I Hate My Brother (editing!)

Chapter 1 ✔️

People often say your high school time will be the most memorable part of your life, I say that's bullshit.

If those miserable years were supposed to be the highlight of my life, I might as well suffocate myself now. If anything, I'm praying the worst is over, and my future would be nothing as bleak.

Only when you're at your lowest will there be nowhere else to go but up.

I sit with my legs crossed in the middle of my bedroom floor, in the midst of packing my stuff into bags and boxes, when two knocks on my ajar door catches my attention.

"Kelsey..." My birth giver stands at the entrance of my doorway, speaking in a hushed tone.

She dons a beautiful head of shoulder-length blonde hair with the roots beginning to turn grey. You'll never realize she's aging until you inch closer to make out the tiny wrinkles at the corners of her sky blue eyes. It's only then that I notice the slight frown in the middle of her brows.

Oh boy. I know that face.

"What's wrong, momma?" I carefully search her face for answers but it honestly only takes a split second to figure out this is definitely bad news.

"It's the apartment," my mother sighs, leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed, her chin resting on the palm of her hand.

I look at her in confusion. "What? Didn't dad say it'll be ready this weekend?"

My heart starts racing as the thought of my arranged apartment going wrong hits me. I've had everything planned down to the T. This absolutely isn't the time for anything to fuck up.

The apartment has been the one thing I've looked forward most to. What else could excite a teenager more than getting out of their parents' roof? Being able to take anyone home, making your own decisions around the house, and even walk around naked if you wanted to; freedom has never tasted this close to me.

"Look, as much as I know you'll hate this idea," she pauses, to my annoyance, and sucks in a deep breath like it's just as difficult for her to say the words, "I'm afraid you'll have to crash with Wayne for awhile."

What? God, no.

"Mother!" I shriek, certain my heart stopped functioning for a millisecond. I can't breathe, my head spinning, and my vision blurring momentarily. People have all kinds of allergy. Me? I have a deathly allergy to that damn name.

Wayne.

Wayne motherfucking Owens. Also known as my ghost of a brother who's 3 years older than me.

Who I unfortunately have to enrol into the same college as because I completely ran out of options due to my embarrassing grades. As if attending the same college isn't disastrous enough, now I'm supposed to live with him under his roof?

Lucifer might as well rip me in half and send me to hell.

"Sweetie, I'm so sorry. The landlord is having trouble evicting his tenant and they're currently in negotiation for a settlement." My mother watches my face cautiously with pleading eyes, while I'm rendered speechless, too stunned to even lift a finger. "There's just no way we can get it ready for you so soon..." She goes on to say after one full minute of excruciating silence.

For a moment, it felt like when everyone once thought 2012 would be the end of the world. This feels like the end of mine.

The mere thought of seeing Wayne again makes me want to kill myself. I've been living peacefully without his existence all these while; there's no fucking way I'm sacrificing myself to the devil for the sake of a piece of paper.