Effed up

Chapter 1

I woke up to my little brother jumping on my bed and stepping on me in the process.

"C'mon! Get up, lazy butt!"

I groaned and smacked him in the face with pillow.

Why did he have to wake me up so early? (Even though I don't know what the time is, I know it's extremely early. And even though it's Thursday today.)

"Ouch! Why you gotta be so rude?"

I rolled my eyes internally.

I sat up, rubbing my eyes roughly. Did he have to open the curtains?

"Today is the day!"

I sighed. Yayyy....

He started singing. He grabbed my hairbrush and used it as a microphone. He started dancing around on my bed. Great.

"Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me! Happy birthday dear meeeeeee... happy birthday to me!"

I grabbed my little brother by his waist and started tickling him mercilessly, a huge grin splattered across my face.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop!"

"That's what you get for waking me up at...---"

I checked my phone.

"--- 6:56 in the morning." School starts at 8:00.

My brother folded his arms across his chest and made a pouty-face. I giggled.

"Happy Birthday, baby bro."

Awww! He hugged me!

"I love you..."

"I love you too, Z." (Z is a short for Zialinda. My name)

After just sitting there, hugging, my brother finally said :"So where's my present?!"

My jaw dropped. That's why he hugged me? So that he could get me in a good mood, because he knows I'm not a morning person?

I sighed.

"C'mon, bud. Let's go wake up mom and dad."

Me and my brother sneaked down the stairs, because we heard Mom was already awake and talking to someone on her phone.

I stopped in my tracks when I felt the tension in the air. I peaked around the corner, when I saw my mom crying. I held my hand infront of my brother, and mouthed him to stay there.

"....Mom....?" I whispered, walking towards my mother.

"A- Are you okay?..."

She looked at me, wiping the tears rapidly away, trying to hide the fact that she was crying.

"Uhm... We'll talk later." She said, slamming the phone down.

She sniffed.

I hugged her and told her everything was going to be alright.

She pulled away quickly.

"I- I'm fine, darling. Good morning. Has your brother woken up yet?"

I shook my head.

"That's not important right now. What happened? Why were you crying?"

My mother took a while before answering.

"It's your father. He... he got into a car crash on the way over last night. He died, Zialinda. He died."

My mother broke down. Which made me break down. Which made my brother break down. I turned around to see that my brother was listening to our conversation, with sadness in his eyes. He ran towards us.