The Collins Curse | ✓

26 | "my girlfriend?"

Kenzie had woken up with a light ache in her chest. An ache that seemed to warn her of the unknown future through the guilt that slowly started to brew in the pit of stomach. She didn't understand what caused the unsettling feeling to suddenly erupt, but Kenzie's mind focused elsewhere, inhaling a sweet sugary smell that filled her room, causing her stomach to growl.

She quickly got up, making her way down the stairs. The worrisome feeling flying out of her head after each step she took until her feet landed firmly on the bottom floor. The ache subsiding, only becoming a phantom of her memory. Kenzie dreamily followed the sweet delicious aroma, sensing a slight burnt smell that suddenly lingered, and a faint yelling guiding her ears.

Kenzie soon stopped outside of the kitchen, the voices in there becoming louder the second she walked inside. Her eyes widened at the disaster layed out in front of her as her siblings stood in the middle arguing. There was flour covering every inch of the kitchen floor, piles of stacked dirty dishes covering all the counters, and shattered ones decorating the floor. Kenzie cursed when her eyes landed on the different colored splatters that painted the once white cabinets, knowing it would take them forever to clean the kitchen.

How was it that it only took a second to make a mess, but a lifetime to clean one?

Kenzie sighed knowing that if she stood there any longer, she'd only persuade herself to crawl back into her bed and pretend she didn't witness the chaotic tornado that swept through the kitchen. Sending a silent plea of help and courage, Kenzie walked in determined to break the argument between her siblings, but when her stomach growled she could only think of the sugary sweet smell that was the reason to rouse her from her bed.

Her eyes flitted the entire kitchen, hoping to find stacks of pancakes, doused in sticky sweet maple syrup, her mouth watering at the thought. Instead, they landed on a lit vanilla cupcake candle.

Oh, how clever were siblings to disguise the burning smell with a deliciously scented candle.

Wait... burning smell.

Kenzie became alarmed when she felt the follicles in her nostrils burn from the smoky haze that suddenly surrounded her eliciting a choking cough. All while her siblings' conversation becoming loud and clear.

"I told you, we should have just gone somewhere out to eat, but no you wanted to a bit cutesy and make a whole Christmas breakfast."

"Wes, you are the biggest idiot on this planet! It's Christmas nothing is open today! That's why I resorted to making breakfast." Lainey replied standing on the highchair fanning the alarm that abruptly turned on with a kitchen towel.

"I'm pretty sure we could have found one place that was open, Lainey."

"NO. We couldn't have Wesley. Besides you're acting like I burned the house down, it's just a little smoke."

"LITTLE SMOKE! My eyes are burning! I literally can not see anything because of the little smoke!"

"Would you quit complaining and be useful for once! Open the windows so the smoke can get out and this annoying alarm can stop. I want everything to be ready before Kenzie wakes up!"

Kenzie tried so hard to contain the laugh that vibrated through her chest, knowing it wasn't the best time release one, especially with the possibility of their house burning down. But, it poured out into open and stayed unheard. Until she inhaled the surrounding carbon monoxide and released a strangled cough that quickly turned into Kenzie falling to her knees gasping for fresh air.

"That's what you get." Both Wesley and Lainey mumbled angrily under their breaths but turned around to face each other as soon as they realized that the choking cough wasn't coming from either of them.