restart// 5SOS

14

Alyssa

"Axel, I can't sleep,"

"Get in,"

I climbed into his bed and he shuffled over, so my pillow was already warm, and the blanket was too. He hated the cold, but he hated me being cold more.

"I'm really scared for the next two days,"

"You'll be fine, we'll smash the test,"

"Well Gabi did so,"

"We're meeting her tomorrow. Well, today, I guess,"

"I'm not,"

"I think it'll be nice, she's not that much older, her mum and dad sound nice,"

"Everyone worships her,"

"You're just worried dad likes her more but you don't wanna admit you like dad that much,"

"That's not true,"

"Yes it is,"

I shut my eyes and ignored him, going back to sleep easily now I was in here. Having my own room sucked. I knew it was meant to be fun, but we had shared a bed my whole life and I felt extremely alone if we didn't. At least for now, I couldn't do it- I felt way too vulnerable in the day, so nevermind the night.

Ashton woke us up bright and early, so we went downstairs to eat breakfast. The house had a ton of natural light, so it did wake me up a lot. I went upstairs and got dressed- it was very nice to have a lot of new clothes- then I brushed my teeth.

If I was being honest, I was really bad at doing it consistently. The last month at the group home I hadn't really brushed them at all. Even before I would do it once a day at best. I wasn't an idiot, you could tell, but just like how I let my hair get matted, I didn't get up and brush my teeth. They hurt, but I had learnt to ignore it, so I was quite scared for tomorrow. I knew Ashton would be nice about it but I was still worried.

Axel obviously had the brightest, straightest teeth in the world. He was the put together twin.

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah,"

"You're gonna do great," Ashton said, "We will go out for a celebratory meal,"

"To celebrate what?"

"That you guys did the test,"

"But we didn't get in yet,"

"But you did the test. Also, Axel told me you have a bit of trouble reading and spelling?"

"Well he shouldn't have,"

"Anyway, I rang up and they're gonna give you some different coloured overlays to try, hopefully one will help you out. You get an extra half an hour,"

"What's an overlay?"

"You put it over the exam paper and it will hopefully make it easier to read... help it not move around,"

"Oh, okay. I thought maybe my brain was broken,"

He laughed, then realised I was serious, and kissed the top of my head before heading downstairs. It made me jump, but it also made me happy.
I followed, and we met Axel at the front door, then he helped me put my shoes on and we got in the car.

Often, I wondered what people thought when they saw us together. As in, was he my friend out of pity, because we didn't look related at first glance. If you looked closely we had the same smile shape, and the same dimples. We didn't have the same eye colour, but we had the same eye shape. Maybe no one else saw it but I did, because I loved having a brother. It was a permanent best friend, even though the last few days had been a bit difficult.