Always an Almost

one.

Lyla woke up abruptly to the sound of her alarm, she pushed her pale hand against the oak wood of her bed head as she stood up. Looking at herself in the mirror she realized she looked good enough to greet her family and/or whoever else might be in her kitchen at 10am. After a quick moment of adjusting her brown hair into a braid she wandered downstairs and towards their family kitchen. Her father was at the sink cleaning off a pan.

"Morning Lyla! You almost made it down in time for breakfast this morning, but I've just finished cleaning up. Feel free to cook yourself whatever." Jonathan said as he placed the stainless steel pan on the drying rack. Lyla groaned in response and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl.

'Almost, almost, almost.' she thought to herself taking an angry bite from the apple in her hand. Pink Lady apples had always intrigued her, they weren't quite a red apple, but not a green apple either. She related to them well, almost one and almost another. With a huff Lyla walked to the living room and placed herself on the couch to the side of the TV across from where her twin brother Colten sat with a plate of bacon and eggs on his lap.

"Enjoying your breakfa-?" he asked with a cocky grin as a couch cushion hit him square in the chest, causing the rasher of bacon he was holding to fall to the floor. Lyla chuckled to herself as the family dog Russell ran through the room, picking up the bacon as he went. "Just so you know Kade is coming over later to play video games, so you should probably...like go out or something." Colten informed her while putting another piece of meat into his mouth.

"Wait, you're friend comes over, and then I'm forced to leave the house? That's ridiculous, I'm older than you, you can't tell me what to do." Lyla replied taking another bite of her apple while glaring at her brother.

"You're older than me by 7 minutes Ly. But you're still not the eldest." he replied with a sneer, knowing the perfect way to annoy her more. She threw the leftover cushion at him and went upstairs again, throwing her apple core in the bin on her way up. When she returned to her room she threw herself angrily onto her bed, staring at the ceiling which was still decorated with glow in the dark stars from when she was ten. After fifteen minutes of drifting between sleep and awake Lyla sat up higher in her bed looking around her room.

'Kade is coming over' repeated in her head she quickly rushed to the bathroom to shower. Whilst the warm water cleansed her body she thought of the boy. Of his blonde hair that was always styled to perfection atop his head, to his sparkling blue eyes that resembled a tropical ocean, to his body. 'His body' she thought before turning the cold tap on a bit further, trying to use the water to rid her brain of such thoughts. 'He's Colten's best friend Ly, you aren't allowed to crush on him. You'll always be second best to him. Colten's first.' She turned off the taps and wrapped her body tightly in a towel. 'Colten's always first' Lyla grumbled shutting the bathroom door and going back into her room.

Looking through her closet Lyla decided that a cropped jumper and ripped jeans would be a good outfit for the Autumn day. It was the tenth of May and Lyla was very prepared for what looked like a nice day, to turn into a windy, cold hell the second she stepped out of the door. Not that she felt like leaving the house with the news that Kade would be coming over. After being dressed in a white jumper and black jeans, she thought that there would be no better pairing than her red converse. Her fascination with red converse began when shortly after she began watching Doctor Who, Christopher Eccleston was her first doctor, but quickly after she began watching David Tennant started. The first of her many fictional/celebrity crushes. Followed soon after by Matt Smith, Barry Allen (TV show Flash) and Selena Gomez. Lyla sighed to herself at the thought of her fictional crushes before looking in the mirror at her now cleaned up appearance. She finished off the look by brushing her hair, braiding it on her right side and then applying a coat of eyeliner and mascara to her eyes. She grinned at her reflection happy with how she looked and then sat down at her desk and looked at her computer screen.

Lyla had never been to her home town, well she calls it that but she wasn't even born there. She was born right here in Melbourne, Australia but her parents were both born and raised in Cork, Ireland, that was where she wanted to travel to one day. It was the first item on her bucket list: Travel to the homeland. She never realised how much she wanted to visit it until her mother gave her the email address of Opal River. Opal's mother and Rosemary had grown up together and been best friends back in Ireland, and had come down to visit Melbourne for a whole year when Lyla was younger. The earliest memory she had was with Opal, the two girls were playing on a swing set whilst their mothers chatted, it was the first time she had heard the term 'almost' used to describe second best. It wasn't the last time she heard it either and definitely wasn't the first time she had been offended by it.

Lyla opened up her emails to see a new message from Opal.

L,

I wish I was down there with you, you always say how boring life is there but really it's much better than here. It's so much livlier and modern than Cork. Also an update on my life, so remember how I told you about that guy who liked me? Well I've started to like him back...It was sort of random but we just spoke more and he kissed me goodbye after driving me home from school. (I missed the bus) And I'm just kind of lovestruck, but I don't really think it's love. How's things with you and K? Have you flirted yet? You should really get started with that.

Love always, O

Lyla grinned at the message before closing her web browser, she would reply later in the day so that it was a more convenient time for Opal to respond. Whilst reading she had heard Colten walk upstairs and call downstairs.

"I'll meet you in the second living room, dude. Give me a minute." Taking the opportunity of Colten being out of the room Lyla wandered downstairs and into the living room at the other end of the house. She stood in the doorway and looked into the room, seeing Kade looking down at his phone. With the way he was tilted his hair was slightly lopsided as it leaned forward with him. She let out a soft giggle but quickly covered her mouth. He turned around to look in the doorway.

'Don't embarrass yourself L, you've got this.' she told herself.

"I was about to say that that laugh didn't sound like it belonged to Colt" Kade chuckled to himself smiling at her. Lyla felt her brain melt instantly as she tried to think of a witty response.

"Well he hasn't really laughed at that pitch since before he hit puberty." she replied before realizing that it sounded much funnier in her head than it did once it left her lips. She pulled her left sleeve into her hand and ran the seam between her fingers, trying to calm down.

"I'd bet" was his only reply as he watched her.

'Why is he watching me? Do I have something in my hair?' she reached up and ran her hand along her hair to check. 'No...Why does this boy confuse me so much'

"Want to play? There's probably time while Colt is in the bathroom, he always takes forever" Kade said, breaking the silence as he held a controller out to her. Lyla took it and sat down on the couch beside Kade as the TV screen lit up with NBA2K16. It had taken Lyla a lot of practise to become even the slightest bit good at the game, especially since she always had to play against Colt or Jonathan, both of which have much more basketball knowledge and skill under their belts than she did.

The two were playing a match against each other when Colten walked in, he watched them play for a moment. Lyla's player had gone up for a shot in the last second of the game, Kade's team had been up by a point and it was the only chance she had of winning. The shot went in, and she cheered happily knowing that she won. Lyla watched the screen as the final scores and statistics came up, which claimed that Kade had won due to Lyla's shot leaving the players hand only a few milliseconds after the buzzer.

"Damn! So close, good game." Kade said shaking Lyla's hand as she thought over the loss.

"Yeah Ly, you almost had it" Colten said smirking at his sister. Lyla threw the controller down on the table and left the room slamming the door behind her.

'Almost, almost, almost.'

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Should have pretty frequent updates. I'll see you all soon