I awoke in the morning feeling like a mess. My eyes remained shut, sensing the thin rays that filtered through my windows and landed on my face. My throat was just as dry and raw as it had been on the morning of my parents murder, if not more, and I felt a strange sense of deja vu kick in. I sprang out of my bed, ignoring my body's complaint. I ran out of my room and straight into my brother's bedroom door, ramming myself painfully into solid wood and forcing the door to swing into the wall. My eyes scanned his room, and I felt a weight being dropped into my stomach. His bed covers were strewn across his bed, but laid primarily onto the floor, without my brother beneath them.
Oh God, please no, I thought, panicking. I forced myself to refrain from screaming, and ran instead down the staircase outside his room, and onto the first floor below. "Matt?" No reply. My heart beat painfully in my chest, each hit against my ribcage like an electrical shock to my fragile system. I walked past the separating wall, praying he would be somewhere in the kitchen.
I stopped dead in my tracks, adrenaline cursing through my bloodstream.
"Hi, Bryn." Matt said happily behind the counter, looking up from his bowl of cereal and newspaper. His smile shifted as he took in my appearance. He opened his mouth, only to shut it again, caught off guard. "You know, Bryn, if I didn't know better I'd say it looks like you've had a pretty rough night in bed," he said, choking on his cereal as he laughed. I rolled my eyes.
"Oh shut up, Matt. Not funny. As a matter of fact, my night was pretty rough," I replied as I sat down on a bar stool by the counter.
I ran one hand through my hair, and realized it was all knotted and bunched together. Matt smiled again, and cocked an eyebrow at me, as if to say, "I told you so." I laughed weakly, knowing that Matt was right.
"So, what will it be?" Matt began, changing the subject. "Do you want eggs, cereal, coffee...?" I furrowed my brows together.
"When did you get all of this food?" I asked, confused. He reached out and ruffled my hair, knotting it even more.
"You're not the only one that had a tough night, Bryn. I woke up really early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided that I might as well make use of myself, and I drove to the plaza to pick up some groceries.
"Oh," I replied lamely.
He was still looking at me expectantly. "Oh, I think I'll just have a coffee, Matt. I'm not really hungry right now." My stomach was too busy doing flip flops and clenching tightly within my body for me to believe myself hungry enough to keep down anything I ate.
"Sure thing, Bryn." He answered, turning around to face the coffee machine in the corner underneath a set of cupboards which I guessed he had set up some time this morning.
As he put two tablespoons of coffee grounds into the machine, I looked around, surprised. All of the boxes that had been in the kitchen last night when we'd had supper were now stacked on top of one another, empty. "Matt, how early exactly did you wake up this morning?" I asked, astounded. He caught me staring dumbfounded at the clean kitchen, and smiled. "Early, let's just leave it at that," he began with a wink. "But most of those boxes were emptied last night. I watched TV just like I said I would, but I felt like I should do something productive, so I fixed up the kitchen a bit. No big deal," he finished, handing me a cup of steaming hot, soothing coffee.
I blew away the steam on the coffee, too scared to take a sip just yet.
For some time it was quiet, and, as usual, Matt was first to break the silence. "Bryn, we should really start thinking about your education-" I interrupted him then. "But, Matt, it's summer." He nodded. "I know it's summer. But what are we going to do when summer's over? Mom and Dad aren't here anymore. So either we find someone else that can tutor you and offer homeschooling, or when the fall rolls around, you can go to a real school, and get the whole high school experience."
