Staying Alive

1: Dishes and Groovy Socks

It was the second day of the year. The day after the big holiday which everyone celebrated with a big bang--a bang so irritatingly big that made everyone drop dead in their beds the following morning. Figuratively.

Unfortunately, as much as she wanted to, she could not afford to lay in bed all day. It was absolutely tempting to do so but she couldn't. She had to wake up early, do the morning chores, and anything else her parents told her to do. Weekends for most people were a joy since for them it meant rolling around in their beds being lazy. For her it wasn't like that, it didn't mean her parents slave-drived her but they just believed in hard work was the way to go and they had taught her that ever since she could remember.

"Dishes first, then the living room and kitchen needs to be mopped and the bookcase hasn't been dusted since last week..."
Her voice trailed off when she stopped at a pile of cardboard boxes in the corner of the loft. They had moved to the place they were currently residing in almost nine years ago. Their house was larger than average but she couldn't fathom how their stuff seemed to overflow with nowhere to place them when it was actually really spacious.

'I guess some stuff just won't settle.'
Her mind had just begun to wander when the persistent barking of her dogs at the porch snapped her back to reality.

"They aren't that noisy early in the morning; it's a weekend too. I wonder who could be at the gate at this time of the day..." She murmured to herself as she went down the stairs.

"T! I know you're in there!"

A shrill voice cut through the insistent yapping of the infuriating creatures that she'd been trying to quiet down.

Tia groaned. 'So that's why. I wonder from what hell V has escaped from now.'

Just as she creaked the door open, a blur of red, blue and green greeted her eyes just before manically tackling her.

A small 'oof' escaped Tia's lips just before hitting the ground.

"T! You won't believe what happened today! Okay, so I had signed up at this--"

Just before sitting up, Tia clamped her hand over her friend's overly 'functional' mouth.

"Woah, slow down, rabid she-dog," V rolled her eyes at her friend's inability to cuss. "Before you start blabbering about your trips to who-knows-where, aren't you gonna let me get us both inside and sit down like civilized people?" Tia crossed her arms, raising a brow.

"Psh, fine but you burst my bubble. An eighth of my happiness has been taken away. Don't you know how much that is?" She helped Tia up on her feet. "It means that a half of a half of that half of my brain has been---. Wait! Does it need one more half or is it two less? T? Are you even listening to me? I'm in a crisis here! A brain crisis! This could mean the end of my future career of being a---"

Tia chuckled to herself as she tuned V's annoying voice out. 'I wonder if there's any lettuce left from yesterday? Hmm. Better check up on that then tell mom before she goes out to buy the groceries.'

"Hey! Aren't you supposed to be helping me brainstorm the condition I'm in now?"

"Wait, what?"

"Well, pea-brain, I have a dilemma remember? About the socks?"

Tia almost guffawed out loud. V had a habit of rambling on about her day but then suddenly jumping off to the most random and ridiculous of things she could think of.

Like right now. Socks. A dilemma of socks. Seriously?

"T, this is no laughing matter! I need the perfect socks to show off at my next Zumba session. The new instructor was sooo hot and I approached him after the workout. We talked for a bit. And you know what? He said I had cute socks! I mean, a guy has never complimented on my choice of socks before and I admit it seems weird. But! But that means he really took time to notice, right? It means he didn't just look at my face! So that implies he isn't a superficial guy, he probably likes animated characters," she pointed to her socks. "and he likes to talk about really deep stuff. Oh, he likes strawberries!"

And she chattered on and on and on like a little squirrel. A squirrel that Tia wanted to squeeze because of her distracting voice that had disrupted her from her beginning-of-the-year clean-up.

Tia had arrived at the history section of their mini library when a certain phrase that her best friend of eight years said made her ears perks up.

"...he lives with LJ. They're brothers, can you believe it?"

In her astonishment, Tia dropped the ten books piled in her arms.

"Hold up. LJ? The infamous Logan Jiether?"

"Duh, T, who else?"

"It's just that I haven't heard from him for a long time."

"You're still hung up on him, aren't you?"

"Maybe?" Tia sourly smiled. "It's been a year, V. But things are as complicated as before."

"T, I swear I'll punch L, if he even comes within a one meter distance from you."

Tia laughed at the humorous emotion V had all over her face. "V, you've gotta stop reducing people's names to one letter. It's confusing and it'll eventually give you a name complex. I swear one day you'll come running back to me one day to beg me for help in changing that bad habit of yours."

V shot her response back just as fast. "And you'll come running to me just as fast when you'll want help to mend your broken internal organ that pumps blood," she pointed to Tia's chest. "Logan Jiether is not something you get over that fast, sweetie."

Tia rolled her eyes at her friend's declamation.

"Oh, and sweetheart? Side note: You don't know how to swear."

---------------------

Sunlight streamed through the heavy dark curtains despite the seemingly gloomy atmosphere of the room inside.

'Fate brought us together and it brought us apart. It isn't done with our story yet.'

Tia swore, more like attempted to, and stretched her arms out in a futile effort to wake up to the reality that she had class early that morning.

Sleepily, Tia padded towards the living room below. No one was up yet which meant no long hours of waiting at the bathroom door for her turn to shower.

As she took a bath, melancholic thoughts ran through her mind.

"V is demented if she thinks Logan still has an effect on me."

It was a useless struggle she'd had for countless times for the past months. She'd talk herself into believing that what had happened meant nothing to her and then the more logical part of her would argue the complete opposite. Back and forth this mental war preceded as she stepped out of the shower and brushed her teeth.
Even as she put on her clothes she was debating with herself then finally giving up and deciding to not give the matter another thought.

A knock was heard at the gate and she absentmindedly twisted her hair into a damp bun before opening it, fully expecting their housekeeper that reported on Mondays and Fridays to meet her eyes.

Boy was she wrong.

"Hey, love, miss me?"

Dark hazelnut eyes that seemed to fade into black met her own plain brown ones as if to suck her soul out.

Her mouth sputtered to get words out.
"W-what are you doing here, Logan?"

"To rescue you. It's a vast ocean, isn't it Nemo?" Logan had a smug look on his face which contradicted the tinge of sadness in his eyes.

Tia made no notice of this however, seeing as she was still trying to get herself together from the shock of seeing her mortal enemy (as her brain put it).

Logan sighed, a really deep sigh as if he was trying to figure out how to say something that had been a burden for a long time.

"Look, Tati," Tia winced at the old nickname. "I need something." Tia almost growled at the mention of his distress.

Then Logan whispered a word that Tia thought she'd never hear again.