𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 ☽

✯ chapter II

ELEANORA

   It was Oliver who woke first, followed by my twin and I as he slammed the door leaving the bathroom. My eyes burned, waking to a freshly picked peach laying beside my pillow, an old gesture by brother dearest. Throwing it up into the air and catching it again, I sat the round fruit on our desk next to the open window for Rudolph the black bird to eat later on.

Slowly slipping on my robe, I made my way back outside to retrieve my sketchbook to be greeted by Oliver's shirtless back. Panicking, I let out a timid cry and alerted him of my presence. Sensing my uncomfort he quickly shut it and passed the brown book back towards me.

I wanted to talk to him but my words got caught in my thoughts and my thoughts stopped my speech. "Did you draw those?" he pointed to the brown book now buried into my chest.

I expected his voice to be different, maybe have a deeper tone or sound more stern. He sounded kind and the smile plastered on his face supported that theory. His eyes swirled in the sun as if two pools of water brightened by the summer sky.

"It's hard" My blood rushes to my cheeks as I wished to cover my ears, "Drawing, it's difficult". He smiled, baring his perfect, straight, white teeth and showing me some comfort and friendliness.

I stood there at a loss for words, as if my vocal cords had been ripped from my throat, a sharp pain spread through my neck. Disrupting the thick, awkward air, Elio had woken fully from his slumber munching on the peach I'd left for Rudolph. I turned on my heel and elbowed my twin for eating the bird's food, leaving the two boys to talk.

When I reached the ground floor I was immediately engulfed in a hug from Mafalda, she passed me an espresso as I took a seat at the table outside next to my mother and father. giving them both a kiss before I took my place and cracking open my first egg, immediately failing and grabbing another one to try and perfect the cleanest crack.

   "Later" was a phrase I had gotten used to over the past few days, the american term for "see your later". My parents found it utterly entertaining and started to embed the term into their own vocabulary, the single word would now run through the halls of the house.

   So when Oliver departed from the table with his singular "Later", I couldn't fathom why I felt so disappointed. Maybe after our tiny, awkward exchange this morning I thought that he would talk to me.

   Not that I want him to, of course.

  "Are you coming down to the river?" Elio asked me as I caught a glimpse of Martiza riding through the tiny gate next to the main house. She wore a lemon bikini top and a pair of shorts, how I envied a body like hers. Toned and tanned. Unlike my pale and larger body, in comparison to my brother and his lover.

With excited grins on their faces, our parents soon chirped up with plans of their own for Elio, Oliver and I. "Why don't you take him into Crema?"

Elio protested saying how Martiza was here to see him and only him and the childish cries that escaped him were enough to drive a complete sane person, insane. "I'll go"

Before my head had registered the predicament I'd dived right into, Oliver had already heard all of these plans. "I guess it's just me and you Ele"

I stifled a smile but right then I wanted nothing more than the world to swallow me up in an avalanche of peaches. Oh how peaches were better than this.