I'm back

[1] I'm back

   " The food here stinks" I cringe, gaping with wide eyes at the untouched brown goo jiggling on my plate. Being in close proximity to it didn't help its ugly demeanor at all. No sane human would touch it, nor look at it for that matter, never mind put it in their mouths and swallow it.

" It's airplane food, it's common knowledge that it stinks. " Ryan answers in an uninterested tone, poking the food on his plate with a plastic fork with too much amusement.

I cringe even harder. " You have issues, Ryan. Don't play with it. It'll lay eggs on your fingers "

He snorts audibly, poking it even harder now as if to test my theory.

His golden colored hair laid messily on his forehead, this time going for the messy hair don't care style.

That hair of his infuriated me as soon as I laid eyes on it, when I was two minutes old, probably. I knew right there he was the one who got the good genes, the one who won the lottery when it came to appearances.

Ryan's the brother with hair like a stack of gold, round ocean blue eyes and god-sent eyebrows.

I'm Julie, ' Ryan's little sister' , the girl with the wavy brown hair and hazelnut eyes. The only thing we had in common was our noses, and maybe our short temper and crankiness. Those traits run in the family.

      "I hope it does lay eggs on my finger" he fantasizes, poking it some more. At least he was using a fork, so I couldn't complain too much.

        " You kids need anything? "  Mom calls from behind us, her voice annoyingly tender.

None of us answer, Ryan poking the food and me looking for my earphones. She rolls her eyes and yawns, her caring-mother-facade crumbling as she waves off her own offer and heads back to sleep.

       My mother's a true gift.

        I peeked my head from the gap between me and Ryan's seat. The view of mom and dad actually excited was perplexing and amazing at the same time, since it was extremely rare these days. The entire family was thrilled to go back home.

         I mean, it's been a year. Every one of us was looking forward to something. Ryan couldn't wait to get back to his plasma screen television and friends. Mom was extremely eager to go back to work. My mom's a very talented writer, but when we moved out for dad's job, nothing inspired her to continue. She's probably thrilled that we're going back, since she was sure that she'd find her inspiration once again.

        Dad didn't really mind staying where we were, even after he finished what he had to do there. His job was the main reason why we moved out, but now that whatever he had to do was over and done with, we were more than ready and especially willing to go back to our old lives.

      Ryan nudged my shoulder as the plane started landing. "You ready?" He asked, and I had a feeling he wasn't only talking about getting out of the plane.

      "As ready as I'll every be, Ry"

-

As soon as dad unlocked the front door, I was engulfed by the familiar smell of my house as it welcomed me with open arms as if we were lovers.

Once I took a look around, I concluded that everything was definitely still the same, except it was really dark and the layers of dust that covered the furniture like a second layer were quite unusual.