I woke up to hear groaning coming from the bathroom down the hall. I pushed my glasses on my face and checked the time. 3:06 am.
"I swear to God if she's doing someone in the bathroom at this time of night, I'll kill her," I muttered, climbing out of bed and slipping on some fuzzy socks before walking down the hallway over to the bathroom. I knocked loudly and called, "Brielle! What are you doing?"
The door opened to reveal Brielle standing there in an oversized t shirt and shorts, her face contorted into one of pain. She sighed and asked, "What even is life?"
I rolled my eyes and said, "Not this again." I pulled her out of the bathroom and pushed her back towards her room. This was obviously her latest existential crisis.
"But really Claire? What is life? What am I doing with my life?" Brielle asked me as I pushed her onto her bed. She glared up at me before curling into a ball. I rolled my eyes at her again and left to go back to my room, falling asleep instantly.
I woke up a few hours later and noticed that I didn't smell any breakfast cooking. That meant that Brielle was still in bed, moping and suffering through her existential crisis. I crawled out of bed and shuffled like a zombie into the kitchen, pouring myself a bowl of cereal. Leia shuffled in a few minutes later and frowned.
"Where's breakfast?" she yawned.
"Brielle's having another existential crisis," I muttered, pushing the unappetising artificially flavoured cereal around the bowl.
"Oh no. I don't fucking think so," she snapped. I watched as she stomped away and half smiled in amusement while Leia slammed open Brielle's door and legitimately dragged her out of bed. I only say that because a few minutes later, Leia had Brielle by her ankle, dragging her into the kitchen before releasing her. Brielle sat up and partially detached herself from her Bring Me The Horizon blanket, her hair falling all over her face.
"Start cooking," Leia said.
"What's the point?" Brielle asked, "Why eat and eat and eat when you're just going to die anyway? Life is one pointless cycle of sleeping, working and eating until we die. What's the point?"
"Get her out," I whined, "I don't want to hear it. It's too early."
"I want fucking breakfast," Leia snapped.
"Food is just a waste. Everything is a waste," Brielle said. I rolled my eyes and took my cereal to my room.
"Why is there nothing cooking?" Riley asked as I passed her in the hallway.
"Brielle's having another crisis," I muttered. "All we have is cereal. Leia's trying to get her to cook."
"Looks like we're ordering pizza for the next two weeks," Riley muttered, heading for the kitchen anyway. I walked into my room and pulled on some leggings and a sweater before putting my hair in a pony tail, putting on my glasses and grabbing my student ID card so I could get some hot breakfast at the cafe. I checked the time and saw it was early enough that there would be like nobody there to see me, because it was only 6:47. So I left and met up with Brooklyn on my way out of the door.
"You had the same idea?" I asked, holding up my ID card. Brooklyn held up hers too and we grinned before looping our arms together and walking down to the cafe.
Once we got there, we grabbed trays and started loading up some hot breakfast. I grabbed Riley a butter roll, Brielle a bacon, egg and cheese and I got my own bacon, egg and cheese. Then I grabbed three hot chocolates and went over to scan my ID card. Brooklyn showed up next to me with three butter rolls, an orange juice, a water and a coffee. She scanned her card before we headed for the exit. Just then, Ashton and his group of friends, Luke, Michael and Calum, came in acting rowdy as usual.
"Hey ladies!" Michael called, waiving to us. He was only friends with Brooklyn and I because we'd worked on a project together a few months ago. Brooklyn waived back and I smiled, not being able to move my hands from under my tray. Then a rush of seven or eight girls came in and started giggling like idiots and falling over each other because of the overly attractive idiots in front of them. That was our queue to leave, so we did, walking back to our house off campus. It was about a ten minute walk and by the time we got back I was really hungry. I kicked the door with my foot and Iva answered the door.
"Animals," she said, shaking her head as she opened the door.
"We got you breakfast," I reminded her and she clapped happily.
"What happened to Brielle? She always cooks breakfast," she said.
"She's having another crisis," Brooklyn replied, setting her tray down on the kitchen table and handing Iva a butter roll and a bottle of water. I set my tray down and took one of the bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches into Brielle's room, along with a hot chocolate. I noticed she wasn't in there, so I checked the living room and found her on the couch with Leia, just rambling about how life was one dreadful, endless hell with no real purpose.
"I mean, we go to school for like twenty years, then we work until we die. What kind of life is that? It's not one, I'll tell you that. Because in that span of about eighty to ninety years, you go to school to please your parents, get a job to please society, and die alone. We sleep, eat, work and repeat for what? What is the point?" Brielle rambled on and on while Leia just pretended to listen.
"Bree," I said. "Here. Eat." I handed her the sandwich and hot chocolate, and Leia took that time to escape to the kitchen, shouting happily about having some decent food finally.
"Claire," she sighed.
"Oh no," I said, "You are not pulling me into the black void that is your mind when you go through these existential crises. Not today. I have art and music."
"So do I," she mumbled.
"So get up and get ready," I said pulling her off the couch. That didn't work though because she wound up face first on the floor.
"I don't want to," she said, her voice muffled by the carpet she'd face planted in.
"Get up," I said, nudging her with my foot. She whined into the carpet and I just sighed and left. It was way too early to deal with this.
I stopped in the kitchen to pick up the tray I'd taken and dropped my food on my desk before knocking on Riley's door. She opened up and stuck her head out.
"Here. I got you food at the cafe," I said, handing her the tray.
"Thanks Claire," she said, taking the tray and shutting her door again. I went back to my room and locked my door, getting dressed.
I picked out a shirt with a giant light pink heart on it that read "Whatever." Then I grabbed a pair of light wash denim jeans and wiggled them on before pulling on a pair of white flats, along with a white bow in my curly hair. I put on some mascara before taking a sip of my hot chocolate and eating some of my sandwich. I finished half of it before wrapping the other half and deciding to give it to Brielle. She'd eat it.
I brushed my teeth quickly and applied some lip gloss before walking out of my room and throwing my other half of my sandwich at Brielle's head. She was standing in the bathroom, putting on make up. All of us just occasionally put on some mascara or lip gloss but Brielle usually went full on face make up.
"Hey," she said, pausing from putting blush on to glare at me in the mirror. Then she picked up the sandwich and ripped off a part of it with her teeth whole glaring at me in the mirror, making me give her a weird look before laughing. She finished chewing and made a fish face before finishing her blush. I went back into the living room to finish putting my bag together, gathering my papers from around the room and putting them in my bag. Then I went back in my room to get my guitar and set them both down in the living room before slipping on my mini jean jacket and pulling on my bag and picking up my guitar. Brielle stood in front of the door, pulling on her leather jacket. She had on some grey skinny jeans and a white tank top with some black vans. She had her guitar too and slipped her black book bag on before turning around and looking at me.
"Ready?" I asked her. She just gave me a half hearted shrug.
"Brooklyn!" Brielle shouted. Brooklyn appeared by my side instantaneously.
"No need to shout," she said quietly. Brielle just opened the door and headed down to our art class. Once there, Brielle grabbed a big canvas and some purple, black and blue paint before going over to the "splatter corner." She slipped off her jacket and pulled on an old black tee shirt from the pile kept back there for splatter projects. Then she slipped on some gloves and grabbed blobs of paint and started throwing them at the canvas.
"Is she having another one of those moods?" the art teacher asked me a few minutes later. I looked up from my painting and nodded. She smiled sympathetically at me before walking away, obtaining the knowledge that Brooklyn and I lived with Brielle and had to deal with this constantly. I just looked back down at my painting.
I'd started painting landscapes a lot more often because I loved painting sunsets with water colours. It just calmed me so much. Brooklyn just liked to make black and white drawings of random things.
All too soon class was ending and Brielle and I had to move on to music.
"See you later," I said to Brooklyn outside the art classroom while Brielle just waived. Brooklyn smiled and waived before leaving. I practically skipped to music with Brielle moping by my side.
"What if Ashy's not there?" Brielle said, teasing me.
"Shut up," I snapped, shoving her lightly, my spirits lifting with every step I took.
"We're here," Brielle taunted.
"Hush," I said, smiling.