"Siblings"

6

My senses were filled with the smell of crisp, sizzling bacon when I stepped out from my room. I recalled the time from when I glanced over at my clock. It was almost 8 in the morning, and I knew that father wouldn't be down in the kitchen until I was about to walk out of the door for the bus to school. He would be in his room cleaning himself up for work and come down just in time to give me a kiss and a short farewell as I was leaving.

The idea of walking to the bus stop with another person who was supposed to be related to me made me almost cringe. I had sometimes shared my walk to the stop with Brittany, but that was normally after school. Her parents would drop her off at school early in the morning, and I would come across her later in the day around lunch time.

I made my way down the freshly vacuumed carpet stairs, peeking my head over the edge by the first step to see who was downstairs making the bacon scent travel up to the second story. I saw the ash brown ruffled hair and my stomach slightly sank. I was scared to finish my walk down the stairs, for a confrontation with Oliver still scared me. Ever since he stepped into the house my mind ran thinking of what our first conversation would be together.

His back was turned to me and his head was hovering low. I could tell he was focused on the task at hand. He was dressed in sweatpants and a maroon tee shirt that was loosely worn. Feet bare and hair tangled, not even noticing I had come down the stairs from my room.

I quietly slipped my way into a chair that was facing him at the kitchen table and began to read the newspaper that was left out from Fathers late night readings. Nothing interesting was written in the faded black ink, I just wanted to make it look as if I was doing something when he turned around to find me.

The spatula he was cooking with scraped against the metal of the pan gently, just enough to make my ears scream. The blades of his shoulders in his back jolted with his arm movements and his hair that was sticking up was swaying as his body jerked in its cooking state.

He jumped back when finally turning around and noticing I was sitting behind him. He had nearly dropped the pan he was holding full of the greasy goodness and stood there stuttering. After seconds of not knowing how to react, he turned back and began setting bacon on three different plates. He must have been nervous, because as soon as he finished, he turned back around and quickly ran off upstairs.

I laughed to myself and got up to retrieve a plate of bacon. Sitting back down, I went back to scanning over the cover of the newspaper while munching on the crunchy, savory taste.

I had finished in no time at all really and when I was standing and washing my plate of grease off, Oliver had made his way back down to the kitchen again. He walked quickly to get his own plate of premade bacon. I could see him look out of the corner of his eyes at me, his lips parting before managing to get out a subtle "good morning."

After that, he went back upstairs once again with his plate of food and I was left alone in the kitchen cleaning plates.

I had almost missed father when I was walking out the door with Oliver. He had run out from around the corner finishing up the knot of his tie. He was flustered, like always in the morning, and had placed a kiss on my forehead speedily before walking his way into the kitchen.

"Have a good day!" we both heard him shout as we were walking out of the front door.

I noticed that he didn't seem to acknowledge that Oliver was leaving with me as well, for he had only physically given me a goodbye. His usual kiss on my temple was something he had done over the years and it now was something that just came naturally to him when I was leaving for school in the mornings. Oliver was new to this equation, Father seemed to have no intention in kissing his forehead.