Cigarettes and Roses

Chapter 1: Fragrance meets Smoke

CIGARETTES AND ROSES
.
Written by therealkammyy 
.
Chapter 1: Fragrance meets Smoke
.

Andrea frantically rushed through her large sized room trying to arrange every of her belongings in place.

She had woken up late.

Unintentionally.

After having to stay up the night to study for an upcoming test.

Glancing at the clock on her dresser, it reminded her of the fact that she had less than ten minutes remaining before homeroom started.

She had taken her bath and was already dressed up but the state of her room was the only issue holding her back.

She binged ate while staying up to read and slept off forgetting to clean.

A giant shudder went through her body when she saw her television remote lying down on the floor; plates that she used last night were still on the small table.

She rushed to the television remote and picked it up. She kept it back where it used to be but she still wasn't settled.

Swallowing the panic that had risen in her, she stacked the empty plates on each other putting a mental note to take it downstairs when she was done cleaning.

Sighting crumbs on her bed, she rushed to take a clean rag near her door and went back to the bed squatting to clean it.

"It's just dirt. It's not dangerous. Nothing is happening. Dirt doesn't kill. I won't die, I'm fine. It's just dirt ... ." Andrea recited trying to calm herself down.

"Drea... ." A familiar voice said behind the door calling out to her.

But she was so far off in cleaning the non existent dust on her white bedsheets.

The room door opened and Axel, her older brother, appeared at the doorway watching his sister dusting her bedsheets desperately, repeating her movements all over again.

"Drea!!." He called louder this time.

She continued what she was doing with blank eyes, focused on cleaning the spick and span bedsheets.

There was dirt where she was cleaning but she continued while speaking out loud ...

"It's just dirt. It's not dangerous. Nothing is happening. Dirt doesn't kill. I won't die, I'm fine. It's just dirt ... .

Axel sighed knowing what was happening to her.

He looked around the room noticing it was in a good state.

But she must have been so stressed to not notice that.

Axel quietly walked over to where she was standing and proceeded to hold her hands stopping what she was doing.

"It's clean, Drea ... look around you .". He whispered softly still holding her hands as he led her away from the bed.

Startled out of her action, Andrea looked around and her erratic breathing normalized and she became aware of her surroundings again.

Axel saw the panic disappear from her eyes and that's when he took the rag from her before she could continue again.

Andrea's cheeks flushed red in embarrassment as she gathered herself.

"Sorry... I just .. ." She trailed off realizing she couldn't come up with an explanation.

"Uh.. don't worry about it, breakfast is ready downstairs for you ." Axel mumbles looking around the room.

Andrea widened her eyes realizing what the time was as she rushed over to grab her backpack on the dresser running out of her room presumably going downstairs.