O N E
~My shadow's dancing without you for the first time.~
a d e l i n
The blaring sound of my alarm is the first thing I register when I gain any semblance of consciousness.
It makes me twist in my bed, scrambling to turn off the panic inducing noise, a groan of dissatisfaction rumbling from my throat as I blindly search for my phone and tap the snooze button.
Trying to rub sleep out of my eyes, I look at the time, squinting when the bright light almost scars my vision.
5:30
And like always, the lockscreen makes me pause.
Aaron; grinning from ear to ear, his gaze fixed on me as I admire the delecate golden ring which he had given me as a gift for our 17th birthday. His was identical.
The same ring that now hangs around my neck.
I'd wanted his ring as well but all that had remained in that warehouse was charred, so much so that the bodies had been downright unidentifiable.
The thought is enough to send shivers down my body and open my mind to the sea of unwelcomed memories.
Our seventeenth birthday was a massive celebration, the day forever captured by professional photographers. The room had been bustling with business tycoons and influencial social icons, it was merely a strategic business gathering under the guise of a birthday celebration.
We'd even been featured in an article of Forbes, a fact that had left our mother's surgically filled lips in a haughty smile for weeks and given our father enough boasting amo to last until the next month.
It was grand, over the top and completely meaningless and yet still a great time because of the people I had celebrated it with, though now one of them-the very person who had cut that damned five tier cake with me-was gone.
Which was why I had come to resent the date of my birth.
Today marks the first day of senior year, one that I'd been dreading ever since the incident had taken place during summer vacations. Reluctantly rolling out of bed and the heavenly linen sheets, I place my feet on the heated marble floor.
Not a day goes by where I don't appreciate this aspect of being the descendant of a filthy rich family.
Not wanting to waste any time, I trudge to the bathroom, splashing my face with frigid water, the splash feeling more like a slap and doing its job of waking me up properly.
My eyes run over the girl in the mirror who looks back at me with puffy eyes. Fatigue seeps through each and every feature of my face, showing itself through the half moons under my eyes.
I was used to it by now, after Aaron it happened often. The nightmares always tend to have this drastic effect on me.
They're always a repetition of the same events and still the deafening sound of gunshots always make me want to cover my ears, even if it's just a figment of my brain playing the sounds it had once heard.
Not wanting to linger on the horrible memories, I change into a set of workout appropriate attire, commencing the routine I had gotten accustomed to over the course of the last few months.
Making sure to grab my phone before heading downstairs, I only glance at the notifications of messeges my screen display from : Mother, Candi and Ash. Ignoring them for now, I tentatively walk to the adjourning double doors leading to Aaron's room.
Only, I don't get to twist the door knob because of my phone vibrating in my hand. One look at the screen is all it takes for a smile to tug my lips up.
Noah
He did always have impeccable timing-most of the time. Letting out a long sigh, I make my way down the stairs, sliding my thumb across the screen to receive the call.
"Good morning, sunshine! The earth says hello!" Noah exclaims, almost making me deaf but my smile widens as I roll my eyes at his enthusiasm.
"Okay then, I don't need my ears anyway and did you just quote Willy Wonka?" I ask, descending the final step.
"Drastic times call for drastic measures, please tell me you're ready, I'm freezing my ass out here and all I want to do is get this stupid run over with." he grumbles and I can practically picture him scowling.
"Hm, patience never was one of your strong traits." I comment "I'll be out in a minute, don't whine, it's just a run. God knows you're in serious need of one." I tease him, even if both of us know that my statement is completely false.
"Well, the girls I spend my nights with beg to differ." I scrunch my nose, he continues on "Just hurry up, will you. The things I do for you." muttering the last part he cuts the call, not giving me the chance to reply.
The silence immediately becomes to much to handle.
Aaron had made the house-our house-feel alive.
Mother and Father had suggested moving in with Austin and keeping Natallie, my 6 year old sister, with us but I had straight up refused.
I wouldn't give up our house, it was one of the few pieces I had left of Aaron even if I had come to resent it. Besides, moving closer to my parents was akin to a death sentence.
The man I call my father barely made it to Aaron's funeral. He was late to his own son's funeral.
Austin, the eldest Alderige son, was a living embodiment of the prized golden boy. Perfectly settled in the house mom and dad had gifted him, preparing to take over the family business and attending every monotonous black tie event with his charming smile and charismatic personality.
He had it easy. My parents were happily going to hand their business over to him and he would happily accept it, everything was meticulously layed out for him.
Childs play.
I envied him, well, I envied his life.
Deep down, I still loved my brother, even when he had distanced himself from all three of his siblings. Even then, Aaron and I could never hate him because he was the one who had raised us.
Bandaged our wounds and read us stories when our own parents had neglected us for money.
My parents expected me to show up to company launches, family dinners and the events taking place all around the world to secure my ties as well as keep up my grades and simultaneously take part in extracurricular activities to build up my reputation.
Their expectations are a burden I'm long tired of carrying.
That was one of the things I was most excited to escape from when Aaron and our close group of friends had planned to spend our summer in Italy.
But all of that excitement had come crashing down on us when a mismanagement in bookings had lead us to an unplanned stop in Florence.
Mason had wanted to skip Florence due to its notoriety of lack of safety and all of us had agreed but we were left with no option but to spend a night.
And due to us being cautious everything had been going smoothly up until dinner, it was when we were heading back to our hotel after having our fill of the Italian cuisine and wine that we had bumped into a few strangers.
We were buzzed, not drunk but I still can't recall exactly how the skirmish had started-all I know was that one second hostile words were exchanged and the next there were fists and darkness.
What ensued were two torturous days during which we had realised that we had been kidnapped by someone from the world of the fucking mafia but by the end of the second day our parents had found us.
And though we managed to get out with only a few wounds this was far from a happy ending because while we had left pur home town as a group of nine, only six of us had returned.
My brother was dead. Daniel was in jail and Jasmine, his sister, didn't have it in her to return to a town which held so many memories of the love she had lost with the death of Aaron and the brother she couldn't do anything to save.
A month later, our wounds are still raw but after countless therapy sessions and long talks we're learning to get through one day at a time because even if we may hate it, life dosen't stop for anyone or anything.
Each of us have developed different coping mechanisms to try to fight the demons that haunt us but we still have a long way to go, there is not a day that those three absences go unnoticed.
But the six of us are still here and if we stop fighting, we let what happened in Florence defeat us and lose eachother in the process.
So we fight, one day at a time.
With that in mind I raise my chin and step outside, the first thing I see is a fuming Noah Hendrix.
☼ 𝘼𝙐𝙏𝙃𝙊𝙍'𝙎 𝙉𝙊𝙏𝙀 ☼
There she is
After days and days of having this plot circle my mind, I finally caved in
I've purposely kept some things vague. You'll have to stick around to see everything unfold ;)
thank you for reading it and giving my story a chance.
I hope you like the chapter
Until next time
Xoxo
💙