AUGUST • C.CULLEN

twenty-six

JANUARY

August spoons some more cereal into his mouth, his eyes focused on the newspaper before him but flicking up when he hears someone enter the kitchen.

Eli moves straight to the toaster, his hair ruffled from sleep and his puppy-patterned scrub shirt on backwards. He pulls a slice of bread from the bag next to the machine and drops it into the toaster, pushing down on the lever to let it cook and letting out a loud yawn.

August quirks an eyebrow, smiling amusedly through his mouthful of cereal. He chews and swallows, wiping his mouth on the back of his sleeve, then speaks up. "How'd you sleep?"

Eli jumps and spins to face him, having not noticed his presence at the counter. He lets out a sigh when he sees August and shrugs, grunting. He's not a morning person. August's smile grows and he raises his mug of tea, pointing to the coffee machine next to Eli. "Coffee's been made." He takes a sip of his tea before he scoops another mouthful of cereal.

"You know, seeing as you have to wake up at this time most days of the week, I would think your internal clock would decide that six thirty isn't that early to be awake." August teases lightly.

Eli offers him a humourless smile that drops quickly from his features. He pulls out two mugs, pouring the dark liquid into them and adding sugar and milk to one of them before he turns back to the coffee machine and squeezes a pump of caramel syrup into the second mug, reaching into the fridge and pulling out a carton of oat milk, shaking it and pouring a little into the mug.

He gives August a look as he puts both the milk and oat milk back into the fridge. "Shut up."

Almost the instant the fridge is shut, another figure is standing in the kitchen, bright smile on her face. "Goooood morning, Pops." She brushes past Eli, pressing a kiss to his cheek, and pulls out a bowl and cup from the cabinet behind him. She looks up at August as she gets a spoon from the draw in front of him. "Morning, Uncle Auggie."

"Morning, Harper." He greets fondly. He looks between Eli and Harper, chuckling softly to himself when the both give him strange looks. "It's just quite amusing to see how different you both are of a morning. Most would expect the teenager to be the tired, unsociable one."

Harper hums with a smile, tucking some of her blonde curls behind her ear and pulling some apple juice and oat milk out of the fridge, beginning to pour the juice into her glass. "Yeah, well... Eli's never really been a morning person, not even when he was with Garrett, his ex, but..." She smiles cheekily as she pours some of the cereal on the counter in front of Auggie into her bowl, following it with her oat milk that she makes sure to shake before opening. "He has been up late talking to his girlfriend recently." She teases.

Eli chokes on his coffee from behind them, his eyes wide and cheeks flushed. He clears his throat and cleans up the spill before realising his shirt is both on backwards and covered with coffee. With a groan, Eli walks away to his bedroom to change.

August chuckles and stands from his seat at the counter, grabbing his empty bowl just as Harper comes around to sit next to him. He rinses his bowl in the sink and leaves it there for now, turning to grab her mug of coffee and placing it gently before her. "Your dad made it. One shot of caramel on oat milk." He leans against the counter across from her, smiling as he takes a sip of his tea. "So, while Eli's gone... How are you taking this whole thing?"