Lighter

t w e n t y - o n e

baby, there's a world
inside your room tonight
and it's yours and m i n e . . .

⚡️⚡️⚡️

The rows and rows of cereal staring back at me were overwhelming; the prices, flavors, and differently sized boxes all blending into one gigantic, sugary collage. I couldn't focus on what I wanted, with it being a Thursday night and my early morning Economics class tomorrow hanging over my head. Just the thought of waking up to deal with that mess put me into a bad mood.

Instead, I turned to my sister who was hanging on the other end of our cart absorbed in her phone. For her, that's an unlikely scene because she's hardly ever on her phone – she's probably the only thirteen-year-old that's not being controlled by social media and technology.

"Haleigh," I spoke up to get her attention.

All I got was the furrowing of her brows as she kept staring at the screen of her phone and began to furiously type away.

I let out a drawn-out, exasperated sigh, and nudged the cart to knock her off her balance a bit. "Haleigh." And with a bark of her name, her head shot up.

"What?" She asked, looking right at me and blinking as if she just came back to reality. Which I guess technically, she did.

Barely enduring my frustration, I swung my arm out as a gesture to the cereal. She glanced from me to the colorful boxes, got the hint when my eye barely twitched, then silently hopped off the cart and grabbed a couple different kinds. When she came back and dropped the cereal into an empty spot, she muttered an apology before latching onto the end again.

"Must have been pretty important if you didn't hear me the first time," I teased as I began to slowly push the cart down the aisle, making sure not to have Haleigh fall off this time. I barely caught whatever it was that she said because it was so quiet, but it piqued my interest. "Haleigh, was it a boy?"

Her reddening cheeks and nervously shifting eyes gave it all away. "Haleigh Grace!" I squealed, abruptly stopping the cart.

"Shut up, it was nothing," she hissed back at me.

"Oh my God, it totally was," I grinned, my baby sister getting too flustered for her liking. I, on the other hand, was enjoying it because for once, she wasn't the one pestering me about my love life. Although I had a feeling that was coming later.

She sputtered, never truly coming out with a word and only proving me to be even more right.

"How come you're allowed to pry into my love life, but when I do it to you, all I get is the same 'you'll learn when you're older' speech?" She quoted one of my famous lines once she got herself together, sort of impressing me with her imitation of my voice.

"Because as the oldest sibling, I have the right to pry into your life. It says so in the handbook," I retorted proudly as I began strolling to the next aisle.

"Whatever," she grumbled with an eye roll. "If you must know, it was my friend Becca texting me... about a boy."

"And what was Becca saying about this mystery boy?" I raised an eyebrow curiously, glancing at her over my shoulder as I reached up to the top shelf for the specific box of Aunt Farrah's preferred tea.