On Your Level ~mlm~

~ Chapter 7 ~

Robyn

I practically collapse against the dark oak door when Scarlett and I arrive back at my house, it is about two in the morning and we are both stuffed with chocolate chip pancakes. I'm still trying to recover from the hilarious joke I had said as we were pulling into our driveway and got out of the car.

"It wasn't that funny," Scar teases as she looks over at me, clearly not seeing me as the natural comedian I am.

"What are you talking about? Pointing to a pile of dog shit and screaming 'Sparky! You can't sneak up on people like that!' is peak comedy!" I defended and she very obviously disagreed. The deadpan look she sent me clearly told me so. "Be nice to the person who funded our pancake gorge!"

"You already owed me for the Chinese last week!" Scar called out as she pushed the door open, I hadn't even noticed when she slipped the keys from my hand and slotted it into the door.

"Where are you going?!" I whisper-yelled, very aware of the fact that Lyon was sleeping a few doors down. If we woke him up from his slumber with our constant yelling it would be the last time we'd ever see light. "Get back here!"

I am only answered with complete silence, and I'm not going to lie - it scared me. I enter the living room and the first thing I see is Lyon lying on the couch with a tub of ice-cream in his lap and a spoonful of the dairy halfway into his open mouth.

"Uhh..." I drag out as I survey the rest of the room trying to locate Scar. Lyon shoves the spoon into his mouth and quickly swallows the mouthful.

"Why are you home so late?" Lyon questions, trying to draw my attention away from the Ben & Jerry's Phish Food I had purchased for myself earlier this week.

"Irrelevant. Where is Scarlett?" I dismiss his question quickly and focus on the current task at hand.

"My room," he mumbles over another mouthful of ice-cream.

"Why was she in your room?" I draw out, curious - but also scared. God I hope they haven't decided to get back together, calm down Robyn she is literally just in his room and you know they would never get back together. They're practically siblings at this point, that would be incest, and no one likes that. Except maybe my maths teacher, he seems like he'd be into that. Shivers.

"She wanted to steal one of my shirts to sleep in tonight, I said she could," he replies unbothered while digging another scoop of the frozen cream- ew. That just sounds gross.

"Hey, are you ready to head to bed?" Scar asks as she appears to my right and I send her a quick nod.

"Yeah, I'm ready to sleep the night away," I turn towards my door. "Oh," I pause and turn to look at Lyon over my shoulder, "and you owe me another two pints for compensation."

I hear Lyon mutter behind me, but I choose to ignore him and open my bedroom door, Scarlett trailing close behind. She immediately heads to the left side of the bed, and I strip out of my shirt and pants and head to the right side. We've done this a few times before.

Scarlett tucks in close to me and I wrap my arm around her waist.

"You know it's kinda weird thinking that I used to sleep with your brother like this, though he was a bit bulkier," Scarlett mumbles into my chest.

I take my arms away from her and turn around, "OK then, that's enough of that."

"Oh come on Roby I'm joking!" She whines and pulls me back. I chuckle and scoop her in closer.

Raven

I awake to the sound of heavy breathing above me - still not wanting to wake up - I ignore it and try to head back to sleep. Except a large drop of liquid had splatted on my forehead and I quickly sat up to try and avoid what I thought was sewage water from dousing me. However, when I opened my eyes, I almost screeched in shock as the man from last night was hovering over me with his eyes wide, watching me sleep.

"What the hell, man!" I yell and push him off. He just freezes, then turns and hastily scurries away. I shiver. That was disturbing.

Now aware that I don't have to worry about being soaked in sewage water - at least for the moment - I lay back down and close my eyes. Once again, I try to fall asleep, though I am once again interrupted by a very large, small child jumping onto my chest and winding me.

Fuck it, I'm getting up.

Robyn

The pan is sizzling and the oil spits at me as I flip the bacon resting on the pan, the music flows through me and I bop my head. The beat of the rock song causes my hips to swing harshly and I smile to myself as I crack another egg.

Today would be a decent day, if anything. I didn't hate volunteering, but I didn't love it either. I could be doing so many other things on a Sunday morning - but no, I'm stuck feeding the homeless.

I pull out the roll of aluminium foil and rip out three equal pieces, after placing a wrap on each, I pile on the food. An egg in each, a few pieces of bacon, hollandaise sauce, and some spinach. Perfect.

That perfection is shattered to pieces when my Air Pod is ripped from my ear and I make eye-contact with none other than Scarlet.

"H-hi?" I managed to squeak out.

"That was the gayest shit I've ever seen in my entire life, I have no idea how I hadn't realised it earlier," she scoffs with a laugh, and I join nervously. Are we laughing at my expense, or am I in on the joke?

"Hey guys, what's up with the game of Chinese Whispers?" Lyon asks as he plops down on a stool.

"Nothing. Let's head out now," I say as I grab the three breakfast burritos and throw one to both Lyon and Scarlett. "Are we driving you back home?" I turn to Scar.

"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks."

After dropping Scarlett off with a wave and a goodbye - that was definitely muffled by the burritos - we headed towards the shelter.

"Ugh, I really don't want to do this today," I complain as we pull up.

"Stop complaining, you know why we do this," Lyon steels me with a hard glare through the overhead mirror, it told me all I needed to remember.

Lyon and I had been doing this every Sunday ever since we settled back into our house. It was funny because most people thought we just went to church on a Sunday morning - and I never corrected them. Though, that would be ridiculous considering neither of us believe in God. After our parents left, Lyon got into some legal battles about the ownership of the property our parents left behind - our home. We were forced to live in the homeless shelter, and two months later, when the cops found out, they managed to intervene and write off Lyon as the sole owner of the property. We probably wouldn't be alive if the homeless shelter didn't exist; either that or I'd be sent away for adoption since Lyon was already eighteen.

When we enter through a back door and into a kitchen, Lyon and I put on an apron and adjust a hair net over our heads. After putting on a pair of gloves, we head out to the serving station - God, I always feel like an old lunch-lady in these moments.

After a good few minutes of serving people, I spot a figure in the line-up that looks oddly familiar and I freeze.

Raven

I stand in the line with my metal prison-plate in hand, staring at my feet as they shuffle forward with the flow of human-traffic. Though I look up when I feel a pair of eyes on me and I stiffen. Shit. I needed to get out of there, I needed to run. I could not be seen like this, not here. 

Random question but how do you pronounce aluminium? Is it al-a-min-e-um? Or a-loo-mi-nim? Let me know I'm curious. I'm the first.