I lay in my bed but, sleep eludes me. I wonder what tomorrow is going to be like. Are there going to be any paparazzi at school? Is Jen going to talk and bombard me with questions?
Is everyone going to recognize me in that tweet? Am I going to go home tomorrow from school to a house without a mother? Will she go away far away this time? Will my life remain plain but peaceful or will it become an overnight Hollywood disaster? Ugh, brain please stop thinking about that and think about something else. I close my eyes and I try pretend sleeping. They say that in order to sleep you first have to pretend to sleep, so I did. I remain to close my eyes but it was no use. My eye keeps twitching inside. It’s like it’s begging me to open them. I try turning to the side. Nope, still awake. I turn to my back and bury my face in the pillow. Nope, still awake and is kind of hard to breathe in this position. I go back to my original position and spread my arms above my head for a more relaxed state. Nope, still awake. I have tossed and turned but it was no use. I lay on my back and stare at the ceiling full of random pictures of flowers. I try to remember the memory from each flower picture. As my eyes scan the pictures I notice something odd. I squint my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. I wasn’t satisfied so I stood up on my bed and got a closer look to the picture. Huh, I never noticed that in one of the pictures there was one that was different. All of the pictures were solely just flowers but, this one showed a hand. It was as if the person was handing the flower to me. The picture was a bit blurry because of the hand movement. The hand was holding up a baby sunflower and some white baby breath flowers. I can’t tell if it was a girl or a boy’s hand. I look at the background and it looks familiar. I can’t seem to quite remember where it was. Hmm, strange. I don’t recall taking this picture and I definitely don’t remember whose hand was this. I lay down back on the bed and tried to think back to the time where I remember anything about sunflowers because that was the girl/boy was holding in the picture. The time passed by and I drifted my self away to sleep.
~
The alarm goes off and I am slowly waking up from my deep yet insufficient slumber. I snoozed the alarm off, hoping to be able to go back to sleep but, nope even if my eyes are still heavy, it won’t go back to sleep. I remain my eyes closed until the alarm goes off again. I can hear the birds little chirping and rain? The alarm goes off again and I open my eyes. It looked like it rained heavily at night. It wasn’t rain that I was hearing but just a tad bit of leftover showers I assume from the heavy rain that happened while I was asleep. The air was cold. I adjust the heater in my room to make it a bit more warm. It’s currently 6:30 in the morning. I have class at 8. I know it seems a little bit early to wake up at 6 when class was still 2 hours later but I don’t like to rush. I like to take my time with things and so I like to allocate time for things that needs preparation, just like today. It is the morning after that horrible, dinner ruiner tagged tweet about my mother and I leaving Homebuds looking all slick except for me. I literally looked like I was having having a Lindsay Lohan depressive episode. It was not a big deal, it wasn’t like a thousand people saw it or it wasn’t like my mother and I’s privacy was invaded. Pshh, totally fine. It was like any other average tweet that didn’t potentially ruin my life. Life is easy, oh so breezy. Ugh, I’m already tired and the day hasn’t even started yet.
I get ready physically and mentally. I get up and made my bed. My father taught us to never start the day without making the bed first. He said that if we can’t even bother to fix our bed how are we going to be able to face and conquer the day ahead. The thing is I don’t want to start my day but, it feels wrong to not fix my bed so I just do and besides, this day had to get started anyway so there’s no use delaying it. I walk over to my closet to get something to wear and I don’t even bother trying to think of an outfit. I open my closet and grabbed the first thing I saw. A white cropped shirt and for bottoms I look to the side and I see faded blue, high rise jeans. Neat! I close my closet and headed for the bathroom. I take a cold shower to wake my sleeping senses. I stay under the running water and close my eyes for a while. I think to myself, “aaahh this is nice but the water bill won’t be if I stay like this any longer” I turn the shower off and stepped out of the bath tub. I dried myself with a towel and got ready for school.
After I got done getting dressed, I go downstairs to eat breakfast. Dad was in the kitchen and not mom. Usually, mom makes breakfast and dad makes dinner so where is she?
“Hey, dad! Where’s mom?,” I asked as I sat down at the table.
“Good morning to you too. Mom is not here.” He turned around to see me and smiled, then went back to finishing the omelette he was cooking.
“Oh, where is she?,” I asked. It was morning and she doesn’t usually go anywhere this early.
“She’s at Vincent’s room,” he replied with his back still turned against me.
“Oh, I thought she was not in the house and had gone away!” I replied.
“ I never said she was away, I only said she was not here because she’s not here in the kitchen,” dad replied.
“Well, you should have completed your sentence so that it was clear,” I said in an annoyed manner.
“I’m just messing with you, V. I’m almost done with these omelettes. Go ahead and make yourself something to drink.” He turns around just to let me see his satisfactory smile of succeeding of annoying me.
“What’s she doing there?” I roll my eyes at dad’s stupid smile and grab the piece of toast and munch on it before standing up and making myself some coffee.
“Trying to get back on Vincent’s good side.” Dad turns around with the hot pan full of omelettes and scoops one onto my plate. I’m glad mom tries her best to make it up to Vincent.
“Thanks, pops!” I put some ketchup over it, making a cute little sunflower.
“Good morning, V!,” Vincent shouted happily. Mother and him just entered the kitchen and I greet Vincent back.
“Good morning to you too, Van Gogh!” I open my arms to initiate a hug and Vincent accepts it. He sits beside me and takes a piece of my omelette.
“Good morning, darling.” Mom follows and kisses the top of my head. I greet her back. I was glad that she was here. I was scared that she would have to go far away because of the issue that happened last night.
“Morning, mother,” I said.
Mother goes to the other said to help dad but he was just finishing up. Both of them joined us for breakfast.
“So, Vincent. You’re mother said that you had some big news, would you like to tell me what it is?,” dad asked. He grabs the maple syrup and squirts some of it to his omelettes. I know weird. He says the sweetness of the maple syrup balances the salty taste of the omelette.
“I got picked to be the representative of our school for the state arts competition,” Vincent said proudly with a huge smile on his face. I smile too.
“Wowza! That’s amazing, kiddo!” Dad exclaimed.
“Thanks, dad! I’m really excited for it,” Vincent said happily.
“When is the competition?” I butt in and ask.
“Next month! I still have time to “hone” my talent as what Ms. Kelly said.” Vincent squirts some maple syrup onto his waffles.
“We should celebrate! How does dinner at The Harbor sound?,” mother asked.
“Don’t you think that’s a bit fancy, mom?,” I asked. The Harbor is a fine dining restaurant and I don’t think it would suit Vincent, after all we are celebrating him.
“Yeah, mom. Can’t we go to Jones? I really miss playing there and their burgers are the best!,” Vincent asked. Jones was an indoor trampoline park but they also sell food, and their burgers are truly the best. It would be a fun place to hang out at if there weren’t too much noise from the screams and the shouts coming from the trampoline park. The last time we went there was when Vincent was 7 years old and I was 15.
“Yeah, we haven’t been there for a while now,” dad said.
“Okay, sure. That sounds good too. We’ll go before 7.” Mom agrees and she proceeds to eat her breakfast.
“Hey, V. How was your first day as a senior yesterday?,” dad asked.
“Hmm, pretty average. Nothing much happened,” I answered. I put some creamer in my coffee, stir it and took a sip. Aghh, so good! I usually take my coffee black but recently I decided to switch it up and incorporate creamer into my daily dose of coffee and it’s pretty damn good so far.
“Alright, I just hope you won’t suddenly turn wild just because you are a senior now,” dad said jokingly.
“Our daughter barely does anything! Let her have some fun for Christ sake,” mother said.
“And that is why she is the most perfect daughter in the world I could ever ask for,” dad replied to mom’s comment.
“Yeah, it’s getting suspicious. She’s bound to make mistakes and I would like to be there for her when that happens!,” mother replied.
I laugh at them while they continue their usual bickering meanwhile Vincent is stuffing his mouth full of wafers.
“Hey, V. Can I ask you a question?” Vincent asked with his mouth stuffed.
“Finish what’s in your mouth first,” I answered. He complies and chews his food. He finishes and I say, “Okay, you may now ask away.”
“Why are you boring?,” Vincent innocently asked. Ouch. Does my baby brother really view my like that? Talk about a straight punch to the gut.
“What makes you think I’m boring?,” I asked him.
“Well, I never see you do anything fun, like going out and partying. You know, the stuff they do in high school movies.,” Vincent replied.
“Are you even allowed to watch those? Where are you even watching them?,” I asked.
“Netflix, duh!,” Vincent replied.
“Why do you even have access to that?,”. I asked but I don’t bother to wait for his answer. I turn to mom and dad to ask them the same question but they can’t hear me over their silly squabble.
“You know, I just don’t want to have a loser of a sister, especially now that I’m going to be famous when I win the competition,” Vincent said smugly.
He’s only 10 years old but he’s already more of a savage than me. I put my hands on my chest acting as if I just got shot, and say “You know, I liked you better when you couldn’t speak.” Vincent laughs and say “I just don’t want you missing out on some amazing things all because you’re used to being in the background.” Wow. When did my little brother get wiser than me?
“Just finish your breakfast, you’re going to be late,” I said and we both finish our breakfast.
After that, I take one last sip of my coffee and went to the wash room to brush my teeth. Can’t have them coffee stains on my teeth. I go back to the kitchen after cleansing my teeth to say by to both of my parents who by the way is still not done bantering.
“Mom, dad! I’m going now! Bye!,” I shout.
I’m at the front door now putting on my shoes before I head out. I sensed someone approaching me so I turn around and see my mother. She hugs me. Why is she hugging?
“Mom?,” I asked as I hugged her back.
“I’m sorry, again. You will be fine, I promise,” she said assuringly.
She tightens her hug and then she releases me.
“Bye, my Roni,” she said sadly. Why does her goodbye feel like an I’m-going-really-far-away-but--you-won’t-know-till-you-know. I push that thought back away ‘cause maybe I’m just looking into it too deeply.
“Bye, mother dearest.” I kissed her on the cheeks and went out.