A big thanks to
11_Carlton
and
BlueEyed5ftAngel
for their helpful editing services!
My God, I wasn't used to waking up like this... It was 6:30 on a Tuesday morning and the loud sound of someone coming down the stairs was quite enough to rouse me from my slumber. Having not slept very well last night, I grunted with discontent to myself, turning over on my other side in another attempt to find a comfortable position. But I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now, not with all the noise going on just outside the door.
My name is Daniel. I am twenty-three years old and that Tuesday morning was the third day of my visit back home. I had arrived from a three-hour train ride on Sunday night but in spite of the days that had passed since then; I had not yet gotten into the 'rhythm' of being back home again. I had moved away from home three years ago to attend university in another town and since then I had been living on my own, in a one-room student's apartment. Needless to say, I was accustomed to doing things my way; whenever I wanted and however I wanted. Now I was home again and it was just like going back in time three years, having to share the house with my mom and younger sister Anne.
I was home that week to spend the upcoming Easter holiday with family. Since I didn't have any classes, I figured I might as well go a few days earlier to have more time with everyone. It seemed like a good idea at the time but the way I was feeling now; tired and annoyed, I wasn't that sure anymore.
Mom and Anne weren't really making any effort to be quiet in their doings; I guess they weren't used to having more people around either. Either mom or Anne were blow-drying their hair in the downstairs bedroom and judging from the intensity of the whooshing sound, I guess they hadn't even bothered to close their door.
I pushed my face into the pillow and murmured a few chosen words to myself, trying to release some of the building irritation.
I knew it wasn't really fair to be irritated at them; after all, this was their home and probably their usual morning routine. It was just that ever since moving to my own place, I was used to sleeping-in on my days off, not to be abruptly woken up this early in the morning! But by now I was already awake, so I sat up on the bedside.
My old room had been turned into a study room since I moved out and my own bed had come with me to my apartment, so whenever I was back home I had to sleep in the guest room. To be honest, the bed in there wasn't the most comfortable around. I think it was actually Anne's old bed which had been demoted to an extra bed when she got a new one. And before that it had been my older sister's bed, so it wasn't in its best state anymore...
Grabbing my t-shirt from the chair at the foot of the bed I pulled it over my head, scratched through my ruffled hair and left the guestroom. With a yawn, I stepped into the hallway and crossed into the kitchen. There, at the table was Anne, already dressed and having her breakfast. Looking over her shoulder she couldn't help but teasing me for my recently-out-of-bed look.
"I see that you've been up for a while already?" The tone of her voice was a blend of sarcasm and enjoyment.
"Good morning," I said while clearing my throat. "Where's mom?"
"She's in the bathroom, getting ready for work."
Before I moved away from home, I had lived in that house with mom and Anne for ten years. Anne was five years younger than me, and she had just turned 18 a few days ago. As usual, we were going to celebrate her birthday at the same time as Easter.
When I was ten my parents had divorced, splitting the family into two. My older sister Lisa had stayed with dad while Anne and I had gone to live with mom in a new town. We had always stayed in touch though and there were never any problems for mom and dad to see each other, at least not for shorter periods of time. Birthdays and similar occasions were always a time when the whole family got together again. I guess mom and dad decided to do so during the first years after the divorce since we kids were still fairly young at the time but with time it just became a habit to get together now and then. There was a little snag six years ago when dad met Sue, a woman that he eventually married but nowadays she was a natural addition to our family gatherings.
With the celebration of Anne's birthday in conjunction with Easter coming up, one of those gatherings was close at hand. Lisa, Sue and dad were coming to mom's house on Friday night and I knew mom was a bit nervous about it all. It was always like that; she was concerned about the house not being tidy enough or the food not being good enough, as if she had some urge to impress dad or perhaps more likely his new wife.
Since Anne had turned 18, I knew she had plans on moving away from home too, once she was finished with high school. She had talked to me about university studies and besides that she had told me she had had a few job offers. And although mom had always known both Anne and I would eventually move away from her, I think she was actually a bit afraid of becoming all alone in that house.
Suddenly, she stepped into the kitchen.
"Oh, so you're up and about Daniel?" There was a bit of harmless sarcasm in her voice too.
"Well, I was awake anyway" was my short response.