sonder

wonderfall

Chapter Sixteen

Wonderfall

(adj.) someone you find yourself thinking about about all the time, the person you are completely infatuated with.

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When I walked downstairs, the kitchen was vacant of any activity. Both of my parents had gone to work and an eery stillness was left lingering in the house. Walking around, I felt the necessity to tip-toe my way across the floor as if making too much noise would disturb the house and we'd be sent packing.

The quietness only allowed me to dwell on Kali's texts, her lack-of to be honest. She was someone who I couldn't escape from, she took up all of my thoughts from the moment that I walked into the bookstore until the late hours of the night after we'd grown apart. I could feel myself falling in too deep but, I couldn't help myself. It's impossible to control your emotions, I knew that better than most people.

Jeremiah caused me to jump from my stance of leaning against the countertop, watching as coffee slowly dripped from the machine. The sound go his bare feet slapping against the floor had me nearly two feet in the air with surprise.

"You're home?" His voice asks me as I slowly turn to face him and his disheveled bed head, I'm certain that my own matching waves were just as unruly.

His question and ton shocks me, hitting me in the gut with guilt. I hadn't thought about just how much my absence was noticed by my family. "Yeah, I am."

He nods, looking a little unsure of it before making his way to the fridge. I couldn't help but notice just how similar we looked as Jeremiah got older. We'd always been told we looked alike but I was only just now aware of it. Even at eleven, I could already picture Jeremiah growing to be taller than me and the two of us being mistaken as twins; me as the slightly more worn version but still. His blue eyes were the only difference between us really.

I turned back to the coffee maker, a little bit more lost than I had been moments ago. I hadn't ever pictured Jeremiah growing up before, I'd never really thought beyond myself and that ate away at me as I continued to mull over the last few years of our lives. He'd only been nine when I started to check out of life, taking up partying to dull everything, but I had a feeling that he knew something was up, he may not understand it all but it doesn't take rocket-science to notice everyone beginning to walk on eggshells around your older brother.

"What are you up to today?" I find myself asking, glancing over my shoulder to see Jeremiah's body language.

I notice his body go rigged, ceasing to rummage through the fridge any longer. Then his shoulders shrug before continuing his search for something to eat.

I sigh in defeat, an uncomfortable silence settling in the kitchen just as the coffee announces that its ready with a loud, obnoxious beep. I pour the black liquid into my cup, shuffling around until I'm seated at the breakfast nook, the cup in front of me having lost my interest.

Jeremiah grabs peanut butter and jelly from the cupboard after putting bread in the toaster, a glass of milk that he'd poured waiting for him on the counter. The silence only thickens as we both live two separate lives, ones so completely distant from one another even though we were only, physically, five feet apart.

My phone vibrating interrupts the stillness in the room. My mind had already shifted from my conversation with Kali since my brother's arrival downstairs so when I see her name running across my screen I almost wonder why she'd be texting me.

Kali: Want to have a water balloon fight?

A smile finds itself across my face, along with a pair of curious eyes that watch me as Jeremiah approaches the table where I'm sat.