Rays of light blind me as I lie there, almost motionless. Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" blurts out from my radio in the background. Perfect, not only do I have to wake up at this ridiculous hour, I get Rick Roll'd in the process. My almost limp arm flicks the switch to silence Rick. I lie there again, staring at the ceiling, thinking about her.
“GET YOUR ASS OUT OF BED!”
“Fuck off Lily!” I groaned
I secretly knew my sister was right; I just needed some more time to get up. This was a typical morning in the Gardner household. I don’t hate my older sister; we just share that inherent sibling hatred everyone with brothers and sisters has. The sort of hatred that you throw sarcastic comments at each other, but if anything were to happen to them, you’d be the first to worry and defend them. Lily is two years older than me and is currently home for Christmas break, much to my annoyance. We don’t break up from college until next week. That doesn’t bother me too much though; college is good for one thing. Socialising. I get see my friends all the time at college, meaning I can keep up to date with everything happening. Not that I can’t do that already on Facebook... but, it’s nice to actually see their faces in real time.
Somehow, I manage to shuffle myself out of bed and down the stairs. I enter the kitchen where the radio is humming along in the background as my sister is sits at the breakfast bar reading the newspaper and eating cereal. I go straight to the bread bin where I throw 2 slices of bread into the toaster. I set my plate and knife ready for when the toaster finishes scorching the bread. I turn around and look at my sister. Her wavy, light, brunette hair is tied back in a messy bundle with a clip as she skims the newspaper with her bright greeny-blue eyes. Lily and I share the same eye colour. We get it from our father.
“Why you up so early anyway?” I enquired, “I would’ve thought you’d be catching up on your sleep... You know, after all those nights spent with Tony...”
Tony was Lily’s boyfriend at college. He’s a nice enough guy; I just tease my sister about him because mum and dad don’t yet know about what they’ve been up to. They say what happens in uni stays at uni... not with Facebook it doesn’t. Especially useful since I’m friends with most of her uni friends because I went up one weekend and they all thought I was adorable, and apparently amazing when completely pissed. Parents don’t know about that either, that’s why I hold ground with Lily’s secret.
“Hah... Hah... We only had it once... and YOU know that! Besides, mum wants me to drive your twerpy ass to college ‘cause she wants a lie in... urrgh she takes me for granted sometimes...” she explained
“Thought as much...” I said, now picking my toast out of the toaster and spreading it with butter
“And at least I have a boyfriend... what can you say about yourself?” She fired at me
“Bachelor and proud sis... bachelor and proud” I answered, walking past her with my breakfast
“Just tell me when you want driving to college Ok?” Lily called after me
“Will do” I replied
When back in my room, I sat and devoured my toast. I prefer eating upstairs for some reason, I think it’s because it’s more peaceful and quiet in the morning rush. Even though this morning is not in the least busy. It’s just a habit I’ve gotten into. Once my toast had disappeared I turned to my bag and packed it with all my needs for the day. I considered for a minute or two whether to turn up in my pyjamas to college. Technically they couldn’t tell me off because there wasn’t a uniform policy, and there are no rules against pyjamas... Although I would actually turn up in pyjamas for college, I decided, against my better judgement, to get dressed properly. Well, if you call properly just throwing on the same clothes you’ve worn for a couple of days now. For a girl, this would be social suicide, but for me, it was perfectly acceptable. This is because I believe that the main reason I’m at college is to learn and socialise, therefore, it doesn’t matter if I’m wearing old clothes. Obviously I de-odorise myself so I don’t smell bad, but apart from that, I don’t really care about it.
I ran down the stairs and shouted for my sister. Soon we were travelling the route to college. It wasn’t really an eventful drive but listening to my ipod made up for this. Lily pulled in at the college and I got out, thanking her for her good gesture. I started walking away until heard Lily shout my name.
“Dad’s home tonight, so I wouldn’t hang around with your mates for too long... Call me when you want picking up! Ok?” She shouted
I turned and gave her a thumbs up to show I’d heard and I continued to walk towards the large college building that stood before me.
