A Secret in the Wall {Boyxboy}

Chapter 1; Happy Birthday, Get Out

My parents were the kind of people who didn't warn me of upcoming events until the last minute. Kind of like a landlord waiting until you've agreed to rent the house before mentioning that leak in the roof, or the cockroach that has nested underneath the fridge. Up until now I hadn't really cared much. Their last minute notice before has earned me several days of skipping school because they forgot to mention a hornet had entered the house until I was already stung and transported to the hospital.

They have also forgotten to mention my younger sister's play at school before, which was a blessing since I didn't have to hear her squawk like a monkey and all I had to do was blame the parents about it so that I wouldn't get chewed out by my sister for missing it (she and I use them as excuses for missing things all the time.)

However, this was one of those moments where I loathed their last minute notices, where I thought of it more as a curse and a nuisance.

I woke up at 6:30 A.M like usual, my heart skipping several beats as adrenaline rushed through my veins and made my feet tingle. I had finally graduated from the high school and was about to turn eighteen in a week! I was already mature for my age (most of the time. I still laughed at fart jokes.) and turning into an adult would make me feel more responsible and important. Being younger than everyone else in my senior class, a lot of people thought I was too immature and young to be responsible. Well I'll show them, I thought.

I quickly looked over myself in the mirror. Not the most handsome guy on the planet, but hey I could work with it. I combed my fingers through my messy dark hair, watching the strands morph into different shapes until it looked like I had stuck my head in a blow dryer. Girls dig messy hair right? I stared at myself, trying to see if it was good enough to be noticed. I shrugged and wiped the goop from my deep chocolate eyes. Eye boogers; not sexy. I reminded myself before smiling and heading off to the bathroom to brush my teeth. The only almost perfect thing about my physical appearance were my teeth, white and sparkly in an almost straight row. I was proud of my teeth, seeing as both my mom and my dad's side of the family had dental problems.

After I brushed my teeth and tried to fix my hair again, I headed down the stairs where my family sat eating quietly in the living room. My sister, Anna, looked up at me and grinned, orange scraps stuck between her teeth. She hadn't washed her short black hair so it shined wetly with strings of it falling over her face and the back of her head was matted with sweat and oil. It looked like it would be painful if she tried to put a brush through it. Probably more painful for the brush than Anna.

She was nine years old and still only stood just below my thigh. With her being very small and me being very tall, she looked like a midget compared to me and I looked like a big foot compared to her.

My mom sipped her morning coffee, chocolate creamer with five giant scoops of sugar in it and smiled up at me tiredly. Short like Anna, with medium length hair the color of a strawberry. She dyed her hair like a teenager, almost once a week.

Dad didn't even look up from his computer to acknowledge me. His eyebrows furrowed, and his soft gray mustache twitching from his deep breathing. He was balding with a slight gray tint on the sides of his head. Slightly shorter than me but still tall, and he had the temper of a bipolar lady PMS-ing.

I walked into the kitchen to fix me a breakfast of leftover pizza and a soda before sitting next to Anna on one of the plump red couches. She gnawed harshly on her beaten up orange and looked up at me with soft hazel eyes. "I'm being more healthy-er more dan you," she said in her five year old baby voice that she probably was never going to get rid of because of the fact that mom still cooed at her like Anna was still a toddler.

"You're eating healthier than me," I corrected like I usually did, taking a bite of my pizza.

"Don't be a smart Aleck to her," mom scolded me and reached over to pinch Anna's cheek. Anna's face turned red and she pulled away from the squeezing fingers.