𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

𝟒 | 𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐚

Antoinette

     The voice of the narrator from the television show Our Planet played throughout my bedroom when I suddenly blinked awake. For a few minutes I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to persuade my body to return back to sleep. A soft groaned escaped from my lips while the feeling of sleepiness started to float away from my grip. What time was it even?

My hand pushed the duvet from over my face and I turned my body onto its side. After rubbing the last bit of sleep from them, I forced my eyes to focus on the digital clock that sat on my nightstand.

1:33 A.M.

During school nights it was unusual for me to just randomly wake up in the middle of the night. Right now, it was even more unusual due to the fact that I'd only been asleep for a maximum of two hours. Last night ballet practice ran way passed the designated time, next week I was to perform as the fairy of the enchanted garden in sleeping beauty and I needed all of the preparation that I could get.

At first, I was under the impression that my bladder was the reason I had been woken from my sleep, but I don't feel the urge to pee.

In about four hours, I had to be awake for school so just laying here wide awake wasn't an option.

I looked around my bedroom, the bright light of the moon shinned through my window and fell across my baby pink sheets. Eventually my eyes lands on the bottle of melatonin that sat on my desk aside from the unfinished homework that was due tomorrow.

The medication was prescribed to me after I found myself suffering from sleepless night after my father's death, though using it for a moment like this doesn't seem unethical. I turned back to my nightstand, frowning when I find that my glass of water was completely empty.

Throwing off the duvet, I stood to my feet with the large pink teddy bear that my late father had given me in my hands and tiptoed across my bedroom floor.

Opening up my door, I stepped out of my bedroom and entered the quiet corridor. I disliked the fact that when I wanted a midnight snack that I had to travel so far to the kitchen.

A quiet yawn escaped from my lips as I made my way down the corridor and onto the spiral staircase. Hopefully after I take the melatonin, I will fall victim to sleep in a matter of a few minutes. When I stepped onto the spiral staircase, I take cautions steps down to ensure that I don't tumbling down.

I noticed that the downstairs lights were all on upon reaching the middle of the staircase. Being that no workers actually lived here that was weird... unless my brother found himself in the same predicament as me.

My steps come to a halt when my brother walked across the foyer in formal clothing, something that he would not be wearing if he had just gotten out of his bed. Was he working at one in the morning?

I find myself even more confused by what's going when a tall brunette man that I recognized as Matthew Benedict trailed not too far behind Andrew.

Secretly I take another step down the staircase, getting down on my knees so that I could peak through the railing. What was he doing here...?

Did they just come back from a party or something? I didn't even know that Matthew Benedict had been friends with my brother... I've never seen them interact with each other before.

Another thing that I couldn't recall seeing before was the person who followed behind Matthew Benedict.

But goodness he was beautiful.