The walk back wasn't honestly that long and right before I jingle my set of the key's into our front door it's pulled open by Adi who seems to look extremely disoriented. Ha, serves him right for drinking so much.
"About time" he angrily mumbled before walking back In as I entered, hanging my jacket on the stand, following him into the living room. "yeah, caught up with Aunt Mari and Ma since you were literally knocked out" I replied, ignoring his rude attitude as I made myself comfortable on the couch.
"Hmm," Adi was wearing his washed-out black tee and basketball shorts, sitting anxiously, with his foot tapping on the floor, across from me looking frustrated at his phone.
Rolling my eyes at my brother who suddenly was acting like a rat had crawled up his arse, I pull out my phone and open up my socials, it's not like I have many friends on there to text but it's nice catching up with a few people who check up on me. I was never the kind to broadcast and post everything, I'm more of the 'living in the moment' kinda girl myself, mostly cause I barely had an interesting life, but nobody's gotta know that.
I was amid sending an apology meme to one of my online friends, Isabella, for replying after almost a day when I get a notification, showing I've been tagged on a post. Clicking on it with confusion sure as hell written all over my face I stare at the screen in front of me as it plays a video of two girls ripping each other's hair apart with a desperate look-alike of me helplessly protesting in the middle, hey wait a minute...
I couldn't help but inwardly groan, this looks horrible. Now even if everyone was drunk and couldn't remember it happening, they'd have enough evidence to spew out drama. I watch the video on replay awkwardly cringing every time I get into the frame drastically pulling Bianca by the hair towards the door, the voices of drunk teenagers edging on the fight and picking sides in the background.
Sending a text to Bianca, asking if she saw the video, knowing well enough that she'd be the star topic at school tomorrow, heck probably even for the next week, I wait anxiously for her reply.
"Why was Bianca at that party?" Adi's pissed off tone snaps me from my staring contest with Bianca's constant notification spam, signalling she saw the video.
"What do you mean why was Bianca there?" I ask him, confused. He knew we went to parties. 9 times out of 10 he was the one who'd drive us there. what does he mean why?
"YOU KNOW FULL WELL WHAT I MEAN, THE FUCK WAS SHE DOING THERE? " He snaps at me, eyes suddenly raging along with his voice starting to rise higher. Adi gets up glaring at me accusingly.
"WELL, IT WAS A FUCKING PARTY SO HMM I DON'T KNOW TAKE A GUESS?" I yell back furiously, losing my calm and composed posture. I get up from my seat too, matching up to his intense gaze. Why was he suddenly so mad? He's starting to get on my nerves at this point, especially when he scoffs at me, unamused, and counters back with "well she's your 'best friend' or some bullshit isn't she?"
"the hell if I knew she'd be there?! And just cause shes my best friend doesn't mean she's gotta tell me where she is every second of the damned day!" I huff, crossing my arms, knowing if I didn't I'd probably smack the shit out of him. he may be my brother but he has no right to criticize my friends, particularly when he was the one who was barely conscious last night.
"humph, pathetic" Adi frustratedly grunts before shoving past me towards the main door. Too angry at him to ask where he's going I stomp my foot angrily on the floor before aggressively heading to my room and slamming the door shut.
what a fucking prick.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ma knocks on my room door a couple of minutes before 10 pm.
"Hey, hun" I look up from my laptop at her leaning figure on the door frame with her arms crossed.
"Hey, you're a little early today aren't you?" I ask her. I can't remember the last time we had a proper family dinner, except for mine and Adi's birthdays. Ma makes it a priority to always make time for us even though we don't get to spend that often together. Although it doesn't seem like we'd be having a full family dinner tonight too.
"Yeah, figured I'd spend some time with the two earthlings I've given birth to, where's Adi by the way? He wasn't there when I walked in and his keys are left here."
Biting the inside of my cheek I look at her embarrassed, "Um... See... We sorta... fought? B-BUT I SWEAR IT WASN'T MY FAULT! HE JUST STARTED IT, AND-"
"of course, why did I even ask. just...go get him, would you? I'd like to have BOTH my children having dinner with me? I don't care who started it, I'm giving you half an hour max." Ma sternly states before turning around and walking into the living room.
I let out an annoyed groan before flinging my legs off my bed and pulling my phone out to message Adi.
Rooftop? (10:03 pm)
Rooftop. (10:05 pm)
I quickly take a hoodie off my chair and put it on before climbing up the staircase. We live in a fairly tall building, with 12 floors, to be precise. Our apartment has quite the view, considering that we live on the 7th floor but overall our building's quite old and you could tell from the dusty brown colour. Not that anyone minded much. Everyone living in this area was super nice and I wouldn't change it for the world.
The door makes an ugly sound when I open it, the cold breeze of the night sky making me hug myself a little tighter as I draw near my brother. He had his legs dangling off the ledge, towards at the city lights, looking deep in thought. I sit next to him, which snaps him out of thought to look at me before giving me a faint smile.
"hey"
"whatsup loser?" I reply to him with, giving him a nudge with my shoulder. we were always like this. we'd fight like cats and dogs, but at the end of the day, we were inseparable. Adi lets out a light laugh before replying, " Not much...kinda tired I guess, that's all. what about you?" I raise an eyebrow at him. tired my ass. "I'm fine-" I dismiss quickly before adding in "are we gonna talk about the fuck possessed you a while back? cause I'd like to have an exorcist on speed dial next time."
Adi takes a deep breath before running his hand through his hair in a frustrated manner, and I couldn't help notice how dull his eyes looked, it probably was just the tiredness from that hangover that made him look like this but I couldn't help feel he looked different and I did not like it.
"I'm just...going through some things, oh, and um, I'm sorry for that. I didn't mean to snap at you" he said, looking ahead, his shoulders slumped. And at that moment, he looked so old. no, not a white beard, old man old, but a spiritually tired kind of old. I almost smacked myself for not noticing earlier.
"Uh...yeah it's alright won't worry bout it, does it have anything to do with the party tho? the 'somethings' you mentioned, you know you can tell me anything, yeah? I'm here for you, even if it doesn't seem like it most of the times." I say glancing at him.
"yeah...I'm just protective over Delilah I guess. I really love her, C. She makes me so happy and I can't imagine being without her. she's my everything, and we keep fighting cause of things that shouldn't matter and I don't want her to feel like she isn't my top priority cause she is."
"Ah, so trouble in paradise is it?" I wiggle my eyebrows at him, earning a slight eye roll. that's when realisation dawns upon me, Bianca was the girl who was clawing Delilah so it made sense what he was mad about it, even though he acted like an ass about it. he just didn't like the fact that he couldn't protect her, even though I still don't see how he would have stopped the fight.
"Yeah, something like that you could say, ugh I can't believe I'm discussing my love life with my little sister, gross." I let out a loud laugh at that and shove him playfully, "It's cause I'm amazing company and you're lost without me." "yeah keep up with that modesty why don't you?" he says with a smile.
We sit a few moments in silence, listening to the cold breeze and the starry sky above us. Both of us lost in our own thoughts before he breaks it, "Do you ever wish you could just leave? like. go somewhere far away, start over? have a new life or something, where you just get a do-over?"
I thought about it for a minute, honestly? yeah, I have, but why is he bringing this up? I always wondered how life would be things happened differently in my past. If dad never left, If B and I never met, If I never grew up with Logan and sillias in my life, but I never once thought of leaving. I love my life, even if it's a mess.
"No...not really. why you ask?" I look at him questionably.
His eyes looked distant, almost fogged over, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips he says "I wanna get out of here, take You, Ma, Delilah, and just move. go somewhere far away, keep you guys safe-" suddenly he looks at me dead in the eye, a deathly look on his face, serious, and I mean that scary kind as he holds me by the shoulders forcing me to meet with his crazed eyes. My heart rate increases looking at Adi, he looked like a kinda crazy drug addict with his eyes looking at me like a deer in headlights. "Never trust anyone Cierra. promise me you won't trust, anyone. if...if anything ever happens to me I want you to take care of Ma, do something with your life. be safe. for the love of God be safe." scared out of my mind I whisper "Adi you're hurting me." His grip on my shoulder loosens but he doesn't let go. "Promise me." I gulp before nodding, "Promise."
leaning back and letting go of me, probably realising that he just scared me shitless, he lets out a deep breath before apologising the second time that night. "I'm sorry, I got emotional there for a sec, how're things with what's his name? Mat? Matthew?"
Grateful that he changed the subject, I don't do well with serious talks, I punch him on his arm and laugh out, "His name is Mateo, loser."
"Mateo Loser huh? that's a pretty accurate last name."
"Oh my god, shut up"
Adi laughs and we settle into another comfortable silence, our previous conversation long forgotten.
Just then my phone starts to ring and I pull it out in confusion before accepting, not bothering to check who it is.
"CIERRA MARIANA RODRIGUEZ, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU AND YOUR BROTHER. I TOLD YOU TO BE BACK IN 30 MINUTES AND ITS BEEN AN HOUR, YOU BOTH BETTER GET YOUR ASSES HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT OR GOD SO HELP ME I WILL PUT RAT POISON ON YOUR SLICES OF PIZZA AND POST VIDEOS OF BOTH OF YOU THROWING UP ON THAT SNAPGRAM THING YOU'RE ALWAYS ON."
"I- um psssssst- can't- pssssssst- hear-pssssst- the number you are calling is no longer in service" I cut the line and look at Adi before he starts laughing like a dying hyena.
"shut the fuck up, this is all your fault" I mumble as I get up and dust myself, "Race you there?" Adi asks with a smirk. oh, it is on.
I don't answer him as I roughly stumble in front of him to the stairs leading downstairs before in a second I'm behind Adi and all I hear is his laughter booming as he swiftly turns around. "Always been the clumsy one haven't you?" he comments with a teasing smile before shutting the door behind him. I pull open the stairwell door again and dramatically huff, "Mayn, why you always gotta leave me like that?"
Only to hear Adi reply lightheartedly "I'm never gonna leave you behind stoopid, you'd miss me too much"
Rolling my eyes with a smile on my face I follow in behind him.