"Siblings"

5

In Colorado, there isn't really that much to look at during the daytime. It's at night when things get interesting.

As the sun kisses the horizon goodbye, the stars come out from their midnight hiding place, and the sky is lit up from constellations beyond constellations of the glowing dots. There isn't much light from the cities that can bash the nature-made beauty, so whenever the golden light from the evening vanishes, the stars can be seen for miles.

Back when Mother was still around, we would go out to the nearby campsite just outside of our neighborhood and pitch a tent for the weekend. Trust me when I saw that a person hasn't lived until they have literally slept under the stars. The world is at so much peace when you get to just lie and gaze and the lights up above. Nothing can be compared to it.

I had wanted to go out that night to look amongst the sky, but of course, I wanted to be isolated while doing it.

I knew father wouldn't let me out by myself after dark, so the only other option to turn to seemed to be the handy window that still rests just above my bed. I had to be extra quiet this time when sneaking out for I had extra company just beside me. Oliver didn't seem like one to be a brat and nag on me to Father, but I had to make sure first.

I quietly cracked my door open just enough to poke my head out and look down the hall to his bedroom door. It was closed. Small victory rang through me as I stuck my head back in my room and closed my door. Once again, I started to wonder what he was doing in his room. What did he find enjoyable? What were the things he did for fun? He must have been doing something, no one would just sit in their room blandly.

I went over to my messy closet and pulled out a hoodie that was loosely hanging on a hanger and flung it around my shoulders. This was the same hoodie I was wearing when making my first adventure out into the field, so I figured it was only appropriate to wear it again this time.

I walked over to my nightstand where I kept a lamp, a charger, my medicine, and my iPod. Reaching down, I picked up the silver device containing all of my song collections and playlist, and pressed 'shuffle'. Quiet tunes smoothly came from the speakers, and I smiled to myself. This, once again, was just another distraction to have Father assume I am still inside my room when I journeyed out.

With one last look to my door, I began to climb atop my bed and slowly open the window resting above it. A creek slipped out when it reached the rusted section of my window side, causing me to halt my actions. I listened carefully to see if I heard my name being called or a door opening, but when I heard nothing, I continued to raise it.

I stepped my left foot out first, then ducked my head under before pulling my other leg and foot out as well. Cursing at myself when my jacket and snagged on the windows edge. My eyes wandered down to see a hole snagging against it. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as to why I had a hole in my jacket in the first place. My mind went back to the time I had raced upstairs after hearing the news that I had a brother, and the hoodie getting torn then. I brushed it off and continued with sneaking out.

Once I was completely out of my room, I glanced at the light coming through the window next to mine. It was attached to Oliver's new room, and inside the room with undrawn curtains, I saw him.

Looking at me.

His eyes were filled with curiosity and anxiousness, and I read his face like a book. He seemed nervous as to the fact that his, dare I saw it, sister was sneaking out of the house, but also seemed to have this longing look spread across his features. As if he was trying to tell me something with his expression but I couldn't understand it.

He was sitting at a desk that faced the window. A pencil in his hand and his gloomy lamp turned on, he sat there looking at me dazed. My eyes traveled down to see that he had a thick, mostly blank book opened in front of him, his handwriting visible but not clear enough for me to make out what he was writing.

Our eye contact lasted for seconds, but it felt longer. I finally turned back to face my window, closed it gently, and swung my hood onto my head. With one swift motion, I shimmied down the canopy pole and was soon walking on the grass by the side of the house. I looked up slightly, still being able to see the light that was peeking out from Oliver's window. He might still be looking down at me, but I didn't know nor would I probably ever know. He might one day tell me about these weird encounters when we are older; tell me about his thoughts and reactions to this whole situation we had to go through, but for now it was just awkward silence and barely any talking.

My thin shoes to my shoes sunk down into to the dewy grass. The night chill had frosted the tips of the greenery and I shivered in my warm jacket as I walked out of the backyard through the dark-wooded gate.

Once I had jogged a fair amount away from my house's front yard, I let out a breath of relief. I looked back down the street, my eyes scanning the dollhouse figured front yards and picket fences. I began to think about the minorities in each family that lived on my street if there were any at all. By the looks of their gardens and freshly painted shutters, it seemed as if each person living in those enclosed walls were perfect. But I knew that the sound of perfection was too good to be true. There had to be flaws within those perfect little homes. There had to be a fighting couple, or a mental child, or even an affair that took place between a man who thought his wife wasn't worthy enough for his time.

When the topic of affair struck my mind, I stopped spinning of the ideas in my head and focused on that alone. It lingered and taunted me. I thought of the absurd reasons as to why a man or woman would want to cheat on their spouse in the first place. Do the words that people speak in their vows when declaring their love for one another means nothing after a year of being together? Does a half of the couple just wake up one morning and decide that their life was no longer as loving and beautiful as they hopped, so they run off to a cheating liar and file lengthy papers to break the love they once felt? It was all very confusing to me and seemed like things you would hear in nightmare-fairy-tales.

I wondered if I knew someone in my life that has ever gone through that terrible feeling of a divorce or an affair. Maybe there was someone I have come across when walking down the streets or talking in school that has ever been hurt so bad in their love life, that such absurd notions had to take place.

I just hope that I would never have to experience that heartbreaking feeling of losing something. 

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sorry, this chapter is a bit shorter than normal, but a lot happened and a lot more is soon to come :)

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