Fool Me Once by Abigail Livinghouse (classic books for 10 year olds txt) 📖

her hair in admiration of herself when she was done with that sentence. Ugh, please someone get me a barf bag.

 

Luca chuckled next to me. “All you have to worry about is getting knocked up with a mortal baby. How would that go over with the rest of your friends?” He asked. At that I opened my eyes to see Rebekah wrinkling her nose in disgust.

 

“Excuse me while I vomit. I might be blonde but I’m not stupid, Luca. I use protection. Now if you two will kindly leave me alone, I’ll be over there with one of those steamy lifeguards.” With a grin on her face, Rebekah pulled down her sunglasses and headed off to one of the lifeguard towers. I sighed.

 

“With our luck someone will probably drown because she’s distracting the coastguard.” I commented.

 

Luca shook his head. “Nah, if we’re lucky she’ll run off with one of them and possibly get lost at sea.”

 

I laughed at him, because oh wouldn’t that be the day. However my mood was dimming, because with my sister here it would mean that I would have to look out for her. Even though she’s the older one I’m the more responsible one, and no I’m not just saying that to be pigheaded, I’m serious. Ask anyone. But the point is, my relaxation time has just been cast adrift into the ocean, along with my hopes of having absolutely nothing to do and not having to worry about anyone or anything. Looks like my sister’s ruined something again. 

This Could Be A Problem

Well, with my sister whoring around California, I certainly didn’t want to stick around to find out the outcome (no matter how hilarious or disastrous it may turn out to be). Neither did Luca, who if you haven’t realized by now, isn’t very fond of Rebekah. The only reason Luca doesn’t like her is because she’s constantly throwing herself at him, and he finds it incredibly irritating. He’s made it clear that he’s not interested a number of times, and I know Luca better than anyone else. And when someone doesn’t get it through their heads that he doesn’t want them around him, then his attitude shifts from politely rejecting you, to sticking his foot up your ass if you don’t get away from him quick.

 

Since Rebekah’s head is thicker than anyone’s I know, she still hasn’t gotten the picture. Either that, or she refuses to accept that a living, breathing creature doesn’t want to have sex with her. I’m going to go with a little bit of both. Anyway, Luca and I were now at our hotel, repacking our bags that we had just unpacked about two hours ago.

 

“Un-fucking-believable”, Luca growled as he shoved his toothbrush and paste into his suitcase. I scowled at him and leaned against the bedroom wall, my arms crossed.

 

“What? The fact that my sister had to show up in the one place we ended up going to? Or that this hotel offers 24/7 room service and we won’t be able to try it out?” I joked, but obviously he wasn’t in the mood, as he shot me a heated glance that said “don’t fuck with me”.

 

I held my hands up. “Jeez, okay then Mr. Pissy-Pants. If you don’t mind, I’m going to–”

 

“Oh no you don’t”, Luca cut me off before I could finish my sentence. I looked at him in surprise.

 

“What? I was just going to go down to the boardwalk before leaving. Is that such a big deal?” I asked.

 

He shook his head, still grabbing random things and packing them up. He wasn’t paying very adept attention to what he was doing though, considering when he looked up at me he snatched one of the hotel’s pillows and began cramming it into his duffel.

 

“You’re not leaving my sight. On top of all the shit going on and with the mess I’m sure your sister is going to make, I don’t want you screwing around and adding more stress to the situation at hand.” He said, ordering me as if I was a child. I cocked my hip and placed my hands there, looking at him as if to say, “oh really?”.

 

“And what exactly is the situation at hand?” I asked. Luca’s expression darkened, his blue eyes hardening.

 

“Give it a while. Your sister’s going to fuck up and leave it up to us to fix what she’s done. Trust me on this Alex, if we’re going to leave we have to leave now.” He said, jumping into the bathroom and coming out with his arms full of bath products. I scowled.

 

“Rebekah isn’t our responsibility. She’s eighteen, an adult. She can take care of herself.” I said firmly.

 

Of course she could, I mean, I wasn’t here just to look out for her. Sure, she’s my sister and yeah, if she screwed up, it would only be natural for me to want to jump in and try to help. But if wasn’t my required job to keep an eye on her, just as it wasn’t hers to keep an eye on me. That’s how our situation worked. Even though we were family, we rarely saw each other, and when we did, we normally said hello and goodbye quickly before heading in completely opposite directions in order to keep out of contact with each other as much as possible. It’s not that we hate each other, just that we’re not particularly fond of each other. Luca sighed, bringing me back to the present and out of my train of thoughts.

 

“I’m just telling you that I don’t want you fooling around and getting us into trouble when we’re trying hard to keep off the radar.” He muttered.

 

At this, my scowl deepened in anger. “What? Are you saying you don’t trust me enough to keep out of the spotlight? Well, I’ll have you know that I’ve been doing fine without you. I was fine before you showed up, and if you left now I’d be fine too. I’m not as dependent on you as you might think. I don’t need you looking out for me.”

 

Okay, so that might’ve been a lie. I actually did need Luca looking out for me, and I was actually very dependent on him because I loved that kid to death and always wanted him around. He’s the only companion I have and the only one I’ll ever want. But as I looked at him, I was relieved to see that my words had floated right over him, and a little annoyed to know that he hadn’t been listening.

 

“Yeah, yeah Alex, I know you’re just talking out of your ass because you’re frustrated. I am too. I didn’t expect for your sister to show up like this, and I certainly didn’t want her to. I just feel that it’s best to get out of the area as fast as we can before–”

 

The high pitched ringing of my cell phone cut Luca off, and as I reached for it in my pocket I caught a glimpse of his face. His pupils were large and his lips were pressed together into a tight line of concentration, like when he focuses hard on something he’s trying to figure out. Before I could ask what was wrong, he suddenly closed his eyes and cursed.

 

“Oh shit.” He muttered, but I didn’t say anything, instead I answered my ringing phone.

 

“Hello?” I spoke into the receiver. “Hey Alex?” My sister’s voice came through the other end, and by the quivering sound of it, I could tell that this wasn’t going to be good.

 

“What Rebekah?” I asked tersely, not wanting to hear the next few words that came out of her mouth.

 

“We–uh, I might be in a little bit of trouble . . .”

 

          “Fuck, what did you do?” I nearly growled into the phone.

 

Oh, this was just perfect. Never mind the fact that my sister merely arriving in California had ruined things for Luca and I, but now she might’ve done something that could’ve ruined things for someone else. Rebekah had a unique way of screwing with people’s lives, and I was usually the one to hear about it later.

 

“Um . . . well”, her shaky voice came from the other end and I sucked in a breath.

 

“What. Did. You. Do?” I asked, and if she didn’t answer me this time then I swear to god I will hang up and ignore her completely. With a sigh, she spoke.

 

“I’m at a party and in a bit of a fix. You see, this guy might’ve caught me . . . you know . . . using magic . . .” She trailed off, however that didn’t make her statement any less damning.

 

My heart dropped at this. We were dead. All of us, not just Rebekah. If she had exposed magic, then we were all screwed.

 

“Oh god”, I moaned into the receiver.

 

“What?” Luca asked, coming up beside me, his gaze impatient and questioning. I shook my head, signaling for him to be quiet.

 

“Okay, Rebekah. What exactly did he see you doing?” I asked.  A few seconds passed before she responded.

 

“Oh, nothing really. Just a little outfit swap, you know, nothing big.” She said in a dismissive tone, which again, didn’t make the situation any better or easier to deal with.

 

“Fuck”, I muttered, propping myself up against the wall, which was the only thing keeping me from collapsing onto the floor at the moment.

 

“What? What is it?” Luca asked, his tone becoming angrier and angrier by the second. “What’s going on? Alexandria, you tell me what has happened right this minute.” He demanded, his eyes dark. I looked at him bleakly, shaking my head.

 

“My sister’s fucked us all, that’s what’s happened.” I murmured before sinking to the ground in a heap.

This Takes “Fucked” To a WHOLE New Level

“Alexandria? Alexandria?” I heard Luca calling my name, and felt someone softly shaking my shoulder. I shut my eyes tighter, groaning and shaking my head.

 

“No . . .” I moaned. The shaking stopped.

 

“Alex? Alex, baby what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Luca asked softly. I shook my head.

 

“No.” I grumbled.

 

“What’s the matter?” He asked again.

 

“My sister’s screwed us over.” I responded simply. Luca sighed at my answer.

 

“C’mon Alex”, I felt his hand slip into the small of my back as he lifted me up into a sitting position, shifting so that he could place me on his lap and I could lean against his chest. Luca began softly stroking my hair, attempting to soothe me as he spoke.

 

“What did she say?” He asked. I sighed.

 

“A