Here you go, Chapter 3. Wanted to knock these things out quicker than every month, but a month at the latest was the goal. Unfortunately, work called expectantly and I found myself indisposed for a couple of weeks. This is 17 pages types, so slightly longer than Chapter 2. I have 5 pages already written for Chapter 4, so hopefully it comes out quicker. I took the complaints (and the praise) to heart, but the story is already mapped out in my head. I still thought about the comments when I was writing, so hopefully it shows. Still a slow build up, but moving in the right direction I hope! Your comments make this all worth it, so please don't be shy.
THREE SISTERS CH. 03
Josh stood in the doorway of Dawn's room inside the family's cabin, unable to react to what he was seeing. His mind had finally processed the scene, but had yet to give the body its orders to somehow make this right. But the reality was there was no making this right.
Before him was his girlfriend, Valerie, the woman he thought he was going to grow old with, having sex with another person. That would be devastating under any circumstance. However, the other person was none other than Josh's nemesis, his sister Dawn. They had never been close, had never been friends growing up. But pure betrayal? Stabbing him in the back in the most hurtful way possible? What had he ever done in his life to her to be the target of this hatred?
Nothing, Josh decided. He would never have done this to anyone. No one should feel what he is now feeling. Anger seized Josh now, temporary overpowering his despair and confusion.
Simultaneously, Valerie happened to look over in Josh's direction and gasped when she saw him there. Quickly she rolled to her left, grabbing the sheets to cover her naked lower half and kicking a probably confused Dawn in the head. Valerie disappeared in the darkness behind the far bed. Josh saw Dawn recover, stand up and look his way.
"Josh! Oh my God. It's not... we..." Dawn stuttered out, and began to move his way. Her face glistening with the evidence of her treachery.
Blood flashed in Josh's eyes. His rage boiled over and he made his right hand into a fist and cocked it back, ready to take Dawn's head off. Realization came over Dawn half way to Josh, and she cowered down, covering her face with her hands.
Seeing her terrified, Josh's rationality returned just enough to feel shame that he could have hit a lady, even if Dawn barely qualified. Scared about what he would do if he stayed in that room a second longer, Josh fled into his own room, slamming and locking the door.
There his emotions took over. Anger. Hurt. Sadness. Disappointment. He had no ability to cope with them all. Josh felt tears well up in his eyes, but fought them back. He had not cried since his mother died. Not when he broke his leg playing football. Not when his dog died. So certainly not when his whore of a sister ruined his life. He wasn't going to give her the satisfaction.
All of Josh's thoughts focused on Dawn and how she could do this to him. It occurred to him that Valerie was not without fault here, but he dismissed most of these thoughts believing that her naive nature was no match for the Queen of Sodom.
Josh wasn't aware of how much time had passed when he heard a soft knock at his door. Looking at his phone he realized it was almost 3 in the morning. No doubt Valerie coming to talk to him and explain her side of the story. Josh ignored the knock. He'd talk to her tomorrow when he could trust himself more. The knock came again, followed by a soft sigh. Josh heard Valerie walk away, clearly having given up on talking to him.
Sleep came eventually. Josh awoke sometime later to the sound of knocking once again at his door. He wasn't sure what time it was, but the sunlight coming through his window told him he had gotten at least some sleep.
"Josh, honey, I know you are sad but you can't spend all day in bed," came Jacquie's voice through the door. "Hurry up and get out here, I made you all your favorite things for breakfast."
How the hell did Jacquie know he was sad? Had Dawn fabricated some tale to Jacquie and Alice, in the hopes of mitigating the damage once they learned the truth? Well if she thought he was going to go down without a fight, she had another thing coming. It was about time that his sisters knew the real Dawn, the one that he had seen for years. Also, he needed to get Valerie alone. Sure, she had hurt him, but after he deprogrammed her they could get past this.
Josh dressed quickly and started to exit his room when he saw a note folded up near his door entrance. It contained just two words, "I'm sorry." Val had already started to reach out to him, which elevated Josh's mood to somewhere just north of "fuck me."
Josh saw Alice sitting at the kitchen table, which was overflowing with more food than 5 people should be able to eat. Jacquie was in the kitchen cooking even more. Josh looked around but saw no sign of either Valerie or Dawn.
"Eat up while it's hot," Jacquie said from the kitchen. "And Josh, I know you are sad about Valerie having to go home because her grandmother is sick, but you really should have gotten up to see her off. Her father didn't look happy about not seeing you when he got here this morning. Well, to be fair I didn't get to talk to him, but he sure wasn't happy about something when he pulled up. Maybe he's just really close to his mother-in-law?"
Guess that explained what happened to Val. She must have called her Dad to pick her up. Josh wondered what story she had told him to get him to drive 2 hours in the middle of the night to get her. No wonder he looked pissed off. Josh may have harbored a belief that he could make things better with Valerie in the future, but a small part of him was hoping that long drive home was as uncomfortable as possible. Now what about Satan?
"Where is Dawn?"
"She got called away for a modeling shoot. She woke me up this morning and said she had to leave right away. New York or something. Said she had no idea when she would be back. Someone sent a car to get her and she was out the door."
"Thank Christ."
"Oh you two. I thought you were actually getting along yesterday. Someday you are going to laugh about all this fighting."
"Don't hold your breath." If she only knew.
Josh spent this rest of the morning putting on a brave face. Jacquie didn't mention anything when he barely touched his food. When Alice wanted to go for a walk through woods he was quick to volunteer. Even in his depressed state he couldn't say no to Alice.
Amazingly, he actually enjoyed the 2 hours Alice and him spent alone together. She'd even made him laugh a couple of times. Josh thought back to when he was a kid and his mother died. His memories of his mother were vague, but after the funeral Jacquie had taken all four of them to see a movie, a comedy. The real memory that came through was they had all sat in that theater laughing together. He couldn't even remember the movie. 2 hours of laughing, followed by weeks of everyone crying.
Alice was having a similar effect on him now. Even day-dreamy Alice noticed something was bothering him, but only asked him once if he wanted to talk about anything. Still, her child-like passion for the world was infectious. Josh only thought about Valerie a few thousand times, a marked improvement. Sadly, when he returned to the cabin and was by himself again in his room, life caught up to him just like after the movie.
Josh's funk couldn't be shook off in the late afternoon when Jacquie announced that she was ready to actually go outdoors and to the lake. He declined her invite and spent the remainder of the daylight hours in solitary with his thoughts, which alternated from "Why me, God?" to extravagant plans of revenge against Dawn.
Somewhere along the line he'd fallen asleep and awoke to a plate of dinner left on the nightstand by his bed. Deciding to eat on the kitchen table, Josh grabbed the plate of food and headed outside of his room. He found Jacquie watching a video on the couch. One of the family's homemade movies from before his mother died. He sat down and started eating in silence next to his sister.
Josh recognized himself as a one year old being held by his mother. The entire family was there. Even Dawn looked pretty cute as a kid. You know, before she grew up into Stalin. Everyone looked so happy. Josh glanced over at Jacquie and she looked mesmerized by the scenes before her. Nothing was more important to her than family. Josh usually felt sorry for her that she didn't have more going on in her life. Usually. Now he figured that having a life was vastly overrated.
"You want to talk about it, yet?" Jacquie said, breaking the silence but not her gaze at the TV.
"Talk about what?"
"About whatever it is that is bothering you."
"I'm fine."
