Cole.
“Cole, wake up,” his brother’s disembodied voice droned. Cole’s eyes fluttered open, before closing to a slothful squint. He disliked - no, despised - having to rely on his monotonous brother, Jase, as an alarm clock. There was no longer anyone in the room, and the sound of wooden stairs creaking under someone’s weight was telling him that Jase had already gotten out.
Thin streaks of sunlight peaked through the curtains, illuminating the room with orange flecks of light. At least Jase had been considerate enough not to turn on their blindingly bright lights. He hadn’t been considerate enough to keep the fan on, though.
With a groan, Cole rolled onto his side and propped himself onto his elbow, glimpsing at the clock that read…
7:42
Cole relaxed and once again burrowed himself into his blankets. There was still so much time, but it seemed like Jase thought otherwise. He squeezed his bolster and laid there, his eyes fixated on the ceiling.
“Cole, get up! I swear, if you don’t get up right this instant, you are coming to school with me in your My Little Pony pajamas,” called Jase, getting more impatient by the second. Cole could tell he was rushing around downstairs, judging from the hurried shuffles and hasty footsteps.
Cole stared aimlessly at the fan that spun slower and slower to a stop, following a single blade as it twirled sluggishly. If he didn’t get prepared soon, he would have to face his brother’s silent wrath throughout the day. Still, a small, selfish part of him didn’t want to leave the warmth of his blanket burrito, but the rest of him was getting hot. Reluctantly, he bade farewell to his bed, pillows and blankets.
Forcing his heavy eyelids open in the glaring lights, Cole brushed his teeth, threw on the nearest t-shirt and hopped into a fresh pair of jeans. He ran his fingers through his hair twice in a desperate effort to make his hair look less like a startled macaw and grabbed everything he needed that was in his line of vision. I can always borrow stuff anyway.
After almost breaking the door, nearly slipping on the dirty clothes that were scattered in the hallway and dodging a stair-slip, Cole made it into the kitchen. There, he was greeted with the same look he received every morning - a mildly annoyed expression, though his face would have looked neutral to an outsider. Cole liked to think he knew every expression that would ever ornament his brother’s features, even if there weren’t a lot.
As it turned out, Jase wasn’t having a good day either. Jase never woke up late, which resulted in Cole never waking up late as well. A few strands of Jase’s silvery hair were out of place, and that itself put Cole off. It was never that messy. Nothing about Jase was ever ‘messy’, only if he intended it to be. Cole squinted, searching for any mistakes. He couldn’t find any. Maybe they were so well hidden that even he couldn’t spot them?
His final verdict was that Jase actually had woken up late and the messy hair was a result of that.
“You’re late,” Jase said, cold as usual. He tossed a banana to Cole effortlessly, the way everything he did with Cole appeared to be. Cole caught it with one hand, the other hand shoving everything he had packed from his room into his bag before he swung it over his shoulder.
“Being late is better than not showing up though,” joked Cole.
“Hmph. I suppose education doesn’t matter to you.” Jase only glanced at him momentarily before resuming what he was doing; swinging his bag onto his shoulder.
By the time Cole was ready, Jase had already been waiting by the door. He looked like he was in some drama, staring at the sky as the sun went up. There were no tell-tale signs of emotion being shown other than the fact his fingers were drumming against the wall at a steady rhythm. Impatience, annoyance, the words kept repeating themselves in a silent mantra in Cole’s head.
Cole didn’t feel like arguing with Jase today, like most other days. There was no point anyway. He reached for his shoes, which were stacked neatly beside Jase. Jase retreated quickly from him, his body turning towards the opposite direction, as if a single touch would scorch his skin.
As Cole tugged on the tongue of the shoe that was lodged uncomfortably under his toes, he could feel Jase’s eyes watching him, looking as if he wasn’t particularly interested by anything he was doing but watching simply because there was nothing more interesting.
“Let’s just go.” Cole was cautious with his words. He didn’t want his brother to snap at him like that day, many years ago. Jase narrowed his eyes in response, turned and jogged out the gate. Cole caught up to him in a few long strides.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Author(s):
intro: eaglesyoungwriters.blogspot.com/2016/10/trialed-by-nature-intro.html
chapter 1 (previous): http://eaglesyoungwriters.blogspot.my/2016/11/trialed-by-nature-chapter-1.html
No comments:
Post a Comment