Chapter three - Leanna

My bedroom pulses with the music that's playing through the house, the steady thud, thud, thud of the beat causing ripples in my drink on the bedside table. Glancing at my clock on the wall, I estimate this continuing for at least another four or five hours. 

Bang! 

I jump as someone falls against my door, giggling drunkenly outside my room. 

Idiots!

I turn up the volume on my TV, the subtitles skittering across the bottom so I don't miss anything important due to the noise of the party. My parents are out with the neighbours again.

Lucky bastards! 

There's an unwritten rule of house parties that no one goes into parents rooms to have sex, that rule does not apply to siblings apparently, and last time I left my room unguarded during one of Kim's parties, I came back to find a naked couple sweating and God knows what else, all over my favourite bed sheets. 

There's not enough bleach in the world that could get me to reuse bedding after my sister's disgusting friends have been rolling around in them and my parents refuse to let me wreck the door by putting a lock on the outside, which is why I'm sitting in on a Saturday night, alone, watching Netflix, with the subtitles up because he who shall not be named destroyed my headphones, while I paint my nails, my bedroom door bolted from the inside.

Bang! 

My door actually rattles as whoever it is bangs into it again and I glare at the back of it, as though whoever is on the other side might be able to feel my irritation and leave.

I love my sister, she's my identical twin, my other half, almost three and a half minutes older and she's brilliant, we get on really well, the best of friends and I'd do anything for her, which is why I won't complain too much about staying in tonight to guard my room instead of being out and having fun with my own friends. 

Her friends on the other hand, I cannot stand, they're brainless morons at best, absolute bitches and violent thugs at worst. I have no idea why my beautiful, intelligent sister chooses to hang out with people who seem intent on beating each other to get criminal records. 

Our parents were concerned we'd rely on each other too much, so insisted we were in separate classes for everything during school, which meant entirely different friendship groups for us, which was great, up until a few years ago we all got on fine. Then Kim turned thirteen and it was like she and her friends all got personality changes, they started smoking in the back field, drinking and skipping classes, nothing anyone could do or say would bring her back. There's still a trace of the girl she was, she refuses to join in with the bullying, at least from what I've heard from those poor kids around school that bring in extra lunch money to spare themselves daily beatings from her friends, but the fact she still hangs around with people that do that makes me feel like she's not the sister I knew growing up.

I just hope she hasn't ruined her chances of getting into uni completely, my parents would be devastated and so would she really, even though she tells me now she's not interested and wants to travel the world and enjoy life instead. 

I can understand her desire to enjoy herself and even envy the freedom she's got, but part of me still resents the fact I've been put under more pressure from our parents to be good and work hard, ever since she became a drop out.

Bang! Bang! 

"Fuck off." I finally shout at the doorway and hear whoever's outside giggling and shushing each other as they run down the hallway in search of somewhere else to grope each other.

It's quiet outside now and I breathe a sigh of relief.

Just a few hours to go! 

I grab the new purple nail varnish from my bag and repaint my already purple toenails. It feels like I'm grounded and I need to find ways of occupying myself before I die of boredom or give in to the ever increasing need to pee.

Around eleven I can't hold my bladder any longer and know I'm going to have to vacate my room for as long as it takes to get to the bathroom and back. I can hear the idiots outside and really don't want to leave my bedroom without a guard, I quickly type a text to my brother.

Leanna: Are you still home?

Shane: Nope, Kim kicked us out because Luke was sneaking beer. Why?

Leanna: Balls, I wanted a bedroom 

guard so I can pee. How far away are you?

Shane: Too far, sorry! At Billy's. Just close your door and run for it?

Leanna: No worries, I'll figure it out, have a good night x

Wriggling on the bed, I can't ignore the need so I slowly open the door, peering outside and eyeing the bathroom door. There's three couples locked together against the wall between my room and the bathroom and they look up as soon as I open the door.

"No one's to go in here." I say firmly and one guy laughs, standing a bit straighter and eyeing my room with interest.

"Sure." He says and instantly I know I'm not leaving because the second I do, he'll be dragging the girl he's with into my room and ruining another set of my bedsheets. 

"Lea." Nathan grabs my shoulders and drags me back into my room, slamming the door and panting hard like he's been running. 

There's a knock on my door and I hear a voice calling his name.

"Please, please hide me." He looks genuinely desperate so I put my finger up to tell him to be quiet and, with a frown set in place, I open my door to whoever is still knocking.

"My room's not part of the party." I scowl at the slightly crazy looking redhead at my door.

Georgie Patterson. 

One of my sister's crazier friends and not in the wild way, in the certifiable, slash her ex's tyres and break into his house, cutting up all his clothes, type of crazy. 

For a moment she looks like she's going to barge into my room anyway and I grip the door firmly to stop that happening if she tries. When she makes no move to leave, I give an exaggerated sigh and stare at her. 

"Seriously Georgie, can I help you with something?"

"Have you seen Nathan Graham? He came upstairs to the bathroom and now I can't find him." She tries to peer into my room so I stand closer to the door and sweep my arm into the room to let her see everything except Nathan.

"I'm on my own and besides, you know Nathan's the last person in the world I'd have in my room." She laughs then, a high pitched maniacal laugh that is terrifying by itself.

"Oh yeah, I forgot how much you hate each other." Her laughter stops as quickly as it started. She fixes her bright blue eyes on my face in an intense stare that sends icy shivers up my spine and makes my hair stand on end. "If you do see him, you'll let me know, right?"

"Uh… yeah, sure I will. What do you need him for?" She giggles again and I regret asking.

"Oh, we're soul mates, didn't you know? He likes to play hard to get, but he feels it too. He wants me to be his first." 

His first what? Stalker? Murderer?

"Oh, no, I didn't know that. If I see him, I'll tell him you're looking for him, ok?" 

"Thanks Lee Lee, you're an angel." Her face transforms into a brilliant smile and just before she leaves, she turns back to me. "He lives next door, doesn't he? You don't have a spare key to his house by any chance? I thought I heard your sister say you've got one here for emergencies."

"Um… no, I mean, we do but… my parents keep it on their keyring… so it's not in the house." She seems to accept my lies because she wanders down the hallway, muttering about going over to check if he's gone home anyway.

"Oh shit, thank you, thank you, thank you. She's actually terrifying." Nathan gasps as soon as I shut the door. He looks reluctant to leave and I realise he could help me. 

"Ok, since I've done you a favour, can you do me one and make sure no one comes in here while I run to the bathroom?"

"Sure, go." He bends over, his hands on his knees as he catches his breath.

"I mean it Nathaniel, if you let anyone in, at all, I'm telling Georgie exactly where you are."

"Harsh." He fixes me with a serious look and crosses his heart. "I swear, I will guard your room as if it were my own." 

I slip out of the door and dart into the bathroom as quickly as I can.

"Right, thanks, you can go now." I tell him when he unlocks my door and lets me back in.  His eyes widen in horror as he glances out into the hallway.

"You can't make me go out there? She'll still be around or she'll be at my house. Do you not know how scary she is?" He hisses, leaning down to look me directly in the eyes. "Apparently she has a shrine of me in her bedroom, a fucking shrine, Lea. How creepy is that?"

"Serves you right for sleeping with her and you can't stay here?" I hold the door open, gesturing for him to get out.

"Er, firstly, I did not sleep with her, and secondly, why not? Look, I swear, I won't bug you, come on, we can call a truce on this weird hate thing we've got going on. It's still early so I'll help you guard your room if you need to pee again and you can protect me from crazy psycho stalkers."

"A truce?" I raise an eyebrow at him and he nods. Swinging the door shut, I slide the bolt across, but not before giving the guy, still necking his girlfriend in the hall, another warning look as he glances at my room hopefully. "Fine, you can sit on the floor."

"You're really not going to let me sit on the bed with you?" His mouth drops open and he stares at me like I'm speaking a foreign language. "Lea, we've shared a bed numerous times before, come on."

"Don't remind me." I shake my head, sitting cross legged on my bed. "The whole point of this evening is to keep disease ridden scumbags off my sheets, so no."

"Why are you so mean? Seriously? We used to be friends. I don't understand." I definitely don't want to get into that conversation, so I press play on the TV and stare at it harder than necessary.

"You know I'm really trying to concentrate on reading what they're saying, so if you wanna stay, you need to keep it zipped."

"If you let me sit on the bed, I'll let you have my headphones, for keeps since I did accidentally break yours." He dangles a pair from his hand, but just as I reach for them he pulls them away. "Let me sit down first."

"Fine." Shifting across my bed, I let him sit down, switching the show from the TV to my laptop so we can plug them in and take an earpiece each.

"You wanna kiss a bit, maybe fool around?" He turns and asks me as calmly as if he's asking for the time, I stare at him for a moment, wondering whether he's joking or just has a death wish.

"I really, really don't."

"Why not? We've done it before and you didn't seem to have a problem with it."

"Wow. Ok, so anytime you want to get out is fine by me."

"Kiss me and I'll think about it." He grins, leaning in with his lips puckered up.

"Oh my god, this is so not worth it. I'm going to find Georgie." I drop the headphones and go to stand up but he puts his hand on mine.

"No, please, I'm sorry, I was joking. I'll stop." He turns back to my laptop, picking up the earpiece and offering it to me, as soon as I've settled beside him, I realise he's watching me. "Since we're in a truce and even though you just horribly rejected me, I'll still tell you, you grew up hot. You were always pretty, I know you never thought that, but you are. Much prettier than Kim, but now you're like wow… I don't even know…" 

"Try another line idiot. It doesn't work on twins." I laugh and shake my head, although part of me is flattered, I know it's just another of his jokey, fake compliments. "Especially identical twins."

"It's not a line and I'm not stupid and you're not identical. Your hair's got more colours in it, it looks like chocolate caramel in the sun whereas hers looks like melted chocolate, your eyes are a deeper green and you've got a tiny, kissable, little mole, right here." He touches my face gently with his fingertips, just to the right side of my mouth and I feel myself leaning into his hand. When I see him leaning towards me, I force myself to come to my senses and pull back.

"Shit, you're actually really good at this stuff, aren't you? I nearly fell for it." I laugh and he looks taken aback by my reply, although he recovers fairly quickly and breaks into a massive grin. I roll my eyes at him, shoving at his shoulder. "No wonder you've got Crazy McStalker after you, you almost made me believe you wanted me then."

"I do want you, Lea." He winks, licking his lips and leaning in again as if to kiss me, so I put my hand on his forehead, keeping him a safe distance away. "You're fucking beautiful, you know that. And obviously I'm gorgeous, we'd have so much fun locked in here together, all night long."

"Yeah, right." I laugh again, pushing his head away and narrowing my eyes at him. "I'm not sure I like the truce, it's weird having you flirt with me. Can we go back to hating each other?"

"Nah, I like this much better and I think, secretly, you do too." He brushes my hair behind my ear, staring deeply into my eyes, the teasing twinkle still there, luring me in.

"Stop it, I don't like it." I squeal, covering my face with my hands and peeking out between my fingers at his beautiful yet irritatingly smug grin. "Honestly, where's Nathan the dick gone? Have you taken something?"

"Would you look after me if I had?" He wiggles his eyebrows at me and inches closer.

"Nope. Since you refuse to leave, I'd just have a bucket ready so you don't puke on my carpet." I chuckle to myself, pressing play on the laptop to start the show up again. "Now, shut up and let me watch my show in peace."

"So you've seriously got this…" He gestures to himself and I look at him in what I hope comes across as cool disinterest. "In your room, all to yourself and you're not going to do anything about it."

"Shocking, but no." I smirk at him and he shakes his head.

"What a waste." 

"There's still time to find Georgie, I'm sure she'll appreciate this..." I mimic his gesture. "All to herself."

"I'll be quiet." He snaps his head to face the screen. "You're at least going to share your hermit snacks with me, right?"

"If it shuts you up." I slide the bag of treats towards him and he grabs a handful, finally keeping quiet to watch the show with me while the party goes on around us.