The Serventin Siblings

Chapter 1 - Bradin (2019)

Bradin had no idea why he expected something else from Jenna. The door slammed against the wall as Jenna barged into his bedroom as if she were walking into an open space, no permission needed. Bradin sighed. He could have said something. He wanted to say something. But nothing more than the usual came out.

"You know," Bradin said, rising from his double bed in the middle of the room, "next time you can knock."

Jenna looked him up and down as if she thought he was joking. "What, you have something better to do?"

Bradin ran a hand through his thick, messy chestnut hair in soundless frustration. "It's not about that."

"What is it about then?" Jenna demanded, standing near the opened door. Her long blond hair reflected the fading rays of sunlight, pouring in through the room's single but huge window, located right above Bradin's bed. Her hair gave a certain shine, as Bradin well knew – Jenna took great care of her hair, washing, combing, and applying several different hair masks to it three times a day, but mainly before she went to bed. Bradin couldn't judge that, even if he thought she was being too vain.

"Nothing," he said. His cheeks flushed red, and he wanted the earth to open up and swallow him whole.

"That's what I thought," she said, adjusting her grey-white cardigan over her pink sweater and denim slim-fitting trousers. "Anyway, I just came to invite you to dinner in the kitchen in an hour. It's the last week before Christmas break and we wanted to do something together as a flat. Obviously, everyone will attend."

By 'everyone', Bradin knew she meant his three other flatmates at university – Phoenix, Piper and Quortwell. Two girls and three guys living together away from campus had been just a total mess at this point, but Bradin couldn't say anything – even after Piper had held a party at 5 am, right before Bradin's exam focusing on stress and anxiety in young people. It'd taken him so long to find friends – the entire first academic year and a few months on top to be precise, and now that he had, already almost halfway through his second year studying Psychology, he couldn't do anything to compromise that. But it was strange – Jenna, Phoenix, Piper and Quortwell weren't exactly organisers. Even though the five of them were friends, they weren't engaging in activities as a flat that often. Then what was that dinner about?

"Yeah, sure," Bradin said, nodding. "I'll be there."

"Splendid." Jenna smiled, looking first around Bradin's room – a mess of clothes hanging from wardrobe doors, chairs, hangers, various study books strewn across the floor, and a weird triquetra metallic figurine resting on the windowsill – and then at Bradin himself. "And please, try to wear something other than that," she said, pointing to his attire consisting of a dark green sweater with a huge orange stain that had definitely seen better days, oversized jeans that were ripped at the knees, and grey slippers that belonged in the trash.

"Sure," Bradin said, suddenly self-conscious of his appearance. Jenna left like a hurricane, without even closing the door, the aftermath of the destruction reflected on Bradin's face. Countless wrinkles and two dark circles could be found there, and the twenty-year-old boy plopped back down on the bed, sighing in exhaustion.

The memory of Jenna's almost disgusted face when she looked at him and his room, was just one of many more.

He could have said something.

Could he?

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Bradin entered the wide kitchen on the ground floor of the house, now clad in a spotless grey sweater and denim pants. "Hey, guys," he said, looking to the four figures sitting in chairs all around the kitchen table. "What's up?"