Kendra was about to grab the rest of her belongings for class when she heard someone knock on the door.
"Ken, it's me, I need the spare keys of our place", a deep masculine voice resonated at the other side of it.
"Yea okay, hold on for a second."
As she let her twin brother in, she could not help but take in his transformative appearance. Since they both graduated from high school and enrolled in college, he seemed to have been taking care of himself. Clean-shaved, well-dressed, bathed in a lovely fragrance. She smiled, savoring his cologne while he, on the other hand, raised one brow.
"You look good," she explained, and just before he was able to throw some sarcastic comment at her, she awkwardly turned on her heels and threw their parents' house keys at him. Mike, true to himself, elegantly caught the object, demonstrating his perfect reflexes all the while showing off a pearly-white teethed smirk.
They do not really get along as they ought to. They were twins, and they have had a very nice childhood, bonding since they were babies. Yet through their adolescence things started to change drastically. He became simultaneously insecure and overconfident; a paradox which perpetrated in his choice of friends. He namely could befriend nice, geeky guys, but at the same time hang out with popular kids who, traditionally wise, would pick on the former as soon as the circumstances where fit enough to do so. Wrong look, wrong grades or even wrong ideas, everything was a trigger to some unwanted attention from 'the gang'.
Mike did have a great personality though. He, as far as most of his friends were concerned, was warm-hearted and loyal. He was funny, clever or witty some would say, and his wit drenched with mockery and sarcasm saved him from being the ordinary guy, and made him the guy everybody - including unyielding teachers - cannot help but appreciate. Tall, dark and handsome. He was quite the young black man, quite the student, quite the comedian, quite the friend, but not quite the brother, as Kendra never had the privilege of bringing the best out of him, only eliciting an overly casual and indifferent demeanor towards her, which aggravated her to her very core.
They were moderately civil and kind to each other, as siblings of different genders ought to be, thanks to their parents, who always emphasized the importance of harmonious relationships within family ties. Their parents, especially their mother, always advocated a peaceful atmosphere at home, which luckily paid off. The occasional drama did not destabilize the serene ambiance that seemed to be reigning at the Lawrences.
Kendra Lawrence was actually grateful for that. Although she resented her brother for not being so 'fraternal' with her, she did appreciate her upbringing and her family being stable or not malfunctioning. Her parents were cool yet demanding, and down-to-earth, handling their marriage with such grace as well, which should be applauded in a world where one in two marriages end in a divorce.
Kendra looked at her brother irritated, and before she even had the chance of asking him what has been up with him lately - she was interested in knowing how his semester was going so far - he mumbled a "See you," before slamming her dorm room door shut.
"Asshole," she whispered, thinking of how her mother would disapprove, but smiling at the same time, as she remembered her saying she had a surprise in store for her, which she would announce at Kendra's first week-end back at home since the start of her second term. To be fair, she could not wait to spend some time at home and really welcomed the occasion with open arms. Her French linguistics class was announced to be cancelled following Monday, which meant that she could easily return Tuesday afternoon for her evening classes. This turn of events created an excellent occasion to have an extended weekend break at home with her parents. She was also hoping to see Jessica, a good friend of hers, who chose to go to community college nearby the town and, consequently, did not need to commute. She was excited to catch things up with her, especially on the romance front, since she heard that she had started seeing a new guy, according to the latest gossip Kendra's mother indulged herself in.
While Kendra consciously reminded herself to start packing some of her things as soon as she had the occasion, so to avoid unnecessary stress or hurry later on, she packed her syllabus and notes in her leather shoulder bag and headed out for her English lit class.
Soon enough, Friday night arrived and she happily dragged her small duffel bag onto the train. She was good-tempered, knowing that the train ride would not take very long. Approximately two hours and a half separated her campus from her house in the town's suburbs, which to her was a supportable distance. During the trip, the girl absent-mindedly looked outside and pondered about nothing and everything. Everything, as it would actually seem, was submerged in darkness, but she could make out the grassy patches of land in between the not so grassy portions or urban landscapes. Spring was announcing itself, she noticed, though the temperatures were not mild enough to stir the flora back to life. Still she brought her heavy coat, and two woolly pullovers with her, with the intention of leaving them behind at her folks' place so that she can make some room in that unnervingly small dorm wardrobe of hers.
When she stepped off the train with her gatherings, she was happy to see no one was waiting to pick her up, just as she instructed. She did not want to unnecessarily tire her parents taking the car all the way down to the station, while the house was only at one and a half mile's distance from it. It was acceptable for her to walk so far because the temperatures were quite clement, even that late at night, and her luggage was not exceedingly heavy, regardless of the coat amongst it.
