As usual the alarm clock was a quick wake up. Same as always, dragging the body from the bed into the bathroom was already a common routine. Shower, change of clothes, downstairs for breakfast. It felt... even harder this time, in particular. It was obvious why it would. Of course it would.
"Ehi, Athea! È ora di svegliarsi, sorellina." *Hey, Athea! It's time to get up, sorellina.
"Can you hurry up in there?" Loud bangs on the door, and a female voice called from outside.
The soft voice called out for her from somewhere she wasn't sure of. Athea opened her puffy eyes with difficulty, adjusting to her surroundings. Was it still Vesima? Where was Brie?
Jason was suddenly woken up from his trance. He looked up at the foggy mirror in front of him. He got lost inside his thoughts again. With deep breaths in his chest after the sudden scare, he wiped the mirror with his hand and stared back at his reflection for a brief second.
She looked around, trying to defog her vision. Slowly, the room around her began taking form. She rubbed her eyes as her body sat up on the bed. No... Vesima was long gone. She sighed, staring blankly at her lap – what she wouldn't give to live in that memory forever. She wasn't sure what time it was but she knew she wouldn't be able to catch any more sleep even if she tried, so she just got up and made her way to the bathroom.
"Yo, you alive in there or what?" Bianca called from outside again, banging on the door once more.
"Yeah, I'll be right out." He answered almost in a reflex.
"Hurry up, I still gotta brush my teeth." He heard one last bang before her steps walked away.
Inside, taking a look at her reflection in the mirror, Athea took a deep sigh. She crouched down and opened the cabinet under the sink. From it, she removed a jar filled with seashells; she looked at it for a long while, remembering why she kept that jar hidden from her eyes. Shaking it around, the seashells clacked and twisted until she spotted an orange one. Athea felt a smile form on the corner of her lip and, this time, kept the jar on the sink, as a decoration. It was about time it stopped collecting dust and mold inside.
He finished washing up and walked by Bianca's room before heading downstairs. He gave two knocks on the door ("Bathroom's clear.") and she soon came out, Jason watching her shadow go past him from the corner of his eye. At the kitchen, the scene before him was routine: his dad on the table, newspaper in one hand and his phone on the other; his mom in the kitchen, finishing setting up the table, her laptop open and running by her mug.
After she washed up and got dressed, Athea once again found herself staring at her bedroom mirror. Her reflection stared back at her, though she almost did not recognize it. Closing her eyes and taking deep sighs, she tried to remain here; her mind kept stubbornly drifting back to that long-lost moment, and the taste it left on her mind was bittersweet to say the least. Happy memories, yes – but now tinted in a blue hue.
YOU ARE READING
Vi Presento a Athea (Introducing Athea)
Novela JuvenilLife can change in the blink of an eye - often not for better. Athea had already had her fair share of misfortune before she moved to America with her father... a dead sister, divorced parents and a whole lot of baggage on her shoulders, her only g...
