Valeria had been out with girlfriends, a pretty little thing parading around the streets downtown in the white summer dress she loved so much. It was an emphasis to the soft curves, the sharp contrast of long black hair a cascade of molten onyx down her back, but despite the good-natured flaunting, there was no experience - only a careless naivety. With the neglectful brain belonging to a young woman her age, scattered to the wind carefree and youthful, the time clicked by among giggling laughter and the warm midday sun.<br/><br/>Somewhere along the way the hours had been lost, and with the dawning realization her phone was nowhere to be found inside the depths of her purse, she made due with bidding friends an early farewell. Traipsing down the road with belly full of lunch and a fake leather wallet at least twenty dollars lighter. Valeria was a pale-skinned angel, black and white specter, but there was no mistaking the creeping flush of red crawling up the back of her neck; officially shattering the monochromatic color scheme. She had forgotten it somewhere, the tablet of electronic that held much of her social life. It hadn't been seen since yesterday so how could she have remained unaware? Was it possible she had been too scatterbrained that morning, running out the door in eager haste and leaving it behind? She would not know the answer until stepping through the entryway of her childhood home, brother's voice, sharp and commanding, cutting through the empty gloom.<br/><br/>Kicking off her sandals, bare soles carried her towards the source of discontent, straight down the hall where his reprimanding call emerged from. She was unsure of why he still lingered around the house. He had informed her he was going out later that day, and yet, he remained - a haunting figure taking up space in her bedroom. The purse that had been slung over one of her slender shoulders was tossed to the floor, and her dark eyes - warm, kind vibrant orbs - took up the picture of incredulity. "You had it this whole time? Cayn, why?" Her words trickled out quiet, almost disbelieving before they were snatched away. The door slamming behind her, hand wrapped about her wrist and dragging her inside, tearing the wind from her lungs.<br/><br/>Cayn had always possessed a short temper, and stretched lurking and thin above her, she could see it flickering in his pointed stare. A burnout of crackling fire. He had always been a tall boy, but up close and so much more shorter, she could not help but feel the twinge of intimidation. The interrogation he gritted out served to only heighten the conflict sparking between them, and she responded in kind; vague. Leading him on a chase down the rabbit hole. "Albert is," her voice caught in her throat, thick and cloying, a far cry from her earlier casualty, "a friend. Just a friend." Answers fell three letters short from the truth, but there was no reason to present him honesty.<br/><br/>He had been snooping through her phone, going as far as to track through her calendar and bring up harsh curiosity towards the male who's name littered her media. Cayn had displaced her trust. He did not deserve an easy answer. "I don't think it's very appropriate you went through my phone. I trusted you not to do that, and yet, you went as far as to hide it from me, didn't you?" Accusations fell swiftly from pretty pink lips, a mouth only ever having gone as far as kissing boys. It was no surprise she was unhappy with the way her brother was reacting. They may have shared the same features, dark black hair and eyes, but their personalities had always been different. "I don't see why you can bring girls over and I can't bring one friend. He's coming over, Cayn, whether you want him to or not. It'll just be a few hours." Defiance had never been her specialty, but against his tall looming form that was tightly wound behind narrow limbs and a stretched lanky figure, she had to speak up.<br/><br/>Valeria peered up at him behind a scandalous line of thick eyelashes. "You were leaving anyway, weren't you? I don't see why I should call him then."