Something new

02. New clothes

Fluke woke up to the sound of the alarm clock. He forced his eyes open, turned off the source of his discomfort and went to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. After that, he made the bed, fluffed the pillows, and went to the kitchen.

After a few moments staring at the contents of the fridge, the young man started preparing breakfast: fresh orange juice, toast, eggs and not too strong coffee. All this while muttering a song under his breath to entertain himself during the task.

He liked the morning routine and was the type of person who appreciated patterns, not needing big emotions to feel happy. Just being there satisfied him enough, but at the same time his mind wandered through scenarios and possibilities that he knew he would never have the chance to enjoy.

Not long after, his quiet thoughts were interrupted as the smell of coffee filled the kitchen and his almost twin brother's blond head appeared in the doorway. The small nose dragged the body it was attached to towards the pleasant scent, but it made a small detour to hug Fluke from behind, leaving a kiss on his cheek.

"You're the best brother in the whole world, Flukie!", Cooheart, fawned before leaving the boy and going to prepare his dish.

Fluke just laughed at his cheesy brother and soon they were both sitting at the table enjoying their meal. Once again the young man who had cooked let his mind drift through his morning fantasies until his brother once again interrupted him:

"So… have you… decided what to do?", Cooheart asked as he chewed his food.

"Please chew slowly and then talk, Coo!", Fluke chided the other with a disgusted look.

The blonde hurried to chew, took a sip of the juice to help swallow it all and repeated the question. "So, Fluke?"

Fluke heaved a heavy sigh, looked away from his brother, started to gather his silverware, and went to the sink to wash the dishes. "Eat your breakfast, Coo… or else you're gonna be late to class.", was the only answer the other received.

After seeing his brother gave another evasive answer to the question he had asked a million times before, Cooheart lost his appetite instantly. It wasn't fair that Fluke always sacrificed himself like that.

As he forced himself to eat the rest of the meal that had seemed so tasty just moments before but now felt like it had turned to wet sand inside his mouth, Cooheart watched Fluke cleaning up the kitchen.

They were in their senior year at college, just 6 months away from the graduation ceremony, and they were supposed to be preparing for life after studies or, in Fluke's case, study after studies.

Fluke had applied for a Master degree's scholarship program and had gotten a spot. However, something seemed to stop him from accepting and Cooheart wasn't naive to pretend he didn't understand his brother.

Fluke had, what in his view was, the lack of courage to leave his brother and mother on their own.

"You know you can't live a day alone, Coo! How could I leave?", was Fluke's reply as soon as the mail had arrived confirming what the blonde already knew: his brother was awesome and people saw his potential. Yet, the young man was adamant to the hypothesis of even thinking about the Master degree only because he would have to move far away from his family.

Fluke had always been the hardworking type, and when their father passed away, he set out to support the family. At the age of 16, Fluke had enrolled in the night school and worked during the day to support the household, but when they entered college, they were forced to move from the interior to the capital.