*Narrator's POV*

Jessica watched in fear at the sound of her mother angrily stomping down the stairs. "I told you!" she snapped at Mr. Jung. "Just let me go!"

"NO!" Mr. Jung cried. "Don't do this! Don't go! They need you! I need you!" He chased after her and grabbed her wrist. "Just--"

Jessica's 7-year-old self could not comprehend the meaning of this fight, but she knew that the both of her parents were very upset. She saw her mother rip herself away from her father, and continue to the front door.

"You can't just give up!" Dad shouted after her. "At least give them a chance to--"

"No," she said calmly. "You know it won't work. The chances of the operation being successful are very slim. I would rather live knowing that I'm free instead of being stuck in a white room knowing I'll die."

"Then stay with us!" he protested. "With the people you love!"

"I can't. I don't want to see you when I leave. It'll break my heart to see you when that day comes."

"Wait!" he cried. "You can't!"

But the door had already slammed shut, and the car engine puttered as Mrs. Jung drove away.

"Dad?" Jessica was scared. "Where's mom going to?"

"She's just going out to see some friends," Dad said reassuringly. "She'll be back."

So Jessica waited, counting on her father's words. Her mother hadn't come back that night so she thought that she might be back in the morning. But the day became weeks, which became months, which turned into a year. Everyday, her father told her the same thing. "She'll come home soon. She's just really busy," he'd say. But Jessica eventually figured out that her mother was never coming back. She let her father keep lying to her, and then he sent her away to boarding school when she turned eleven. It was a charter school--the best of the best schools in California with very high prestige.

As soon as she got to California, she made sure to erase her mind of her family. She didn't want to think about her father's lies, her mother who left, and her younger sister she never wanted to see. It reminded her too much of her mother's disappearance.

*Krystal's POV*

I sat gloomily in the passenger seat next to my dad as he drove to my sister's apartment. This was pretty familiar. The last time we'd gone on this route was the first time in three years since my sister last came home. It was also the first time we met her friends, Tiffany and Yuri. They seemed pretty nice, though, which was definitely much different than my sister's attitude towards us.

"I'll be back in two weeks," Dad told me. He was strangely calm, but his voice seemed a bit shaky. "I promise." He turned the corner and pulled up to the side of the street where the apartment complex was. "I can't go in with you. My flight's scheduled in an hour and I have to beat the traffic."

"Take care, Dad," I said. I was still a little bit shaken by dad's drunken state from a couple days ago. I still couldn't get over the way he looked at me with so much anger and hate. I still looked at my wrist, remembering his iron grip on it as if he were going to snap it in two.

"Tell your sister I said hi. Make sure you give her that envelope." He didn't even wait for me to get inside the aparment lobby before he drove away. 

I watched the car until he turned the corner, tires screeching loudly. I sighed and turned to face the building with a sinking feeling in my chest.

You could just go stay over with Luna, I thought to myself. It would definitely save the trouble of having to see my sister's pissed off expression. But it was definitely too far from here. 

I looked at the envelope of money Dad had withdrawn from the bank. He wanted me to give it to her to sort of reconcile with her. I stuffed it in my jacket pocket, wondering where dad had managed to thicken it up like this while he was in so much debt.

You can call them up! But I had a feeling that I really shouldn't get them involved in any of this. They had never met my father before and I didn't want them to either. He was a nice man, but I didn't want them to find out he was a raging alchoholic as well as a player (kind of), since he got into picking up girls at the bar sometimes. 

I probably could have pulled off a lie on them, but then it would turn into more lies, and I would be stuck in that cycle of dishonesty. And if anything happened, they might get a bit too involved, and then my father would get into trouble somehow. That was something that didn't need to happen. Most of all, they didn't need to get involved with my family. That was unnecessary and I preferred to keep it that way.

"Here goes nothing," I said to myself and proceeded to walk into the lobby of the apartment. It was the same as the last time I'd gone, except that there was an ad  to buy one of the units here for $850, which was way expensive for a one bedroom/one bathroom apartment unit if you ask me.

As the elevator moved up, I tried to convince myself that everything would be ok, and that I shouldn't disobey my father, who had worked hard to rear me from birth. Plus, he promised he would be back, so what was there to worry about? Two weeks was nothing.

But something somewhere in the depths of my mind was biting at me ominously as if I was stepping into a deep abyss of doom.

The elevator dinged open and I stepped onto the heavily carpeted floor. This place was like a hotel. It was that nice. Picture frames hung on every wall like a pattern: Door, picture, door, picture...and so on. I wondered how on earth my sister was able to afford this place at all.

I was on the 5th floor by the way.

I dragged my feet as I walked to the door of my sister's apartment. My heart beat uneasily in my chest, and I felt adrenaline run in my veins a bit. My hands became all cold and clammy.

RUN! GO STAY WITH LUNA! My mind screamed at me.

I almost did, but I hesitated over the doorbell, comtemplating if I should get out and go. That might have been the better option. Maybe Luna's parents would be respectful and not get worriedly involved in a young 16-year-old's life, which mostly included a broken up family consisting of a hateful older sister, a smoking drunk father, and me...oh, and my mother who was never here for the 16 years I've been alive.

But because I was stupid, I rang the doorbell and the door swung open within a second. I expected my sister, but it was actually her tall friend, Tiffany.

"Hi!" she said brightly and greeted me with a big smile plus eye smiles.

"Uh..." I could not form words because of my surprise. I didn't know that they were here. This was definitely a bad time to come. At least I didn't have extra stuff, and luckily, I left all my books at school so I just had the basic school stuff in my backpack plus the small amount of clothes I owned. It really wasn't a lot believe me. All I owned was two t-shirts, two pairs of jeans, a jacket, and the personal stuff. 

"Jess, your sister's here!" Tiffany called. She smiled back at me agian. "Krystal right? Do you remember me? I'm Tiffany."

I saw her other friend, Yuri, walk by and disappear in a room. But she gave Tiffany a disapproving glare before she entered the room.

"Uh...well, actually," I said nervously. "Um..."

"How long has it been? A year since we saw you?" Tiffany ruffled my hair and pulled me into the place. "You've grown up some. You're 16 right?"

I was slightly put off by her cheeriness. I flattened my now messy hair and stuffed my hands in my jacket pockets to play around with my phone.

"Y-yeah," I replied awkwardly.

Just then, I heard a door close. Tiffany turned around and I followed her gaze to where my sister stood looking REALLY unhappy. "So you did come after all," was all she said.

I couldn't meet her glare. I was too scared, and too nervous. I pulled out the envelope and held it out in front of me like tribute. "It's from Dad. He wanted me to give it to you."

"I don't want it," she said coldly.

My heart sank. The air felt so cold and heavy. 

I began to wonder what in the world I was doing here again. I started to retract the hand that held the tribute, but Tiffany took it from me and took one look. She immediately closed it, and handed it to Jessica. "You better see what's inside."

Jessica shot her a look of disapproval and annoyance before she plucked it from Tiffany's fingers. She took one look and her eyes widened with surprise for a moment. She tossed it onto the counter of the open-bar kitchen she had. "I can't accept it. How did he even get this money? How do I know it's not illegal?" 

I wasn't sure if this question was directed at me or her friends, or all of us together.

"H-he got it from the bank," I said weakly. "So...it's...not what you think...it might be."

"Well, Jess, there you have it," Tiffany declared. "It's not black market money."

"So what? He probably just said it and she believed him," Jessica argued.

I was starting to have a pouding headache from all this tension and nervousness. "I was there," I said.

"How do I know that you aren't lying for him?" Jessica me. "He's not a very reliable man, you know."

OH, I knew that. But I still respected him as my father, and I was there at the bank in front of the bank teller with him. It was money from the safe. Dad wanted it all withdrawn, and he gave a portion of it to my sister. It was quite a bit of money in my opinion. Five hundred and fifty dollars even.

"Jess, you're being really paranoid right now," Tiffany scolded. "Lighten up will you?"

Jessica looked ready to say something really mean.

I saw Yuri start to put a hand on Jessica's shoulder protectively. "Fany--"

"Well don't just stand there," Jessica said to me. "Since you're here you may as well get your stuff organized." She studied me from head to toe with laser eyes. "is that all you have?"

I nodded, throat dry from fear and anxiety.

"Just put your stuff down there." She pointed to a corner behind the couch, where a huge shining glass window let us see the city below. "We're going out."

"O-out?" I echoed.

"You're coming too so hurry up," she said tartly. "Fany really wants you to come." She sounded really displeased and hostile.

I quickly put down my backpack in that corner alright.

Tiffany was driving, and I sat in the front with her, while my sister and Yuri sat in the back. However, I could tell my sister was burning holes into the back of my head with those cold dark eyes of hers. I didn't even have to look at the side-view mirror to know that.

I swallowed nervously, wishing that I'd had a chance to take one of those painkillers before we left. I felt a bad head ache coming up.

~**~

I did not sign up for this.

We were currently sitting at a table in Tiffany's favorite Italian restaurant. I somehow got seated next to Jessica, while Tiffany was sitting directly across from me, and Yuri across from Jessica. This was a terribly uncomfortable situation. 

"So, Krystal! What do you like?" Tiffany asked me cheerfully.

I shrugged. "Everything...I guess."

"Ohoho!" she exclaimed. "You're pretty open-minded! I like that!"

I flipped through the menu. None of it looked really appealing to me. I wasn't really hungry anyway. Plus, the food was crazy expensive. $25.49 for Marsala spaghetti? Shoot, someone could make that at home for less than half!

I wasn't interested in the menu right now. I was actually wondering why we were even here in the first place! This felt like a set up of some sort, and it was very badly planned. Tiffany was the only one trying to get me to talk to them, but my sister and Yuri were simply ignoring it all. 

I suddenly really wished I'd taken the option of camping out at Luna's home. Now I didn't care if her parents knew anything about my alchoholic father, if it meant getting out of this horrible situation.

"So! What are you getting, Krystal?" Tiffany asked me.

I was shaken out of my thoughts. "Uh...well, I actually wasn't hungry," I said slowly.

I heard my sister snort, which was unheard by Tiffany. 

"Oh! Well, you know what? Why don't you share with me?" she suggested. "I hope you don't mind me choosing for us?" 

I shook my head.

"Great!" She showed me her menu and pointed out something that cost twenty-five bucks. I just skimmed it and nodded. It was some rare pasta I hadn't heard of before with a special sauce that I couldn't understand. I was also too nervous to even read the description. But hey! Pasta was pasta.

"It's really good," she said energetically. "I'm sure you'll like it."

I offered a small smile and she returned it with a huge one. "I don't know why no one has noticed how adorable you are!" she gushed.

I felt the heat rise to my cheeks. How embarrassing!

"Fany, stop with your act," Jessica said without emotion.

"Well, I don't see you trying, Jess," she retorted.

I had forgotten my phone in my backpack, and I really wished I had it now.

The waiter arrived and took our orders. He gave us water, each cup had a lemon slice submerged with ice in the clear liquid. I just popped open a straw and poked it in between the ice cubes. 

"I didn't ask for this, Tiffany!" Jessica said irritably.

"Whatever. Don't make a scene," Tiffany quipped.

This was getting really uncomfortable, but it seemed like I was right. This was all set up, directed by TIffany herself trying to drag a rusted wagon of reluctant people. I felt like this was really unnecessary, and I also felt the increasing pangs of a head ache.

Yuri looked at Tiffany and raised her eyebrows at her. She leaned over and whispered something in her ear, which made Tiffany roll her eyes. 

"We'll be back," TIffany said. "Seems like something was forgotten!" She and Yuri headed away and turned a corner.

NOOOOOOOOO! I was literally screaming inside. All I wanted to do was crawl under a rock and maybe dig a burrow so deep no one would ever find me again. That's what I really wanted right now.

It was silent while my sister looked at her phone. I fidgeted on my seat, trying to drown out the situation and the loud noise. I looked at a huge painting across the wall. It was really prettty. There was a nice looking country home close to the banks of a river. The sky was tinted with hues of pink and orange, while birds flew across its vast expanse. A boat was roped to a tree stump. A man was getting ready to head to the boat, fishing pole in hand and a bucket probably filled with tasty bait. He was waving--

"Hey!" I felt someone poke the side of my head sharply. "I asked you a question."

"Huh? S-sorry!" I jumped and looked at my sister. My heart was racing with surprise and nervousness. 

Her dark eyes bore into mine, and I felt my thoughts start to get all jumbled. I wanted to get out. Why did I even--? I couldn't even think clearly.

"W-what...was the question?" I asked timidly.

"I asked you where you think they went," she said roughly.

"Oh....dunno." That was all I could think of at the moment. My brain had literally gone to mush, and it wasn't helping that I was trying to get over a head ache. I was feeling kind of cold, and my hands were getting sort of numb.

I needed to get out of here for a little bit. "I-I'm gonna use the restroom," I mumbled and slipped away from my seat. I asked a waiter where I could find a restroom. He seemed to notice my urgency and he led me to the restroom right away.

"Thanks," I said earnestly, and he nodded.

I went into the hallway where the women's restroom was, and I was about to open the door when I heard voices arguing.

"Fany, why did you have to pressure Sica into doing this?" Yuri demanded. "It's seriously not your business!"

"I'm her best friend, Yuri! In case you've forgotten!" Tiffany retorted. "I'm trying to help her see how wrong she is! She needs to give her sister a chance--HECK! She needs to give herself a chance to get to know someone who is so far yet so close to her!"

"Well, you're not helping her at all, Fany!" Yuri snapped. "If she doesn't want Krystal with her, she has a right to make her leave too!"

"Not you too," Tiffany growled. "Look, just because you're her girlfriend, it doesn't mean that you should side with everything she says! Especially if it makes no sense at all!" I heard her shoes as she paced around. "This is family for heaven's sake! You don't just drop family like that!"

"Huh! If you're so concerned about her sister, you should take her for yourself then," Yuri scoffed. "Jessica doesn't need anymore burden on her shoulders than she already does. At least Krystal wasn't sent away to live on her own so early!"

"Gosh, you two!" Tiffany growled. "You seem to misinterpret my reasoning. I'm not trying to make Jessica the bad guy, but she's making it really hard. You even said so yourself before!"

"That was before...when we first met her sister. We don't really know her. What if she is a ?"

I felt really stung and saddened. Is that what my sister and Yuri thought of me?

"Come on, we better get this dinner over with," Yuri said. "They're waiting."

I immediately whipped around for a hiding place. There was nothing but the men's bathroom so I scrambled in before they could see me. I really hoped they didn't see me, but I accidentally ran into a gentleman.

"S-sorry!" I squeaked.

"Girl's restroom's the other one, kid," he said shortly before leaving.

I headed out after a few moments. I got lucky. I saw Tiffany and Yuri's backs just before they turned the corner. I breathed a sigh of relief. So they hadn't seen me at all.

I pushed my way into the right restroom and leaned on heavily on the sink. I goraned and held my head in my hands. "Stupid head ache..."

I the tap and collected water in my cupped hands to splash on my face. I needed to cool off.  The heat had returned to my body after that close call escape. I wiped off leftover drops with an arm.

I looked at myself in the mirror. I was a mess. Literally and figuratively.

I heard voices and I immediately hid out in the last stall of the restroom. I leaned against the wall and sank down to my feet. I hugged my knees close and rested my head on top of them, hoping the head ache would let off soon.

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Hi everyone! Thanks so much for reading this, and I really hope you're enjoying it this far! :)

Everything's kind of a mystery...sort of, regarding their parents and Jessica's REAL reasons as to why she keeps pushing Krystal away from her. So we can look forward to that! :)

I have school again soon, so I don't know how often I can update. I'm actually having writer's block for my other stories at the moment so I'm not sure when I'll update those ones. It's really easy to plan the end and the beginning, but the stuff in the middle is hard to decide...for me anyway.

Please bear with me!

Please subscribe and upvote if you liked it! Leave comments about what you think of the story or whatever you want! :) 

I hope this story will be one that you will all like to the end! 

Take care! <3