'Dysfunctional: not operating normally or properly'
That was one way to describe Clara Campbells family. Dysfunctional; not operating properly. That was just what happened when your older siblings leave you.
Or that's what Clara had always believed...
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| Clara Campbell |
It seems as though they have established that they have become unavoidable. That there is no way I won't be able to go a day without seeing them. I was happier when they weren't around, and had no care in the world about their baby sister.
I went from seeing them every day, to not even a phone call. Now, they were almost breathing down on my neck. They were cramping my space. "Come on Clara, please. I don't want to go alone, plus I don't really know the way there and I don't want to get lost" Calen whined at me.
"I don't care if you get lost" I muttered, but a small part in me wanted to test the waters; see how far I could push it with Caleb, until he got sick of me. It did only take him 13 years to get sick of me, so surely 13 minuets would be enough.
Breakfast had finished, while Jake and Oscar were quick to get out, Levi was hesitant to leave me with my youngest older brother, but I said that he would have to get through me, before Levi would get his hands on him. He would turn up with a broken neck and some fingers missing first.
"I'll buy you ice-cream" as a treat, whenever we were forced to go shopping with the older ones, we were always convinced ice cream or some sort of treat. It was a cheap bargain coming from Caleb. Greyson was always the one that bought us the best treats, while Auston was a close second. Cameron was more on the hesitant side, but if we pleaded enough, he definitely caved.
"Fine" I groaned, speeding off down the streets, to the local market, where most of my money would end up going to. Neither of us said a word, and this is exactly what I preferred. When all I could see of him was just knowing he was there in my peripheral and all I could hear was his ragged breaths while his footsteps were crunching the ice beneath our feet.
One thing about my brothers that I had forgotten about was how loud they really could be. They didn't have to work their way around sleeping parents or avoid slamming doors. They had been free of the life I had lived, and they didn't know it.
They may not know it, but they had a better life than I did, even when I was in the same household as them. It was almost like they knew our parents didn't like me, so they didn't want to bring the baggage with them, so they could continue their lives. I was the baggage, that would have weighed them down.
"Clara" Caleb murmured, as I grabbed a basket, while I started grabbing the usual things that I would always buy myself and my parents, so they had something to eat whenever they chose to turn up. "Caleb" I responded, trying to keep my voice light, while I had tried to forget that he was even there.
"Gosh, I hate my full name. Please, just call me Cal, like you used too. I loved whenever you called me Cal, and you know that. You know how much I hate my full name as I know how much you hate yours"
"If you knew that, then why do you continue to use Clara? I'm pretty sure the amount of times you have crashed on my friends and I, that you would know that they don't even call me the nicknames you all used. If you know so much, then why don't you actually put it to use?"
