Sisters, Part 2

"Sisters"
by Dromedary Joe

Part Two

Danni sat in her father's chair at the desk savoring every drag off of her
Marlboro Light. It had been more than twelve hours since her last cigarette
and she really needed one. She had been shopping with her oldest sister all
day, and so smoking had been out of the question. She quickly finished her
cigarette and crushed it out in the ashtray before she decided to have
another one. She went back to the bookcase and lit another Marlboro Light
before sitting back down. She thought about the new habit she had acquired
this summer.

It was the first summer her parents had allowed her to stay home alone. In
years past, they had sent her to day camp, if one of her older sisters wasn't
around to watch her, but this year they had decided she was old enough and
responsible enough to take care of herself. She had been home alone for much
of the summer. Ashley had been at cheerleading camp much of the time or
hanging out with her boyfriend. Brenda was usually at the library, while
Cindy was off doing her thing with friends or hanging out with Brenda. 

It all started one day when she decided to try a cigarette. It was just one,
after all - no one would ever find out. Her first cigarette wasn't that bad,
and once she got past the psychological barrier of smoking her first
cigarette, she started smoking more often. She had accidentally inhaled at
some point around her tenth one, and after that, she started smoking more
frequently. It was easy to get cigarettes since her parents often left half
empty packs and forgot about them, but it was getting harder now that she was
up to around five cigarettes a day. It would become much harder, she thought
to herself, as she crushed out her second cigarette and decided to go for a
third one. Earlier that summer, a third one in a row would have made her very
sick, but by this point, she could easily chain smoke a third without
difficulty. 

Danni lit up her third cigarette and sat back down in her father's chair. She
was beginning to understand why her parents had trouble quitting in spite of
her oldest sister's constant nagging. She thought about her oldest sister
Ashley as she took another hit off of her Marlboro Light. Danni wondered what
her sister would say about her new habit. Danni knew her sister would be
extremely disappointed in her. Her sisters were all anti-smoking, but Ashley
was the most vocal about it. 

Danni took another hit off her cigarette and as she was mid-inhale the lights
in the study turned on and she quickly turned around and saw Cindy.

For a second Danni froze, not sure what to do. Cindy looked like she was in
shock from seeing her eleven year-old sister smoking. Danni's heart beat
faster as it now looked like her days of secretly smoking were coming to an
end. 

Cindy regained her composure, grabbed a chair, and sat next to her sister at
the desk. Danni was still in shock, and started crushing the cigarette out.

"Wait!" said Cindy, "no need to put it out on my account. Go ahead and finish
smoking it." Cindy was kind of curious to see if her sister was actually
smoking or just experimenting a little. 

Cindy watched her sister smoke for a few minutes and realized Danni had been
doing this a while.

"So," said Cindy, "What are we going to do about this?"

"Please don't tell Mom and Dad I smoke," pleaded Danni. 

"I don't know," said Cindy, realizing for the first time that she had a great
deal of leverage to use against her bratty eleven year-old sister.

Danni finished the cigarette quickly, pleading with her sister between drags,
with Cindy taking a non-committal stance before both girls went to bed.

As she went to sleep, Cindy thought she had made up her mind - she would
definitely tell her parents about Danni's smoking, but figured she would wait
a day or two to make Danni wait for the other shoe to drop. 

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