wrong house

7. faking it.

"Wake up, darling! It's not good wasting the day!"

Waking up to Becky's voice was worse than waking up to those old school alarms that pierced your ears and gave you a mini heart attack. Sarah groaned against her pillow and reluctantly sat up. Suddenly the door flung open and her brother Santiago tossed about four pillows from the living room couch on her face, making her fall back and stay there.

"I hate you." She said loudly but her voice was muffled.

"No, you don't!" Tiago smirked and sat down beside her. "Morning, mana. Come on, there's breakfast."

"Not hungry." She muttered while sitting up and glaring at him. His facial features were a lot like hers: plump lips, big eyes and cheeks and a cute little nose. Anyone could see that they were siblings. "Why don't you and Becky chit chat over some tea while I hide in here."

"Come on, she doesn't judge." He tried but not even he could pull of a lie that big. "That much."

"Not you maybe." She smacked his forehead and then put her hair up in half a bun, half a ponytail. "Look, I'm not having this conversation again. Why can't you visit when she's not here? I love you, but not with Becky around. You thrive in her praising for you. It's gross."

"Aw." Santiago chuckled as he placed a hand on her cheek and pulled her head closer so he could kiss the side of her head. "Is it really that bad?"

"Yes." She said sternly but with a soft expression. "I'm serious. Just try to take in what she actually says, you'll realize she's a bitch to me."

"Alright. I promise to listen, really listen. Can we just have breakfast now? I've missed you." He asked and stood up. She smiled in defeat and followed him downstairs, where the rest of the family was patiently waiting.

"See, at least Tiago knows not to sleep the day away." Becky said from her corner. Sarah only inhaled deeply while looking at Santiago with dead eyes. He scratched the back of his neck and sat down without saying anything back. "I'm guessing you missed that early thing you had today?"

Sarah frowned and had to think hard before she rememebered that her excuse for sleeping early was because she was going somewhere in the morning. Sonia closed her eyes and Sarah tried to come up with yet another excuse.

"No, she didn't." Santiago swooped into the rescue. "No, I flew in here really early and Sarah picked me up from the airport and then she went back to sleep because it was, like, 6 am. I slept on the couch too but you know I'm a morning person so I woke up earlier."

The lie only worked because Santiago was already at their place before Becky had woken up. Sarah looked at her brother with thankful eyes and started eating her breakfast. Since her friends all knew her so well, they had sent her a good morning snapchat to tell her they were fine and not hungover at all. Except maybe Katherine.

Sarah and Santiago helped cleaning the table and doing the dishes so they could catch up and talk. His career as a doctor was going well and he couldn't wait to see her graduate and pursue her own dream. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do once she did graduate and that was the scariest non-planned part of her life.

"I didn't wanna ask in front of them but whose car is that outside?" He asked quietly. She momentarily froze her movements and groaned.

"A friend of mine's. Had to borrow it." She mumbled and dried her hands with the towel.

"You still don't have your own car? If it's about money, I can pitch in."

"No." She laughed and leaned her side against the counter. "I like to travel collectively. And I'm also so picky, I haven't found a car that I really like yet. One that is within our price range, that is, and you've worked for your money, I'm not taking any of it."