Half Empty

Chapter 1

"Heading out. Wanna come?" Cohen's muffled voice carries into my room from down the stairs.
"Aren't you gonna eat that?" Arianna asks. I can picture her raised eyebrow and her stern look.
"You didn't answer my........."
The voices are too muffled to make out the rest of the conversation from the comfort of my bed. I sigh.
My eyes flutter open and the light from the window blinds me. I huff and try to cover my eyes with my hands, while keeping them open so that they'll eventually adjust.
I can hear the clinking of spoons on cereal bowls, and chatter on the floor below. It's peaceful to wake up like this every morning. But it's also horrifying as the reality sets in each and every day. I have to face the torture my cousins put me through, a day longer. I blow out a breath and pick up my phone from my bedside table. 8:07 is the time. Curse my darn morning person-ness! I can never sleep in, no matter how hard I try. I pull the covers off, deciding it's time to get up. Maybe I can go with Cohen to wherever he's going.
Before I can pick out an outfit to wear, Arianna, my older sister by two years, knocks on my door before letting herself in, and plopping on my bed.
"Good morning. Are you going with Cohen?" I ask.
She shrugs. " Depends. Are you?"
"Don't know. Where's he off to?" I question.
"He's taking his bike up to Josh's house," she replies. My shiver of disgust must have been visible, because she nods her head at me and gives me a knowing look. Ever since my grandparents crashed, giving my grandmother a broken pelvis and other injuries, I've been scared to ride on a motorcycle. Cohen brought his when he moved in with us about a month ago, but I haven't ridden it yet. I guess there's a first time for everything.
I sigh. " Tell him to wait for me."
"Ok. But that's not what I came here for." She answers.
I give her a confused expression and tilt my head the side. " Hmmm?"
"Well see Rose is having this party and I'm not really a party-er so I was maybe wondering if you would join me," she rushes the last part. "See I didn't want to ask Cohen cause he's a jerk, and I didn't think bringing Monica was the best idea so..." she trailed off, laughing nervously.
I chuckle. Riley is her best friend since fifth grade. She's not gonna be having the typical high school party. It's probably just gonna be a bunch of her friends hanging out. " It's not like I'm a party-er either," I pause. "When is it. I have plans this Friday."
"It's on Saturday," she quickly explains.
"Ok."
Her face brightens. "Thanks!"
My sister and I have never really been close, but we all have our moments. Even though we fight a lot, I won't deny that I still love her. However I do think that our cousins living with us for the year has brought us together. And yes, our annoying (Cohen) and manipulative (Monica) cousins are living in our house for a whole year. Torturous, I know. And the worst part is that Monica is staying in the bedroom next to mine. She's bunking with Sage, my 9 year old sister. She is honestly crazy. She is so aggravating, and somehow creepily persuasive. Her snobby, self-centered, steryotypical cheerleader personality is what makes her like one of the most popular sophomores in the school. This is going to be a long year.
I sigh. I've been doing a lot of that since they moved in. When I snap back into reality, I realize that Arianna already left.
Uggh. I have to get dressed so I can be tortured. Motorcycles are torture machines. I swear.
I walk towards my closet and rummage through my many 'too small' or 'too big' clothing items. I find a short grey tee, that would be a crop top had I not been so short. I go to my drawers and pull out some navy blue Nike shorts to wear with it. After I quickly get dressed and throw two messy Dutch braids into my hair, I grab my navy Nike sneakers that match my shorts, and tie up the laces. I grab my wallet and stuff my phone inside of it, looping it around my wrist.
"Rhea hurry up!" Cohen yells from down the stairs.
"Coming!" I shout back, grabbing my house keys. I run down the stairs to be met with an irritated Cohen.
"Does it really take ten years to get dressed?"
"First of all, I didn't take nearly as long as Monica, Arianna, or Sage would have, and second, I literally was down here seven minutes after you asked if Arianna was coming," I finish.
Cohen grumbles something's be under his breath and grabs his wallet, phone and keys. After shoving all but the keys in his pocket, he gestures for me to come with him to get his bike from the garage. He hops on the bike with ease, while I'm frozen to the spot.
"Come on. It's not that bad," his voice softens to where I'd think he might actually be sympathetic.
I slowly make my way to the bike and hop on not so gracefully. I slip on the seat and almost go tumbling off the other side, but Cohen reaches an arm out to catch me. After I'm on the bike, I secure my arms around Cohen's waist as tight as I can. Cohen turns around and raises and eyebrow at me. I shrug sheepishly, and he turns the key in the ignition. Before I know it we are out of the garage and on our way to his friend's house. Josh lives about twenty minutes away from our house. I wouldn't normally join Cohen and Josh, but I had to get out of the house before Monica woke up and decided to start throwing her dumb comments at me. Plus Josh and I were sorta friends from math class. We were both in advanced math and had class with seniors. We mostly kept to ourselves in the back, laughing at the stupidity of some of our classmates.
Cohen, Josh, and I were all in the same grade, but Cohen was seventeen where Josh and I were still only sixteen. Cohen had ten months on me and was only four months behind Arianna, who had just begun her last year of high school.
We arrive at Josh's house, and Cohen parks the bike with ease in their long driveway. I take off the helmet and lay down in the grass.
"I'm alive!" I shout dramatically, earning a raised eyebrow from Cohen. "What?" He rolls his eyes and heads to the door. I follow him as he enters the house and goes to Josh's game room.
I wouldn't say Josh is rich, but he sure had a nice home. His driveway was long and separated a large front yard with gardens and trees around the space. His house was the size of two of mine and had a huge living room. Not to mention he had extra rooms for a gym, game room, music room, etc. His house didn't seem that big from the outside, but looks are decieving. It reminded me of those movies where the outside was just a small shack but inside was a mansion with twenty foot ceilings.
Cohen enters the game room, me in tow, and gives Josh the weird bro handshake thing.
"Hey Ree," Josh greets with a wave.
I wave back and sit down on a small couch in the corner of the room. Cohen and Josh start playing some video game that I have no knowledge of. The only game I play is Mario Kart and I'm pretty great at it if I do say so myself.
I quickly get bored of watching them play their game, so I head for the backyard. "I'm going down by the pool," I shout as I leave. Neither of them responds as they continue their game. Boys.
Josh's backyard is nothing short of ginormous. He has a large flat field, a pool, and 'shed' that's the size of another house.
I sit down by the pool, alone with my thoughts before I hear quiet footsteps behind me. I turn around and come face to face with Alex. She's Josh's sister, a sophomore that's is kinda friends with Monica but is a complete opposite of her. While Monica is the popular jerk who wears too much makeup and clothes that are only appropriate if you were going to....actually never. Her clothes were never appropriate to wear for anything. Alex is a sweet, modest girl that I wish Monica would learn from.
"Hey Alex," I greet with a smile.
"Hey Rhea." She sits beside me on the pool ledge and we talk about school and other things for a while. "Are you going to that party Daniel's having on Friday?" she asks.
"Uhhh, I'm not sure." I say. This Friday was my weekly movie night with my best friend Ryan, but she has the hugest crush on Daniel. She'll probably force me to come along.
"Yeah, that makes sense. I never took you for a party girl anyway," she responds.
"I'm definitely not," I laugh.
"Well, it was nice talking to you, Rhea. I'll see you soon."