Out of Ink

Chapter 1

“Emmett, you A-hole!” Serina stormed out of the upstairs bathroom to glare at her twin brother through his bedroom doorway. “You left hair all over the sink! And you used all my body wash!” she fumed. Emmett, who was pulling on his pajama shirt to cover up a six pack, shrugged one shoulder.

“Wasn’t me.” He lied as he flicked long blonde hair out of his eyes. Emmett was unfairly good-looking and athletic. He was also an ass. To his sister anyway.

“Oh really?” She asked, hands on her hips. “Who else would be shaving in our bathroom?” He shrugged again.

“You, maybe?” She let out a huffed ha!

“Yeah right. Like I could get a leg up there without falling on my butt?”

“You said it, not me.” Frustration and anger boiled up inside her. Serina had had a long day. All she wanted to do was curl up in bed and read her book. The last thing she wanted or needed was her brother’s attitude.

“You’re such a prick.” She was about to launch into a rant when their father came bounding up the stairs.

“What are you two arguing about now?” He sounded exhausted. Their father was like an older version of Emmett. Six foot, blonde hair, brown eyes and a scruffy beard. He had lost the athletic build around his thirtieth year though and he now sported a dad pouch that their mother claimed to love snuggling.

“He used all my body wash.” Serina complained. “And left hair all over the sink.” Their father sighed. After seventeen years, he was used to the bickering by now.

“Emmett, clean up your mess and don’t use your sister’s things without asking. Serina, don’t yell the entire house down. Just borrow your mother’s soap.” He said. “Can’t you kids just knock it off?”

“Sorry dad.” They both murmured. Their father turned to go back downstairs. Serina shot Emmett a cutting glare behind her father’s back. Emmett poked out his tongue before slipping past her into the bathroom. Presumably to clean up his mess. While Serina went to their parent’s bathroom to grab her mum’s mango body wash. She’d have to get a new one tomorrow. Unfortunately, her skin was a lot more sensitive than everyone else, and she had to use the special sensitive soap free kind otherwise she’d get all itchy. That was probably why Emmett liked to use hers. Using the regular kind every now and then wouldn’t hurt her too much though. When she returned to the bathroom, Emmett had cleaned up the hair. There was still the odd stray bit of stubble here and there, but it was much better. Turning on the water, she undressed and stepped into the shower. It wasn’t until she had finished rinsing the shampoo from her hair that she realized there was no conditioner. “Emmett!” She yelled. “I’m going to kill you!” She managed to only just smack enough conditioner out of the mostly empty bottle to put through her hair.

Hair freshly washed and body freshly cleaned, although feeling a little dry, Serina finally crawled into bed and picked up the book on her side table. She glanced at her clock and silently promised herself that she wouldn’t stay up too late reading about sexy werewolf paramedics.

Serina had stayed up way too late reading about sexy werewolf paramedics. She swears that she had only read a couple of pages, and then it was suddenly midnight. She rubbed sleep out of her eyes as she poured cornflakes into her bowl. Emmett was already sitting at the island bench, crunching away at his own bowl of cereal. He didn’t say anything. Just watched her expectantly. Serina got an uneasy feeling. “What?” She asked.

“Nothing.” Emmett didn’t sound convincing. Still suspicious, Serina opened the fridge door. No milk. She turned back to her twin brother who was now smirking,

“You’re the worst.” She told him. Taking the magnetic pen off the front of the fridge, she went to write milk on the shopping list hanging next to it, but Emmett had already done so. At least he wasn’t completely useless. Feeling more than a little cranky, she grabbed the tub of yoghurt out of the fridge. That would have to do. She scooped a bit onto her cornflakes and sat down next to him. The pair ate in silence.

“Good morning!” Their mother Sam glided into the room like she was skating on sunshine. She was often cheerful on her days off from the hospital where she worked as a paediatric nurse. Sam enjoyed her job, most days, but something about having an entire weekday to herself made her insanely happy.

“Morning.” Her children mumbled around mouthfuls of cereal.

“There’s no milk.” Serina told her as she reached for the chocolate cereal. She put it back and reached for the peanut butter.

“Toast it is.” She watched her mother put two slices of whole grain bread into the toaster and flick on the kettle. “Does anyone else what tea?”

“Yes, please.” Serina said at the same time Emmett said;

“Yeah, thanks.” With no milk they had to have it black. Sam chose one with hints of raspberry and dark chocolate that was fine on its own without milk or sugar and prepared three mugs of tea.

Being her day off, Sam offered to drop the kids off at school on her way to do the grocery shopping. The twins had raced each other to the car. Emmett had won, like he usually did, and claimed the front passenger seat before his sister could. And because he was in the front seat, Emmett got to pick the music they all listened to. He selected a Spice Girls CD from the glove box and he and Sam sang their hearts out all the way to the school. Serina sat in the back pretending her family were normal.

They were dropped off by the gate and Emmett immediately spotted his best friend Zack. He hopped out of the car and jogged over to his friend. “Hey.” Emmett greeted Zack with a slap on the shoulder.

“Hey Emmett.” Zack was slightly taller than Emmett. His short, dark brown hair was spiked up with hair styling products and his eyes were so dark, they swallowed the pupils. His half Filipino heritage gave his eyes an exotic shape and his skin a natural tan. Between the two of them, Emmett was pretty sure they ticked every hot guy box for the girls at their high school. They didn’t, but he didn’t know that. Maybe if one of them learned to play an instrument and started a band? “Anything new?” Zack asked.

“Nope. You?”

“Nope.”

“What about your parents? Are they still going away tomorrow?” Emmett asked.

“Yep.” Zack’s mother was an oncologist, and she was going away for a medical conference. The conference was only supposed to last three days, but Zack’s parents had decided to make a trip out of it and would be gone for two weeks. Leaving Zack alone. Well, he’d have their housekeeper s***h cook s***h nanny June there a few hours during the day. “Hey, can I still come over to your house for dinner tomorrow night?” He asked, unsure.

“Of course.” Emmett said it like it was no big deal. And it wasn’t. Zack ate at their house at least once a month. Sometimes once a week when he was feeling particularly lonely. Emmett always seemed to instinctively know when Zack was feeling lonely, because he was always inviting Zack to do stuff whenever the feelings got too heavy. “I should text mum to remind her to get extra food. She’s doing the shopping now. Did you want to stay over too? It’s Friday tomorrow.”

“Yeah, okay.” Friday night meant that they could stay up all night playing video games. Something Zack's mother never let him do. But he guessed he’d be able to do that all he liked with his parents gone.

“You know, mum would probably let you stay the whole two weeks if you asked.” Emmett offered.

“Nah. I’d be a bother. Plus, we’d just end up hanging out all night and we have school.” That was his parent’s main reason for leaving him behind. He had school and since this was their last year, they didn’t want him randomly missing two weeks in the middle of a school term. Especially not with exams coming up in a few weeks. “You’re probably right.” Emmett shrugged. They had just made it to their roll-call rooms, right next to each other, when the first bell rang. Serina was already inside, her nose stuck in a book. Emmett and Zack walked into their respective rooms and signed in.