Booksmarts

mason. 19

    "CAN YOU PASS ME MORE of the streamers?" Mom takes another step higher on the ladder, desperately trying to drape the thin party streamers along the wall trim. "Make sure Briar's room tidy before she comes. After that, take it easy darlin', it's your birthday after all."

She blows me a kiss as I toss her the bright red roll ribbon and exit the living room. Mom always insisted on doing things herself, even with her mild case of arthritis. I adore my mom, and I'm proud to say I'm a momma's boy. Briar–not so much. She wasn't a daddy's girl either, Briar just... wasn't a people person. She only talked to Alinna and herself in the bathroom mirror—which I never understood. Mom and Dad always tried reaching out to her. I used to think it was the stereotypical teenage angst phase that interferred with her relationship with our parents, but as she grew older and abruptly teleported to New York, I knew this was something long-term. It felt like she gave us—me the silent treatment. As if I did something wrong. I stepped through the glass bead strands dangling from her doorway. Everything was so unnatural. We left her room untouched for years up until today, and it's unsettling to see her room neat as ever. Her carpet was professionally cleaned to remove the infamous paint stains from a 9th grade art project. Her clothes were neatly folded inside her drawers. Which was extremely unusual to witness, considering that every time I stepped inside, I was always met with a towering stack of clothes. Her room used to be the Bermuda Triangle of all trinkets and homework. Now, it's just... I don't even know anymore. As I fluff up the last of her pillows, the doorbell rings twice. Sprinting out to the living room, I was beat by my 63 year-old mother as she shoves me out of the way. As she opens the door, we're met with the last person we expected to see.

"Hey guys!" Alinna waltzes through the entrance and places a neatly decorated box on the dining room table. "Whatcha doin.." Her eyes flicker across the room, hoping to find the one person we all anticipating seeing.

My mother loudly sighs, "Briar?" She shuts the door behind Alinna and steps back up the ladder.

"How'd you guess? Haha..." Her face burns a bright red as she takes a seat. "She's not here yet isn't she?"

I pull out a chair beside her, "Nope."

"Damn." She mutters underneath her breath.
I can tell she was excited, after all, she was the one person Briar confided in. Was I ever jealous of that? Yes, extremely in fact. Alinna was never even related to us, she was my friend first. What could Briar talked to her about and not me? Why was she so much closer to my sister than I ever was? It's hard seeing Alinna as my friend again. Sometimes I forget that I'm supposed to be nice to her. Now she's at my house, waiting for my sister, planning on taking her away from me. I know she's got her whole evening planned out when Briar gets back. I can't help but resent her when she talks about Briar. The table slightly trembles and small tapping noises are heard beside me. Looking down, I find Alinna's finger tapping the table and her right leg bouncing repeatedly up and down, nervous for Briar to arrive.

She looks up from her phone, noticing my confused gaze. "Oh right, Happy Birthday?" She grins. I'm surprised she still remembers my birthday. Well, I mean I still remember hers. April 27th. She's a firm believer in horoscopes, which I never understood why. She believes in the universe has a plan for everyone or some shit like that. Alinna's a big optimist, and it's almost painful to be around her. Because I know that she gets her hopes up too much and I'll have to witness her blind optimism shattering before my eyes. She's a Taurine or something, which I have no clue what that zodiac sign is or what it means. But for the sake of my ego, I'll act like I do. Alinna's eyes continuously flicker at me. Whenever she does that, some random bullshit is gonna come out of her mouth to break the ice.

"Did you know that it took 638 attempts to kill Fidel Castro? I can list some of them off. The closest they came to killing him was when they tried placing a pill in his milkshake—"

"—Alinna do you ever just shut the fuck up?"

"How rude." She huffs.

"I'm not listening to you rattle off 638 ways they tried killing Castro—"

Alinna rolls her eyes and folds her arms. "I wasn't gonna rattle off the 638 ways. You're crazy."

"I'm crazy?" Before she could reply, I lightly placed my index finger against her lips. "Stick a sock in it Alinna, no one cares."
Now that was sort of true. I couldn't care less about Fidel Castro, The Cold War, or the CIA. But it didn't sound as boring coming from her.

"Mason, you literally enjoy watching "Say Yes to the Dress", you have no room to talk." She retorts. Look, In my defense, my mom got me hooked on it.

"Can y'all just please be nice to one another? Just for this evening?" My mom begs, "And it's a great show by the way." Another ring from the doorbell immediately grabs all of our attention. Soon enough, we all race to the door. Alinna shoves me out of her way and pulls the door wide open.

Seriously?

We're all immediately drawn to the obvious, that the woman standing right in front of us was my sister. Briar looked the same, if not younger than before she left. She eyes us all, almost unfamiliar with how we look now. Briar turns to me, scratching her head.
"Since when did you get abs and—" Her head flips to Alinna, "—You get boobs?"

"Briar!" Alinna throws her arms around her and squeezes her tightly. "I've missed you."

"Yeah yeah yeah, I've missed you too and all that crap." She turns her attention towards me and yanks me in for a hug. "Happy Birthday Mason," breathing into my shoulder. We didn't have a special nicknames or anything unique like other siblings did. The hug didn't last for long, she quickly gathers herself together and walks straight past me towards and whisks Alinna away into her bedroom.

Leaving me all alone own, once again.

authors note: oops. sorry😅😅😅