In Plain Sight [mxb]

5. consurgant

Happy New Year Guys! Hope you all have a successful and enjoyable year!

Meaning: wake /wāk/

To emerge or cause to emerge from a state of sleep; stop sleeping.

SONG - SHOUT - Tears For Fears

I was woken by noises in the kitchen. The blinking neon alarm clock beside my bed said it was 1:00 AM. I had only been asleep for a few hours. I tried to go back to sleep but my shaky eyelids and uneven breathing made me know that that boat had very well sailed.

Instead I got out of bed and went down to the kitchen where the noise was coming from. Each step I took my careful and calculated not wanting to alert whoever it was if they turned out to me intruders. A baseball bat was propped up on the wall by the bottom of the staircase and I grabbed it. Mom didn't see it or else it wouldn't be there. She was the progenitor of orderliness in the house.

I gripped it tightly, tiptoeing towards the kitchen until I came face to face with Simon drinking chocolate milk. In my surprise and in reaction to the sudden light coming from the fridge, I stumbled forward hitting my elbow against the door frame alerting him of my presence.

"What the fuck?!" Simon whisper-yelled, seemingly very aware of the rest of the family sleeping upstairs.

I cradled my throbbing elbow "Sorry, I heard noises and thought it was an intruder."

"And your first instinct was to come down completely unarmed?" He asked. Well I didn't think that far. I shrugged as my answer.

Simon swore underneath his breath putting the milk back into the fridge and roughly brushing past me. My breathing faltered for a millisecond once our shoulders brushed. He was close enough that I could smell the rich, creamy chocolate milk in his breath. The darkness was an advantage as it hid how flushed my skin looked.

"What are you doing up late anyway?" I asked further, unusual for me. We both noticed. My brother was first and foremost an athlete. He worshipped his body, ingested carefully and cautiously only what would enhance his system. Especially at this period which was basketball season when he became especially hard on himself. Sneaking off at one in the morning to drink sugary and fatty chocolate milk was not his style.

Simon scoffed wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as if it would clear all is guilt "None of your fucking business."

"No need to be rude, I was only asking," Gosh I hated how quiet my voice went. How easily I reverted back into my meek shell the moment anyone tried to tap at my spine. I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was being a good person and enquired about the well-being of someone who was supposed to be my family.

Someone who wouldn't even do the same for me.

An overwhelming sense of rage rushed right through me. My fists clenched, nails biting harshly into my palm without remorse. "Well then have a great fucking night," I spat walking past him immediately to march on the stairs. He was surprised. Or rather I assumed he was. I didn't turn around to see. But I was confident that I'd taken anyone who would see me in that moment by surprise. I didn't angry like that and I definitely didn't swear because vulgar words felt unnecessary to me.

It was as though in that moment I became a completely different person.

Once I got into my bedroom I closed the door and leaned against it, inhaling deep breaths by the gulpful. My curtains were open allowing the moonlight fill up the room with its pale glow.

This was it. This was the family that I was so hesitant to leave behind, so hesitant to abandon. Yet it wouldn't even be abandonment since I had fit in like an odd puzzle piece from day one. So why was I so desperate to hold on to something I barely even had?