Shine

Chapter one-Family comes first

{photo by seitenma}

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Lance rolled over, slamming his hand down on the alarm clock before one of his siblings could.

Lance was about to roll over and go back to sleep before he realized what day it was.

Oh shit.

Lance sprung up out of bed a little too fast, slamming his head against the ceiling. God dammit! Every year he told his mama, "I'm too big for bunk beds! I don't need to sleep above Marco anymore!"

Lance was just getting too tall.

His brother groaned from underneath him "no golpees el techo, idiota.." before rolling back over, ignoring Lances hissing of pain. He was holding in all his squeals 1. Because his Mama was still sleeping, and if Mama woke up, Hell broke loose, and 2. Nadia. We cannot wake Nadia. If Nadia wakes up, she simply will NOT go back to bed.

Lances little cousin Nadia was born with 34 ounces of cocaine running through her bloodstream. Figuratively of course, but she acted like a crackhead. She yelled and jumped and screamed and kicked, always wanting to go and do this that and the other. The only way to get her to shut up was food. So Mama and Auntie Rosa had been spoiling her for ever.

Lance crawled down the ladder and slid on his fluffy slippers, grabbing his robe and heading down the hallway to the bathroom. He always got up at the asscrack of dawn to shower because he took absolutely for fucking ever. He was the first to shower in the morning and the last to shower at night, cause if he went while everyone needed a shower, there'd be banging on the door the whole time.

Lance tripped over one of Little Mateo's robot toys, but he caught himself just in time. His other cousin, Little Mateo, was the brother of Nadia. He was number two out of four little cousins. Nadia was the eldest, followed by Little Mateo, then Nicolás, and then baby Maria.

Little Mateo was definitely calmer than Nadia, no doubt, but when you pissed him off, he was just about 10 times worse. If you set Little Mateo off, he would personally shit all over your good day.

Lance made that mistake once, and he regrets it to this day.

He quietly crept past their bedroom, careful not to wake anyone. He passed his other brother, Luis room on his way to the bathroom. He was awake, clicking away on his computer. He was always doing stuff for his business online.

Lance crept inside his bedroom and whispered.
"Good morning, Lu." To his brother before stepping out, creeping past Mama and Papa's room, Auntie Rosa's room, and finally, Abuelitas room.

He opened the door to the bathroom and went inside, locking the door shut tight. Finally. He didn't have to worry about a thing.

He hung his robe up on the hook and began to strip, pulling off his T-shirt and tossing it in his hamper under the sink. He pulled off his sleeping pants and then his boxer shorts, reaching past the shower curtain and twisting the knob to the right temperature.

Lance gathered all his soaps and different scented items, bringing them into the shower with him. He lined them all up and began his wash.

He lathered himself up in his favorite scented soaps and body scrubs, making sure his tanned, sun kissed skin stayed in absolute ship shape condition. He washed out his perfectly tamed chocolate locks, humming to himself and lightly singing.

He bent over backwards to shave his legs just the right way, making sure he got every spot. It was often difficult to do so, mainly because his fucking legs were longer than necessary and he had to get every single spot. Otherwise it looked funny.