to get her bags out of the trunk, Mary-Kate turned and looked in the direction where she would be living for the next eight months. Before her eyes stood a big, beautiful brick house with numerous windows and a four-car-garage. There were white double-doors and a garden that was full of life and color, like nothing Mary-Kate had ever witnessed in her life. She stepped away from the car door and shut it behind her as the driver, who she found out was named Scott, scuttled before her with her bags in his arms.

“Oh,” Mary-Kate said, feeling awkward as she watched Scott juggle her bags. She grabbed two of them from him. “I got them. It’s okay.”

“Are you sure, Miss Russell?” Scott asked her, with a thick British accent, as he adjusted the remaining bags in his arms. “I would hate for you to carry so much.”

Mary-Kate ignored his comment as she stared up at the house. “My dad really lives here? This is like…a mansion.”

“He seems to be a very successful man, Miss Russell. I—” he began before Mary-Kate cut him off.

“Mary-Kate, please,” Mary-Kate corrected him, hating when people called her anything other than her actual name, whether it was out of politeness or not.

“Yes, okay,” Scott said to himself as he nodded his head. “Well, I will help you carry your bags to the house and then I will be on my way.”

Mary-Kate just nodded as she walked up the driveway and headed towards the front door. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and she slung one of her bags over her shoulder to free her right hand to pull it out. Once she unlocked her phone she looked at the message that was from her dad.

I will be home from work shortly, Mary-Kate. There is a spare key hidden underneath the flower pot on the right side of the front door. Carla and the kids should be home after me. Your room is upstairs and all the way down the hall to the left. Make yourself comfortable. See you then.

Mary-Kate sent him a quick “OK” text before she stuffed her phone back into her pocket. Once she approached the front doors, she knelt down and moved over the flower pot to reveal a silver house key. She picked it up and slowly unlocked the doors, waiting for a huge dog to come out and attack her for entering into the house, or for an alarm system to go off. But when nothing happened, she opened the door and stepped inside, tossing her bags to the right. She grabbed the other bags from Scott, before pulling some money out of her pocket and handing it to him.

“Oh, no. No, no, no,” Scott said as he pushed Mary-Kate’s hand away. He laughed softly. “That is definitely not necessary, love. You have a great time with your family and I hope you enjoy your stay in London.”

Mary-Kate didn’t say anything as she watched Scott step off of the porch and walk back to the black car that sat alongside the curb. He got in and sped off, leaving Mary-Kate in a house that made her feel like a complete stranger. She moved herself out of the way so she could shut the door, and she turned around to look at where she would be living.

The home had a big, open foyer with spotless white tile all throughout that led into what looked like the kitchen. Immediately to her right was a giant office that she figured was her dad’s, a big oak desk sitting in the middle of the room with books lining the walls. She looked beyond the round wood table that sat in the middle of the foyer and looked over at the giant staircase to her left, having a slight curl as it made its way up to the next level of the house.

Mary-Kate picked up three of her bags and pulled off her shoes before she slowly made her way up the stairs that were covered in perfect white carpeting. Once she got to the top of the staircase, she ventured to her right to see two bedrooms with their doors open, the beds made, and the floor and desks spotless. One of the rooms was full of pink and glitter and girly decorations, while the other was blue with a couple of posters that Mary-Kate didn’t understand, figuring that they some kind of smart-person (aka nerdy) jokes. There were two doors in each bedroom, one being a walk in closet and the other door joined the two rooms together with a bathroom. Mary-Kate rolled her eyes at the way rich people couldn’t even leave their room and walk down the hall to the bathroom, before she started back down the hallway towards her room.

She passed the master bedroom, which she didn’t look in knowing that her own father shared it with some woman other than her mother, and entered her room, noting that there was a bathroom right outside of the door. She dropped the three bags that she was holding and looked around the room that she would be claiming hers.

Before she even bought her plane ticket to fly to London, Mary-Kate’s father took her requests for bedroom decorations, and she could admit that he did a good job with what she told him. The walls were the color of teal she wanted, and her bed was covered in a black and white comforter with fluffy black and white pillows. There was a black dresser on the other side of the room, and a black nightstand that stood next to her bed. A flat screen TV (something she hadn’t asked for) was attached to the wall directly across from her bed and next to her giant walk-in closet. She couldn’t believe that this would be the place that she would be staying for almost a year, considering the house she shared with her mom only had two small bedrooms and was only one-story.

A few minutes later, as she continued to admire her new room, the front door opened and she heard someone wearing high heels step into the house. “Well, someone’s a bit messy and disorganized.”

Mary-Kate raised an eyebrow at the prim voice as she heard a male chuckle in response. She walked out of her bedroom and down the hallway and descended down the stairs to be met with two people that were around her age. The girl was in a white dress with a pair of white heels, her long, blonde hair cascading down her back, while the male was dressed in a white dress shirt and a pair of black dress pants, his brown hair combed out of his face and to the side like a 40 year old man.

“Oh, you must be Mary,” the girl said as she flipped some hair over her shoulder, a slight smile on her face.

“Mary-Kate,” Mary-Kate corrected her as she glanced at both of the teens, before looking down at her over-sized sweatshirt and yoga pants that hung on her body, feeling extremely out of place.

“Mm, well I’m Alexandria and this is Benjamin,” the girl said, introducing her and the boy next to her. “It’s nice to finally meet our step-sister.”

Mary-Kate couldn’t tell if Alexandria was being sarcastic, or if that smug smile on her face was just there permanently. She looked over at Benjamin and he was pushing her bags out of his way with his foot, before he shut the door. Both of them had I’m-too-good-for-anything-attitudes and they stared at Mary-Kate as if wondering why she was dressed like she was in an elegant home such as theirs.

Mary-Kate smiled tightly at both of them as she tried her hardest not to roll her eyes, already knowing that coming to London was a huge mistake.