expired

Chapter 5, Part 1

Eva. Eva, wake up. Hey, your parents want to talk to you. Eva...

    "Eva," a soft voice whispered next to me, pulling me out of dreamland. My eyes snapped open as I grabbed my pillow and began swinging blindly in self defense. "Hey!" the voice exclaimed. "It's just Jane!"

    I took delivered a few more feather-filled blows before I processed what she was saying. Mid-swing I sheepishly lowered my pillow to reveal Jane's face, her normally silky-straight hair now frumpled from my one-sided pillow fight. "Uh, s-sorry about that," I squeaked out.

    "You're really not a morning person, are you?" Jane crossed her arms, her lips tilted downward but a smile sparkling in her eyes.

    "I guess not," I said, throwing my legs over the side of my bed and stretching. I looked above Jane's head at her clock, which was now split into two as I had expected, each ticking down at its own pace. It was kind of sweet, like a new clock and a new life, but then I remembered that it was also my brother's fault and that didn't make it so sweet anymore.

Jane and I sat in awkward silence staring at each other for a moment too long before she realized she had come in my room for a reason. "Oh, sorry! I forgot, your parents wanted to talk to you, Matt and I all together this morning. I told her we could go out for breakfast, but from what I've seen," she looked me up and down, from my messy hair to my frumpy pajamas. "You guys aren't really morning people."

"That we are not," I said. "So should we go downstairs and see the rest of my train wreck-- I mean, family?"

Jane laughed and left my room, her hair swaying behind her. As Jane left, Clover tumbled into my room, jumping onto my bed and lapping at my face.

"I forgot to let you in here last night!" I cried, embracing Clover as she squirmed and licked my face. By the time I'd gotten Clover to settle down I was already tired and began drifting off as I ran my hands through her fur. It was so much easier to just lay in bed, petting my dog, letting myself slip away--

"EVA," Matt's voice bellowed from the other side of my door. I jolted awake and leaped out of bed, opening my door to see my dearest brother, fuming. "Jane came upstairs to get you five minutes ago."

"Oh, dearest me," I gasped mockingly. "I've forgotten we have company over! And that mama and papa want to discuss something super duper important with us... Oh golly gosh, was what it that lovely Jane said it was again?"

"Very funny," Matt said flatly, yanking my door shut. "Hurry up!" he called over his shoulder through the door, nearly drowned out by the sound of his thumping footsteps.

I turned my attention back to Clover, who was sleeping soundly in a little ball at the head of my bed. "I wish I could be like you," I said, petting the top of her head before I finally got up and made my way downstairs.

"I still just don't know how you're going to deal with the finances," I heard my father's reasoning voice mutter from the kitchen. I stopped myself from walking in and instead held my back against the wall outside, eavesdropping.

"Well," Jane started. "I'm going to be working throughout the pregnancy to--"
    "No," Matt cut her off. "You won't be. There's no way he-- or she, or whatever it is, can grow or develop or whatever correctly if you're up moving around all the time."

I could practically see Jane roll her eyes. "A lot of mothers continue work throughout their pregnancies."

"Yeah, at their desk jobs, not teaching spin classes, like, a dozen times a day," Matt said. So that's where Jane works. No wonder she's so fit.