Me, Me & You

Chapter 2

"Luna! Wake up!"

I flinched. The covers slipped off my face, and a ray of summer light turned the inside of my eyelids fuchsia. My little brother, Hunter, threw his entire body against my closed bedroom door.

"Don't do that!" I moaned and mashed my face into the pillow.

I wanted to return to last night's dream. It had been ages since I'd dreamt about the hospital. In this dream, Archie and I wore fancy-dress, for some reason, and sat together under the courtyard's maple tree. Archie was prone on the ground, crying into my lap. As he cried, I petted the back of his head, and despite the circumstances, I felt at peace. I liked him crying and wanted it to keep going. I wonder what that made me...

Hunter bound down the narrow hallway between their rooms. His footsteps shook the walls of the house. One would think he were a sumo wrestler running down the corridor and not some scrawny fourth grader. With a groan, I lurched up and rubbed my eyes.

Summer was on its final stretch. The leaves of the sugar maple in our front lawn had started to turn red already. The years flew by, but here I was, ready for the first day of real school: the kind that's portrayed in movies, the place where you graduate and are done. Done! You earn a diploma and then leave Iowa forever.

I shuffled into the hallway bathroom, shutting the door behind me. With barely two minutes to myself, someone shrieked on the other side of the door.

"Luna!" My other little brother, Jay, pounded on the door to the bathroom. "Get out! I need to pee!" His voice was shrill and frantic.

"Hold on," I called out and applied my mascara with a few quick strokes of the applicator. Tossing my things back into my dedicated draw, I opened the door to my youngest brother clutching his crotch and dancing from foot to foot.

"Whoa, rush call?" I tried to ask as I stepped out, but Jay blew past me and slammed the door behind him. The toilet lid struck against the porcelain and a stream of water hit the bowl.

I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms, waiting for Jay to finish, when the door to James's room opened. He attended the community college but still lived at home to save money.

"What is with all the fucking noise," James said, his voice husky from sleep. "Who the heck is running around?"

James sauntered out of his bedroom, squinting with sleepy-bleary eyes up and down the hallway and scratching his ass through his faded and piling Looney Tune boxers. I scowled at him, not bothering to hide my dislike—we were long past that.

"I asked you a question," he muttered.

I didn't answer. The best thing to do was keep my arms folded and stare down at my feet, which only made him grumble.

The latch to the bathroom unlocked and Jay exited, still adjusting his pants around his hips. I started for the door, but James knocked me aside with a swing of his forearm.

"Ow!" I cried out, more from surprise than actual pain.

"My turn." James gritted his teeth.

"I was in there first! I have to brush my teeth!" It would be a losing battle to fight for the bathroom, so I squeezed past him and grabbed my toiletries from the drawer. "I'll leave as soon as I get my stuff!"

His fingers wrapped around my arm and yanked me out of the room. I yelped, trying to keep my balance as the door shut behind me. Though my knees buckled and my hips swayed, threatening to topple me over, an arm braced against the wall stopped my fall.

I swore under my breath and ran to the kitchen.

The two younger boys already started breakfast and were now fighting over whose turn it was to have the back of the cereal box. I swept past them and went to the sink. Not a single dish from last night had been washed. Trying not to gag, I turned the water on, prepped my brush, and began cleaning my teeth. I was trying to find an open space among the dishes to spit when my mom entered the room.