Queen of Diamonds

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning to the sounds of bird's symphony, the smell of sizzling eggs, and golden light filling my room, over flowing it sneaking into every corner and crevous, forcing my eyes to open disturbing my uncomfortable yet peaceful sleep. I was a bit sore from sharing a bed with Kara, who sadly for me, loves to sleep all spread out over the bed and is a total cover hog. Sleepovers aren't all they were cracked up to be now. These days when I have a sleepover it's usually unplanned after a party and crashing on a friend's couch.

I sat up in my bed looking out the large bay window at the sun raising itself up from beyond the high hills as if doing pull ups to lift itself up into the sky to hang out for the day. As I swung one of my legs off the bed to get up, Kara's body jerked and she kicked me right off the bed landing on the hard wood floor to a fantastic bruise that was undoubtedly going to swell on my hip.

"Oh, my Gosh! Ava, I am so sorry!" she said as she woke up to the crash of my butt on the floor and my soft gasp of pain.

"Ow, it's okay," I said hauling myself back up onto the bed. "I don't remember you being such a crazy sleeper."

"I am not!" Kara defended flushing a soft pink. And then she followed my gaze as I looked at the bed with me on the edge and her legs and arms sprawled out over the rest of the mattress holding it to herself like a stuffed animal. I looked back at her with a disagreeing look and we both just laughed.

"Breakfast!" Gram yelled and we stumbled out of bed, me holding onto the railing the whole way down the stairs, afraid that if I wasn't holding onto something my hip would detach.

We walked into the kitchen, fresh out of bed with our hair a mess, still in our shorts and oversized shirts, taking a seat at the breakfast nook in the kitchen surrounded by wall to wall windows.

"Help yourselves, you can have whatever you like," Gram said as she was face covered in the New York Times.

Thankfully everything was already on the table so I didn't have to get up; I'm not really a morning person and like to drag out the laziness as long as possible.

"Yes coffee. Thank God," I said relieved. It wasn't a double Columbiana espresso or anything but it was strong and fresh, just the way I like it.

"Yuck, I don't know how you can drink that sludge," Kara said disgusted as she poured some orange juice into a glass.

"Don't diss my life source or it will be your ass that gets kicked on the floor next," I threatened teasingly.

"Ava!" Gram said, mockingly appalled at my joke, trying to keep up the wholesome grandma façade.

"I'm just kidding, Gram. Kara "accidentally" kicked me off the bed this morning and I may have to return the favor," I explained.

"Alright," she accepted and dropped her eyes back down to the paper. "Hey Kara, you can rear-end me instead of Ava next time," she began. "That would be the most action I've gotten in a while," she finished nonchalantly keeping her eyes on the newspaper.

"Yikes, Gram!" I laughed not at all thrown off by the comment while Kara, who was arguably just as close with Gram as I was, starred mouth gaping at her colorful joke. Even living next to my gram for all these years, Kara still managed to keep her innocent wholesome self-intact.

But Gram wasn't really all that wholesome, clearly. But she liked to attempt to keep up pleasant appearances with guests, occasionally. Apparently today wasn't one of those days. Kara is hardly just a guest anyway, she's more like family. And the older we get, the less Gram holds back.