Beautiful Disaster

Chapter One

1. Chaos

It was a bleak Sunday morning when the first letter arrived. The heavy clouds cloaked the inky grey sky as the gusts of wind swept the crunchy leaves across our patio. I had been hibernating under my soft, cosy quilts nestling my head softly in between my memory foam pillows. A courageous golden sun ray shone through the cracks between my ancient pinstripe curtains. I daringly eased my slender foot out of the bed, as the cold air bit at my toes eagerly I ripped my foot back under the covers. After a few moments of hiding from the spine chilling cold I reached out from under the covers searching for my paperback copy of 'The way back home'.

My petite freshly polished fingers clutched the smooth spine of the book eagerly. I rolled over in my cosy bed and clasped my dark, semi rimmed spectacles longing to know what was to come next. I pushed the glasses up my pale button nose and peered over at the antique bracket clock resting proudly on my shabby two drawer bedside locker. 8 a.m.

I had a few hours to divulge into a world of fantasy and unimaginable events before the late morning chaos broke out in our home. Although my brothers were a nightmare at times I loved each of them with everything in me, growing up with four brothers was never easy and living with them could be unbearable but they'd reared me to being the watchful, daring and ambitious young lady that I had become.

"Nellie! You awake yet?" Oísin yelled knocking on the thin plaster walls. Instead of yelling back like an irrational idiot with no regard for anyone else's beauty sleep I searched sheepishly under my warm, comfy blankets for my phone so I could Facetime him instead.

"Can I help you?" I groaned looking at the idiot who had interrupted me in my daydreams.

"I feel a lot better knowing you look as shit as me" he jeered attempting to fix his messy brown hair "anyway do you know if mam is here? I'm hungry".

"I'm the better looking twin, meaning you look twice as shitty as me, and no I don't know if she's here I haven't even moved out of bed yet!" I snapped staring angrily at my brother through the phone screen.

"Someone's on her period. You up for a tap around after breakfast?" he smiled eagerly, his hopeful sapphire eyes lighting up.

"No I'm not and yeah I'll come out for a while, it's freezing though!" I clarified gazing out the window hesitantly.

"Pretty sure that's why coats and scarves were invented, I'm going toilet g'luck".

Oísin is older than me by four minutes, we were born on Christmas day 1998 in a small village in Wexford. Catherine, our mother had always told us that she didn't know she was going to have twins until that morning when the midwives had told her she had one more baby on the way, every time she sat and told us the events of our birth her kind green eyes would light up like a small child receiving a new toy and her beautiful bright smile would melt our hearts.

Even Jason, our father, was delighted when the news broke that mam was going to have two beautiful little babies instead of one. They had always made me feel just as special because I was the surprise baby. Our parents were only eighteen when they got married, they were secondary school sweethearts, and they had been together from the age of fourteen.

Mam was twenty when news broke that she was pregnant on Christopher, there was a misunderstanding when he was born and the doctors misinformed her that she may never be able to have children again.

On the 23rd of May 1998, mam had noticed a change in herself, she had been experiencing morning sickness, cravings and she had the worst boob pain ever. After a brief trip to the doctor's office she was filled with joy when she learned she was pregnant again.