I woke a bit later than usual, that morning.
"Good morning dear sister" she greeted me.
"Good morning." I murmured back, still trying to wake up.
"Don't mumble, it is not pretty." My father looked at me over his glasses, and I looked down to the floor.
He looked again at me, like a scanner. No escape.
Apparently I didn't do too awful, because he returned to his newspaper, and forgot everything about me.
I sat down at the table, and took a piece of fried egg. It was first when I was done eating, that I noticed that my sister hadn't eaten anything. A piece of lonely toast laid on her plate.
But she was almost glowing of happiness.
"You know what?"
It looked as if she was about to explode any minute. She leaned closer to me, over the table. Her eyes where gleaming. How I wished that I possessed these blue eyes. They were mothers’ eyes, brilliant as the sky. So pure.
So perfect.
I managed a little smile. A smile I had practised on for months. I wanted to know how she always got the compliments for smiles. How she managed to seduce everyone.
Her scent was sweet as strawberries and flowers in a beautiful harmony. I didn't have many memories of mother, but when I imagined her, I always imagined she would smell like that.
Like a day in July, where the sun is turning everyone laying on the beach to bacon.
Like at the picnic on the countryside, on a green lawn. I was only 1 year old, and had smeared chocolate cake in my entire face. My mother had to carry me to the river at near, to wash my face. As my balance wasn't developed, I fell in the river. It was a small river, but my mother hurried to get me out.
The memory was almost true. My sister had told me about the picnic, so it wasn't entirely my imagination But my dad would never have allowed chocolate cake.
I had a lot of similar memories. Half memories. I thought about these fake memories whenever I closed my eyes. I could see them for myself. Smell the air, feel the grass tickle my fingers. In these moments, I almost believed them.
Until I opened up my eyes.
I thought of all these things in a second. It was first when I relaxed my muscles, that I felt that I had been smiling that smile the entire time.
"No, what?" I tried to sound interested. Like her. She always got people to like her, just by talking two seconds with them.
She leaned even closer, almost laying on her still not eaten piece of toast.
"There's a new neighbour moving in!" She whispered, and broke then out in a gorgeous giggle. She sounded so cute; no wonder that heads turned everywhere she walked.
"And you know what’s even better? Daddy is hiring him!"
Satisfied she leaned back.
Daddy.
Pronounced by her, it sounded so natural. But if these words ever slipped through my lips, they would sound more distant, fake and forced.
I could see that she was waiting for a reaction, probably me crying out how amazing that was, so I managed the unnatural smile. I really hope it was true, that practice made perfect. Someday I would master the smile, I just knew it.
Of course 'daddy' hired him. Everyone did what she wants. She just had to use her silken voice and ask, and everyone was like hypnotised.
I looked out of the big windows, and a boy stood there.
If she was perfect, then he was perfection. He had muscles, but without looking overdone. And he had a sweet smile, like an angel. He was simply beautiful.
I must have stared, because she turned around to look out of the window too. Father was still lost in his newspaper.
She let outa small, casual laugh.
"Oh look! There he is."
My face was natural pale, unlike my sisters, but if possible, I even got paler.
She got up, and quickly took a bite of her toast, which must have been could by the time.
"I'm going to greet him, are you coming?"
She said that, already on the way out of the door.
I sat still, and pushed the plate with my half finished egg from me. I didn't feel like meeting him yet, but I would follow her, as my eyes followed her now, with envy. She may have seen him first, but he was mine.
And I did not intend to share him with anyone.
