real life !
Aspyn turned the box over to read the instruction of the box as her sister laid a towel under her hair. They were in the bathroom, their parents are out at work which left the siblings alone for the first full day that Aspyn and Karsyn were back. The Beatles' In My Life was blasting on the small speakers, with the two humming along under their breath.
The brunette stared at her reflection, pondering on the length of her hair. "Do you think I should cut it too?" She watched as her sister turned around, inspecting her hair.
"If you want to," she hummed in approval, toying with her hair. "I think it would look nice." Aspyn took another minute to think about it before looking up at her.
"Can you cut it up to here?" She placed her hand just a few centimetres below her shoulders. Rhea quirked a brow, her lips perking up to a slight smirk.
"Like the Dora haircut we both had when we were little?" She teased light heartedly, folding her sister's hair to see how it would look like. Aspyn rolled her eyes at the memory, remembering how much they both hated that haircut.
Groaning, she shook her head. "No— God, no. Never again." She laughed. She thought it would look cuter than it did before, now that she knew how to style her hair. And perhaps her bangs would help to make it more pretty as well.
Rhea began cutting her hair, with Karsyn trudging in every other minute to complain about himself being bored. Now that he didn't have his set-up, all he would do is play mobile games and bother his siblings. After the sixth time of walking in, he simply took a seat on the tiled floor.
He began playing PUBG on his phone, the sound of gunshots interrupting Rhea's music ever so often. When Rhea finished applying the hair dye, the siblings changed locations and moved to the living room.
"When's the birthday party again?" Karsyn asked from his spot on the couch, not moving his eyes away from the large flat screen TV.
Rhea rolled her eyes, double checking the date on her phone. "Tomorrow night. It's early dinner, but you know how that goes."
Laughing, Aspyn added, "we'll be there until midnight."
Their parents wouldn't be back for another hour, and Aspyn knew that they would definitely scold her for dyeing her hair again. Her mom always complained how she was ruining her hair, but frankly, she didn't really approve of anything Aspyn did. Except for maybe anything related to Rhea.
Growing up, the blame was always placed on Karsyn. When either Aspyn or Rhea (which was rare) got in trouble, the blame would be shifted to Karsyn since he was the oldest. But Aspyn would be scolded too. Rhea could get away with literally anything— they trust her choices simply because she has a "stable" job.
Even before their career choices, Rhea was clearly priority to them. Whenever Aspyn had trouble with school, she would be told any variation to "Rhea did good in school." Academics didn't come as easy to Aspyn as it did for Rhea, but she wasn't a bad student either. In fact, she was average. She never failed a course despite her struggle, and maintained a 70% average. But considering that Rhea graduated with a 95% average, it seemed "bad".
Rhea knew she was favourited, but never acted on it. She could hear her younger sister working on her assignments late at night and knew the struggle she had, but also watched as she'd persist in trying her best. Unfortunately, their parents didn't see it in the same way.
Karsyn too, was told that his video games were distracting him from academics. But like Aspyn, he was unmotivated. Growing up in the Dela Cruz household was hard for each of the three siblings, and they learned at a young age that they needed to have each other's back. And that continued until they became adults.
After half an hour, Rhea brought Aspyn back into the bathroom to rinse her hair. Aspyn glanced at her phone on the edge of the sink, debating whether or not she should act on impulse. Glancing at her sister, she pursed her lips. "Do you mind if I call someone right now?"
Her sister raised a brow. "Go ahead." She didn't ask any questions, assuming it would be either Karl or Alex on the call— or maybe both. She's heard about them countless times from Aspyn, and had even spoken to them a handful of times. She trusted them with her younger sister.
"Hello?"
Imagine her surprise when she spotted an unfamiliar face and a voice coated in an English accent. Her eyebrows rose as she glanced at her sister, observing her smiling face.
"Hi!" Aspyn waved, feeling giddy as she spoke to George. They had never been on a call one-on-one, but she figured calling would be better than awkwardly sending him a selfie of her hair.
"Did you cut it too?" He looked at his screen with interest, tilting his head in the slightest. He noticed an extra pair of hands behind her, but he couldn't see the face. He assumed it was her sister.
Aspyn nodded as her sister continued sliding off the tin foil. "Yeah— well, my sister did it. Do you like it?" She questioned.
He smiled, his voice soft as he replied, "yeah." He was at his set up, his monitor only showing the Discord call he had open with Aspyn. It made him blush knowing she called him privately with her camera on. At first he thought maybe there would be someone else in the call, like Karl or Quackity, but it was just them two together.
His heart fluttered at the thought that she decided to call him of all people.
"Asp, go rinse." Rhea reluctantly interrupted the soft moment the two were having, gazing into each other's eyes. She knew a crush when she saw one, and those two definitely liked each other.
Aspyn was snapped out of her thoughts, as if she forgot she was dyeing her hair. "Right," she murmured, moving her phone away so that it doesn't get ruined with the water. "I'll be right back— you'll be the first to see it." She grinned down at George before she placed her phone away.
He smiled, letting out a small chuckle.
Whispering so that her voice would be buried under the noise of the water, Rhea leaned over to her sister. "So who's that? He's cute." She hummed, her fingers feeling a bit numb with the coldness of the rushing water.
Aspyn blushed, which her sister immediately saw because of the way they were positioned. "That's George," she replied quietly, also not wanting the British boy to hear them. "He's a youtuber."
Rhea smirked, "I see. And do you have a little crush on him?"
The latter rolled her eyes despite her bright cheeks. "I'm not talking about this with you, Ate." If there was something that caused her emotional turmoil, it was her parents for sure. Aspyn had never been comfortable talking about her emotions, and at times, Karl would have to force the girl to talk out some of her feelings because of how much she had bottled them up.
Her sister knew that, and she was in a similar situation. The trio didn't say "I love you," often, but knew that they loved each other.
"Okayyy~" She responded in a sing-song tone. "I'll just watch the compilations when they come out: Angel and George's cutest moments." She teased, earning a smack on her arm.
Rhea wouldn't watch them even if she came across it— she felt like it was invading Aspyn's privacy, which was something she valued that their parents had ruined because of their lack of trust for her. If Aspyn wanted her to know something, she knows she would tell her directly.
After Rhea had successfully washed her hair thoroughly, she blow dried her hair for a few minutes, but not enough to fully dry it. When Aspyn's hair wasn't dripping wet anymore, she smiled and turned her sister to face the mirror. "Ta da!"
Excitedly, Aspyn pulled her phone out with a large smile. George looked up when he caught movement from the corner of his eyes, not being able to control the light pink that dusted across his cheeks. "W—wow." His eyes grew as he observed her, and he felt almost unworthy to witness such beauty. He could feel his breath getting stuck in his throat as he saw her bright eyes.
Beautiful wasn't enough to describe her, not enough at all.