prologue
Lavender would kill to have another cup of coffee but would it help her?
No, it wouldn’t.
It was three in the early morning, and she had to finish her final assignment that she procrastinated on for the past four days. She knew she would do it eventually but just needed to think further about doing it the morning of. School killed her but this year mattered the most since it was her senior year. So much happened that she couldn’t count every memory she made. Nothing incredible, she was the quiet child who stayed to herself with just one friend to keep her company, and said friend was on a phone call with her on an early Tuesday morning.
“Lavvy, I expected you to do better… at least better than me of course.” her friend whispered over the phone.
“It’s the senioritis, Jenny. I’ve tried hard enough for the last four years, cut me some slack, will you?”
“I’ll take that excuse… What’s the answer to question six?” Jenny asked.
“I thought you said that you did this yesterday?” Bella raised her eyebrows toward the camera screen.
“I lied… I caught Reese staring at me so I had to shoot my shot of pretending to look organized and smart.” Jenny panned. Reese Monroe was considered the hottest guy in Lavender’s school and he was also unfortunately Lavender’s chaotic older twin brother. Ever since they were young kids, Lavender always knew that her best friend Jenny formed a crush on her brother. However, no matter what the case, she always protected her friend from her brother’s bag of STDs.
Lavender chuckled at her friend’s antics, “Don’t you think you fall too easily? You’ve been crazy for Reese since like forever ago and he never bat an eye in your direction. My brother isn’t someone you ever want to dream to be with, Jenny. Also, the answer is Parasitism since it is a symbiotic relationship.”
“I want to be in a relationship too…” she answered with a sigh. All Jenny ever did was daydream about her draining, fun love life of unrequited love.
“I don’t think you’d want to be in a parasitism relationship though… you’ll get hurt while Reese will be living his life with every girlfriend he changes in a week,” Lavender added.
“It’s because he hasn’t found the perfect girl for him yet! Someone like me-”
Lavender snorted, “I hate to break it to you, love, but no girl can change a boy like him. He isn’t worth your time. Even as his sister, I’ll tell you he’s a lost cause.”
“Whatever, I’m the lost cause instead when it comes to love anyway.”
Lavender felt terrible for her friend falling for someone such as her brother, “That’s not true! I’m sure that your soulmate is waiting for you. He’s probably stuck in traffic somewhere in the world.”
“You think so?” she spoke lightly.
“I don’t think, I’m sure of it.” she encouraged her friend.
Jenny brightened her mood, “Well, he better hurry up with yours too.”
Lavender laughed out loud, “No way, I’m sure that I don’t even need a boy in my life again!”, which she regretted saying a second later when her brother pushed the door open to her room aggressively.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, could you please shut up? Some people are trying to sleep here!” Reese screamed at her.
She heard Jenny scream from her phone screen because Reese was shirtless and Jenny was probably frantic since she wasn’t wearing the best outfit in front of him at such an unexpected time.
“Damn, sorry but next time could you please keep on a shirt when you enter my room, jerk,” she remarked.
“I’m not going to waste my time fighting with you at three in the fucking morning on a school day at that.”
Lavender deadpanned as she pointed her finger toward the direction of the door to her room, “Then, leave.”
He stared at her harshly for a good few seconds, “Just stay quiet please.”
“Fine.”
He rolled his eyes and then left the room without another word until Jenny broke the forced silence in her bedroom with a whine, “He looked so hot and I looked like an ogre in front of him!”
“He didn’t even notice you were on the phone…and don’t call my brother hot, that just makes me want to vomit over and over again internally.”
“But you gotta agree, he is hot-”
“Okay, that’s enough, goodnight Jen!” Lavender tried to maintain a low yell.
“But-”
“Nope, goodnight.” and with that Lavender hung up on her friend.
The thought of her brother being attractive to other populous amounts of girls in her school including her best friend made her feel sick. She blames him for making her whole personality a nerd. They may have the same thick pitch-black hair, simple greenish eyes, and a lovely olive skin tone, but the way they lived their lives was completely different. Some would pity her but she didn’t care if she was noticed as ‘Reese’s nerdy twin sister’ instead of just Lavender, herself. The opinions of others kept growing since she was young but it never stopped her from living how she wanted and neither did it for Reese. Yet, there were times when it could hurt without even realizing it hurt when someone close to her made unnecessary statements about their relationship as siblings.
She sighed and noticed the digital clock beside her bed reading that it was almost four in the morning. Sleep was calling her to slumber the rest of her night away lasting for a good two hours until she needed to get ready for school. Lavender was about to close her computer screen when suddenly a notification popped up on the side. It was a traveling advisor app she downloaded a week ago when she was motivated to travel the entire world at the moment. She never looked back at it after downloading it, so she guessed she allowed the notifications to come through.
As she clicked on it, her whole screen lit up with photos of statues and beautiful sights of infrastructure. She kept scrolling looking at the various pictures until a raffle showed up on the bottom: Win a free trip to Greece! Click the bottom icon to get your raffle number and enter it to match the number we have given. The sponsor includes the cost of transportation, a guide, and housing for three weeks. The winner is also allowed to bring one guest of their choice!
Lavender’s inner gut feeling was that every part of this advertisement had to be a scam. Yet, she wanted to press the raffle button so badly. The thought of traveling on her own was pumping her heart with excitement. Sure, her parents might throw a fit if she did win this but it’s not like she couldn’t afford the trip without the raffle, since her parents earned enough than needed as them being both lawyers with their firm. It was just the idea of doing something on her own in a crazy way to feel something. She could think of it as a gift for passing the four years of hell in high school.
She kept staring at the screen until she looked at her clock again, “I need sleep first.”
She shut her laptop screen swiftly and jumped into her queen bed. As she put herself under her comforter, she couldn’t wait to fall asleep but it wasn’t coming to her at all. She gets this for messing up her sleep schedule with her interrupted brain wave frequencies. All-nighters were draining, she always thought that college students put up with this mess but so do high school students. Nothing in life is fair for any student who just clearly wants to sleep.
She just kept staring at the ceiling of her room daydreaming of what could be her options. This could be the one chance that she could be… herself. A girl with her own choice before certain obligations takes over her life.
“But what if?” she whispered to herself.
She got back out of her bed swiftly and opened her laptop again.
“One click is not going to ruin my life.” a statement that she could have deeply thought more about.
Lavender pressed on the icon that joined the raffle and the loading screen displayed. Before the screen changed, she shut her laptop screen again. The anxious feeling was crawling under her skin with as many overthinking thoughts as she could muster in her mind.
She closed her eyes tightly while opening her laptop again but slowly. The brightness of the screen touched her eyelids, she knew this had to be it, now or never. Immediately, she opened her eyes with disappointment. It redirected her to an unknown website that wasn’t pure to her innocent eyes.
She screamed as quietly as possible and jumped back on her bed with a muffled noise in her pillow, “Save me.”
The best thing to do is that she should sleep. Thinking about the working of her future could be put off until tomorrow once she feels like herself.
