Nowhere to go

He passed the closed door with no expression on his face, reaching the top of the stairs, he hovered for a while, carefully scouring the area deep in thought.

Then he began walking down the stairs. Passing through the brightly-lit hallway, he turned left then right, stopping in front of a tightly closed door with a small side window next to it.

Inside was a flash of pink figure sat in front of the cream-white grand piano, her elegant fingers danced back and forth across the keys in a maniac fashion in order to vent out her hatred. She was fuming and she looked it.

In the end, as if that wasn't enough to release all the anger that had been building inside, she stood up, using all of her ten fingers plus all the strength from her body, she banged against the keys in three loud successions. "Dong, dong, dong!"

Nathan could almost feel the piano tremor and its three legs buckling underneath the brunt.

He knocked on the door in and without waiting for an answer, he entered.

"What do you want?" Eve raised her perfectly made-up face and asked in annoyance.

Instead of answering her directly, Nathan walked around the piano in a semi-circle and said, "I finally know why you keep changing pianos now." He joked, lightly stroking the keys.

Ignoring him, she immediately flipped the piano cover down, shutting it with a loud 'bang'.

"Ah!" Nathan yelped, clutching his hands tightly. His handsome face screwed up in pain.

"What happened? Are you ok?" Eve opened her eyes wide, immediately jumping out of her seat and rushed over to his side.

He shook his head and continued to wrinkle his face, unable to speak due to the pain.

"Did your hand get caught?" She grabbed his hand anxiously, the look of worry clouding over her face. "Which one is hurt?! Let me see!"

When he shook his head, she looked so worried like she was almost ready to burst into tears. "Why didn't you move your hand out of the way when you could see the piano cover was coming down?!" Her voice was full of accusation as if she wasn't the one that closed the piano cover on purpose.

She pulled out his hands despite his refusal. After carefully checking each one of his fingers repeatedly, she started to frown. From every knuckle to the tip of his fingernails, there was no sign of damage. Everything seemed to look, normal?

Glancing up in confusion, she could see Nathan having a hard time trying to hold back his smile.

She gritted her teeth and said, "Are you kidding me?" Then she slapped away his hand.

"I wasn't kidding, if I hadn't got out of the way just in time, I could've been amputated by you." He drew his fingers into a fist and shook it before her eyes like those lucky cats in shop fronts with the constant waving arms.

"I knew you were lying! If you couldn't get out before the covers closed that is saying something about your reaction time. You probably shouldn't even be racing!" Eve retorted.

Nathan smiled at her, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. His reaction time was fast. He had it tested, it was less than a fraction of a second. He was the fastest member of the racing team.

"Nathan, can you please get rid of that country pumpkin? She smells." Eve tilted her perfect face at him and asked.

"Eve, you know this is not something you and I can control." He rubbed his eyebrows, vaguely feeling his headache coming back. He didn't like Sefi but he didn't understand why his sister hated Sefi so much. And Sefi didn't smell. She smelled fine.

"I don't care. I don't want to live with her under the same roof anyway." She turned her head angrily. "She always sneaks into my room and touches my clothes with her dirty grubby little paws. She's disgusting! I have seen her come into this room several times. Touching my piano." Her piano was precious to her, no one was allowed to touch it aside from her.

He knew about this and he had seen Sefi sneak into his room too. Usually, to take out his dirty clothes to wash, and after ironing them, she would tiptoe back quietly, placing them on the shelves again.

It was easily spotted because only her would wrap his socks into triangles like little sticky rice dumplings wrapped in leaves.

Not happy with his answer, she turned her back to him.

Nathan stared at her for a few seconds: "What happened that day?"

Her shoulders stiffened slightly, but she remained where she was, "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Come on Eve, why did she fall down the stairs that day?" His tone of voice was relaxed, with no hint of accusation.

"I told you I don't know!" she snapped, then folded her arms stubbornly. She didn't like the way Nathan was talking to her. He was two minutes older than her but he never tried to act like he was her older brother. He always spoiled her and he never tried to question her.

Nathan understood there was no point delving into the matter further. If Eve didn't want to talk then there was no point forcing her. The case was closed. So he got up to leave.

Before he reached the door, "Gege!" Eve cried out. "Don't you believe me? We've known each other for eighteen years, are you going to take her side over mine? She's just a stranger? You barely know her!"

Finally, the family cards were being played. Nathan sighed inwardly. True, they have known each other all their lives. Therefore at times, he knew Eve better than she knew herself. Whenever Eve refused to answer a question directly that was a telltale sign that for whatever reason she was trying to hide something.

"Eve, you know Sefi has nowhere else to go," Nathan stated. He turned his back and pulled open the door.