The Worst Kind of Wonderful

Chapter TWELVE

✖️The Worst Kind of Wonderful✖️

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear,

but the triumph over it.

The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid,

but he who conquers that fear."

-Nelson Mandela

Chapter Twelve~

The first thing I heard, before I could even open my eyes, was the sound of my sister's voice. "Mia, get up! I have to talk to you." Her usually gentle morning tone was annoyed and harsh on my waking ears and colors slipped beneath my lids as she shined a light on my tired eyes. Dots flickered in the blackness, changing from white to blue to orange as I blinked my eye lids open.

"Hmm?" I mumbled, pushing myself up into a sitting position and rubbing sleep from my face. "What do you want Andrea?" I groaned, eyeing the clock on my phone and feeling my own annoyance surface as I realized the time. "Correction- what the heck do you want at five in the morning?"

"I wanted to ask you a few questions before mom and dad wake up." She said without hesitation, turning off her flashlight and flicking the switch of my lamp so that it glowed softly in the corner, letting a circular beam of yellow light illuminate the ceiling and floor. "What the hell happened last night?" She burst, Andrea looked relieved as if she had been holding onto that question, letting it weigh on her and grip her lungs all night.

"I don't-"

"-And don't give me that 'I don't know' B.S., we both know that you do." She interrupted, glaring at me with her already shadowed and lined eyes showing her makeup application expertise. I rolled my eyes at my sister and wondered how two people raised in the same environment and by the same parents could turn out so different.

"It's too early to deal with your paranoia," I stated plainly, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and stretching out my spine until a string of pops escaped it before wandering over to the bathroom to brush my teeth; Andrea still in tow.

The room was filled with a soft lemony color from the still rising sun. I peered out the window, observing the hungry orb's decent into the world, swallowing stars in its wake. There were still wisps of cottony clouds decorating the sky, still unaffected by the sun's burning touch in the early morning coolness. Shadows clawed the soil beneath: the last remnants of night holding on for dear life to avoid daylight's wrath.

"Answer my question and I'll leave you alone." Andrea bargained, disrupting the peacefulness of the scene.

"Just go away, Andie!" I snapped, spraying my frustration and annoyance into the world and leaving her to choke it down. I rinsed my mouth that had been filled with paste and brushed past her. My heart stung as if it were wrapped in barbed wire and my fingers shook as I made my way into the hall and stumbled downward on the spine of the stairway. My bones felt brittle and skin felt paper thin, the mate bond was a string that connected Xander and I by the heart and soul and it was ripping at them from the distance put between us.

My legs began to wobble as I found the kitchen, sweaty palms against a counter top: the only thing between me and the floor. I looked up and glanced at my reflection in the darkened glass window and gasped at the sight my eyes had found. My veins showed clear through my nearly translucent skin, eyes sunken under the weight of sleepless hours and dry lips as parted, broken and bruised as I felt. That made me scared. It horrified me actuallly.

Andrea's footstep drew me away from my reflection. She was leaning against the door frame with her arms crossed and eyes determined. "Why do you look like that?" She asked, expression softening. My fists clenched, I needed to come up with answers to feed to my family but instead they were left with a never ending stream of questions.