Honey Jar - part 3



Now its been a year and things are looking up for Honey.  She’s getting along with Justine, her grades have improved, she’s made some new friends.  Everything’s going great. Everything except for her stupid sister.  Bea hit 15 and suddenly everything was all about boys.  And the boys she was into all seemed pretty lame to Honey.  And now there was Erik.  He had to be the worst of them all.  Honey thought that no human being could look at themselves more in the mirror than Bea until Bea came home with Erik carrying his own personal mirror in his backpack.  Every 5 minutes he’d take it out to check on how his mustache was growing, or wasn’t, or who knows what he was looking at?! Honey didn’t care. 
Ugh! Boys! Honey didn’t see what the big deal was.  Her friends were cool, though.  Other than her best friend, Denise, all her friends were boys.  But friends is one thing, the other...well, no way! 
This morning Dad and Justine left for an overnight.  This was the first time they left Bea and Honey in charge of themselves for longer than a few hours.  At 16 and 13 they were both fully capable of taking care of themselves.  If there was an emergency they had the number of a family friend who knew they were home alone.  At first everything was going fine, they even agreed on what movie to watch during dinner - The Secret Life of Bees.  Honey should have known something was up when Bea so easily agreed. Their family friend stopped by during the movie and Dad called around 8:30 to see how they were.  As soon as Honey hung up the phone, she noticed Bea texting away. In less than three minutes Erik was coming in the door.
“What is he doing here?” asked Honey.
“Erik and I are just going to hang out for a bit.”
“No way, Bea!” Honey yelled, “Dad said we have to stay put.  And no guests.” Honey gave Erik her best evil eye.
“Aww, c’mon, Honey. We’re not going to be throwing a party or anything. You can go over to Denise’s house”
“Yea, Half Pint. Go visit one of your friends.  B and I want the house to ourselves.”  Erik looked into the hallway mirror and plucked at the fuzz on his face. 
Honey may be small for her age, but ‘Half Pint’ is not one of her sanctioned nick names. She directed her rage towards her sister, screaming, “I’m NOT going to Denise’s and this narcissistic imbecile is not going to stay here! I’ll Dad and Justine and you’ll be grounded for life!”  Honey had been waiting for the right person at the right time to use that phrase.  Erik really was an idiot so he probably didn’t realize he had just been insulted.  But Bea was smart and aware enough to know that there was truth in the characterization, so it hurt.
“No you won’t, cuz if you do, I’ll tell Dad about your dumb bee hive and that creepy old man and that will be the end of that sad story!”

More yelling and insulting ensued but the victory was Bea’s.  Why had Honey told Bea about the hive? Honey ran from the house in a torrent of emotions. She was furious at Bea for putting Honey in this situation. More than that she was terrified of loosing the thing which she could count on more than anything or anyone. Tears filled her eyes as she imagined Bea’s betrayal.  Would she really tell Dad? It didn’t matter. Honey couldn’t risk it, and Bea knew it.

(to be continued...)

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