.::Chapter Six::.

The doorbell screamed several times for answer before I was fast enough to reach the front door. I gripped the brass handle to satisfy the sound and was greeted by a mirror image- or so I thought. My same blond hair blew in the warm Miami breeze as the same deep brown eyes stared back at me. A boy stood in front of me with a beat up leather bag slung around his broad shoulders, a cigarette seemingly glued to the corner of his lips, and a skateboard,with the grip tape half falling off, resting at his feet. He took his cigarette from his mouth and flicked it several times before speaking. "You Sidney?" he inquired and slightly tilted his head back to acknowledge my presense. "Yes I am, who would you be?" I wondered as I studied his facial features. Familiar..yet seeming lost and forgotten. A smile suddenly appeared on my own face as I leapt into his arms. "Jason! My God its been so long!," I cried with excitment. He chuckled,"How ya been? Surviving without me?" "I guess so, how did you get here? Did you run away?" I question my brother. Although we had been apart most of our lives, trouble seemed to run through our blood just the same. "How else is there to get out? I did what I had to do," he said simply. "Oh god, umm..come in," I didn't quite know how to act around him. "Man oh man. You certainly were taken in by a couple of loaded bastards," he whistled as he looked through the house. I agreed with him but didn't say anything. He took another cigarette from behind his ear and lit it by striking a match on the coffee table. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw there was no damage done and quickly handed Jason an ashtray. He only set it back down to where it had been and focused on a piece of Mrs. Phillips' antique china. "Is this imported? I bet I could make a quick twenty on this," he mused as he picked up a plate and carefully examined it. "You'll have to make your twenty somewhere else. If any of this went missing she'd have a heart attack," I told him and grabbed the plate to return it to it's resting place in the glass cabinet. He laughed, "That wouldn't be all bad now would it?" He closely looked at me," You've gone soft on me haven't you? What happened to the hell-raising sister I used to have?" "No I haven't gone soft. I'm just cooling it for a little while," I defended myself as best I could. "Oh,yeah? Then prove it," he said with a challenging grin. "Ok, I will," I said defiantly. "When? Tell me when," he conitnued our long lost sibling rivalry. "Tonight, I will tonight," I kept it going.

Most of that afternoon with Jason was spent comparing the past years we had been separated with eachother's rate of delinquency. He beat me by a long shot. I had not yet gotten to the point where I had single handedly managed to get away with selling and using countless amounts of drugs in two countries. But hey, I was still young. Maybe I could catch up. I definatly could if I spent more time with Jason. He convinced me that tonight was going to ruled by us. He said he had something special planned for me to prove to him that I was still as bad as ever.

"But why this house? Why not another one?" I whined to Jason late that night. "Because I want this one," he told me and shoved the gun into my hands. I sighed and began to aim it for the house's windows. My task was to shoot at all the second story windows and break them with only one magazine. Stupid as it was, I couldn't back down now. The hard part was, it was Taylor's house I was shooting my bullets at. I deleyed all I could. "What are you waiting for? Come on, do it," he urged me on. I could only think of Taylor and his family. What if I hit one of them? Even more guilt would be laid to rest on my heavy shoulders.

"Sidney? Is that you?" I gasped a breath of pure thankfulness towards God that He had allowed this voice to keep me from this otherwise impossible act. I turned to face the street behind me. Taylor stood in the road staring at Jason and I. "What are you doing?" he asked me and looked at the gun in my hand. "Uhh..umm..nothing," I stuttered and then forced a nervous smile to form on my face. "How come you're here? Is everything alright?" Taylor looked suspiciously at Jason. "Yeah, everything is fine," I assured him and stood up. I walked over to him, leaving Jason still kneeling on the grass. He took my arm and pulled me close to him. "Don't lie to me again, Sidney," he said quietly through clenched teeth so Jason wouldn't hear. "I'm not lying to you Taylor. That's my brother," I told him softly. "Hey, if you've got something to say to my sister you can say it to my too," Jason interjected. The two boys faced eachother, Taylor seeming like an ant compared to him. "No, I've got nothing to say to you," Taylor said sternly. "Sure seems like ya do," Jason tried to antagonize him. "I don't," Taylor told him. "Just give it a rest Jason," I returned to my brother. He looked at me with a hard face and then nodded. "Yeah, let's get out of here anyway. I saw a nice camero down the street, sounds like a free ride to me," he said and began to pull me in that direction. "You're not gonna go with him, are you?" Taylor questioned me. I stopped to look at him. One of them on either side of me. A silent decision of who I would favor was to be made right then. "Well, no...I mean..I was gonna," I mumbled, showing I had no clear answer for him. I glanced to either side. I didn't know who to go with. Taylor was the one I wanted most but only shame would come about if I rejected Jason. I sigh heavily and turned to my brother but was unable to look him in the eye. "You go ahead, I'll catch up to you later," I said meekly. He didn't rspond. I dared to glance up at him and found a face of stone when I did. "If thats the way you want it," he said harshly and then departed. Taylor and I watched him leave and were silent for the next few minutes. "That's your brother? I didn't even know you had a brother. It seems like there's a lot you don't tell me, Sidney," Taylor remarked coldly. "I don't tell you these things for your own good," I said. "I dont know how to get it through to you that you can trust me. I'm not going to hurt you, not everyone is the same," he said and stared me in the eye. "I can't know that for sure. Everyone I have ever gotten close to is the same way. What could make me change my mind to believe that you'd be different?" I asked him, actually wanting a true answer to my question. "Nothing but trust," he said and walked into his house, leaving me alone in the empty street.

[Chapter Seven]