Just a Dare

Chapter Twenty-Five

Surprise! :D I decided to do a double update this week. You'll still get your usual Saturday chapter, too. :) Hope you didn't mind.

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I was awoken by two separate occurrences that happened to work together against me. First, there was the light that had managed to slither its way through the minuscule gaps between two individual blinds in particular and across the bed so that it could sit resolutely across my closed eyelids. Couple that with the incessant ringing of my cell phone and you could say that my day was off to a rough start.

I sat up, absentmindedly scratching the stubble on my cheek as I yawned before fully opening my grey eyes and realized a third thing that made this morning so irksome as I turned my head and saw my pillow and headboard by my feet: I actually had woken up on the wrong side of the bed.

My phone continued its shrieking in the otherwise peaceful silence and I let out a groan. "I'm coming, I'm coming," I muttered, leaning over to grab it off of my bedside table beside my alarm clock and glanced at the caller ID to see that it was my mom.

"Mom, we've discussed that it's rude to wake someone up before noon on their day off," I said after accepting the call and pressing the phone to my ear, rubbing my eyes. I pulled at the halfway opened curtains before peeking out through the blinds at the bustling city. I could hear police sirens somewhere in the distance, but that was a comforting sound that reminded me on a daily basis that I was in the city. From my apartment window, everyone walking below looked like little ants, the bright yellow taxis and other cars like Hot Wheels.

"Actually," a familiar sassy voice replied, "it's rude for you to make assumptions about who you're talking to before they get a word in edgewise."

I couldn't help but smile to myself. "Hey, Jade." I glanced at the calendar hanging on the wall and saw today's date was circled in bright red. "Happy thirteenth birthday, by the way."

I could almost see her grinning in return. "Thanks, Trey. I'm surprised you remembered."

I shrugged although I knew she couldn't see the motion before getting up. "How could I forget?"

She seemed to gloss over this rhetorical question as I made my way over to my closet. I knew that since I was already awake, I probably couldn't ever manage to fall asleep again until tonight. It was a curse.

"It's weird being a teenager now," she mused. I could just see her bright blue-grey eyes sparkling as she wrinkled her nose. "But I still feel exactly like I did yesterday, so I guess it's not all that strange."

I chuckled. "Well, I definitely think it's weird that you're a teenager now. I feel so old."

"Trey, you are old," she teased me as I opened the closet door.

"Excuse me, twenty-eight isn't old," I said, shrugging to myself as I glanced at the clothes before just choosing a random pair of jeans and button-down flannel shirt. "And anyway, did you call me to talk about anything of actual relevance or were you just planning on insulting me the whole time?"

"Oh, there's something, but the insults are a bonus. I wouldn't be a good little sister if I didn't throw in any." She paused for a second, and I wondered what she and Mom had been up to lately. Between work and the distance that separated us, I hardly ever had the chance to go visit them, let alone talk to either of them over the phone. "The treatment's going really good."

I smiled widely as I buttoned my jeans before quickly pulling the shirt over my head and buttoning a few more on it, leaving the top two undone. "Really?"

"Yeah," she replied. I could hear her slipping into her trademarked matter-of-fact tone as she continued, "the doctor said that the effectiveness of the treatment they've tested on me has given them a lot of insight for research over SLE."