A Walk That Leads to More

Ice cold water splashes onto my face, causing me to jolt upwards in my bed, startled. Eyes wide, I jerk my head in Asad's direction, who's holding two empty cups of water in his hand.

"Asad, what the hell? I demand, smacking him before dropping my head back down and pulling my blanket over my head. He yanks it off.

"Nope, get your ass out of bed and be downstairs in ten minutes," he says. "And if you fall back asleep I'm not doing your math homework anymore. Or I'll just keep giving Pierce hints that you--"

"Okay!" I jump out of bed and go into the bathroom, slamming the door as I grumble a list of curse words.

Twenty minutes later, I'm jogging behind Asad on the path trailed around a park five minutes away from our house. We'd ran all the way here too, and I'm already exhausted. I hate cardio.

"Are you serious?" I say through breaths. "This is why you woke me up this early on a school morning?" I start to slow down, already out of breath.

"Yes," Asad calls from far ahead of me. "Now hurry! Slow ass."

"Slow ass," I mimic under my breath, rolling my eyes. He's such an athlete, of course he would be saying that. Just as I'm about to come at him in return, someone turning around the corner towards us catches my eye, causing my already beating heart rate to escalate. What. The. Hell??? Pierce?? My eyes go wide, immediately jolting towards my brother. Did this ulloo (*means owl in urdu, has a negative connotation) plan this?

"Yo!" Asad calls, raising his arm to wave. Pierce slows, his gaze drifting to me for a moment as I slow down before he looks back at Asad.

"We have a guest today?" He asks.

"Well, she might be permanent if her lazy ass doesn't give up," Asad tells him with a little laugh. I frown, smacking his shoulder.

"I am not lazy. You can't even get off the couch for two seconds to put your dishes away."

"Kitchen duty is yours," Asad retorts. I look to Pierce, suddenly feeling more relaxed with my brother here with me.

"My whole family," I tell him, "is sexist." Pierce bursts out laughing.

"Are they really?"

"Yes," I say with a pout. "Asad gets his own car. Asad can go where ever he wants. Asad can stay out late. And we're twins! It's not like he's older, we're literally the same age! That's how you know."

"I have my own car because I'm paying for it," Asad says. "And I have to be your personal driver because of it."

"Because Mamma and Abbu let you work early!" I say. "It's not fair."

"It's not safe for you to be out and about," Asad argues again. I turn to Pierce again.

"See? Because why? Because I'm a girl," I say, throwing out a frustrated hand gesture. Pierce laughs again, while Asad just rolls his eyes.

"It's for your own protection dumbo. Girls are the ones who gets sexually assaulted."

"Who the heck would wanna do anything with me?" I grumble, frowning. I'm not attractive. Boys aren't asking me out or trying to get my number or anything. I'm not of interest to them. "Anyways, enough with this arguing and let's get going," I say, shrugging it off because I'm already tired of this debate. Sibling fights never end, because even if you're right, family never wants to be wrong because your related blood just BOILS with annoyance of the other person. Even though we still love each other of course. Man, family is just weird like that.

Asad smirks, thinking that he won. I don't give him the satisfaction of trying to prove him right, so I jog on ahead, the two right behind me.

The rest of the week continues like this, and I get used to Pierce running with us. Asad and I continue to bicker; my interaction with Pierce is pretty limited honestly. If he does speak, it's more to Asad. I'm just there. If I'm talking, it's also mainly to Asad. Asad doesn't seem to appreciate this as he points it out every single time we come home. "Bruh," he says to me Friday morning as we grab our lunches from the kitchen. "How are you not taking this wonderfully amazing opportunity I gave to you? You literally just avoid Pierce and act like he's not there."

"Hey, he makes me nervous!" I tell him. "I can't help it."

Saturday morning a whole week later is when things start happening. Asad makes me go on ahead without him because Abbu makes him go do something for him. What, he wouldn't say, but he still forces me to go, so I do. Since Asad isn't there, I plug in my earbuds and slow my pace, eventually walking instead to take in the calming surroundings of the park. It's nice and peaceful with no one here to pressure me into running, something I absolutely hate. On top of that, Asad has been making my lunches for the past two weeks too, and I haven't had ANYTHING even close to junk food. I think I'm going through withdrawal, because I've been having way too many breakdowns in the past two days over simple things like math homework or because my favorite fluffy socks went missing. Or maybe my period is about to start. Who knows. That makes it worse actually, because periods equal MAJOR junk food cravings.

Air suddenly rushes to one ear as an earbud randomly comes out. Startled, I turn slightly only to jump even higher and let out a panicked peep when I notice a presence next to me. It takes me a moment for me to calm down only for my nerves to rise again realizing it's Pierce. His eyes sparkle in amusement.

"Sorry," he says, not bothering to hold in his laugh. "Did I scare you?"

"Yes," I say, letting out a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," he says again. "Are you cheating because Asad isn't here?"

"It's okay," I tell him. "And hey, I should be getting an active rest day," I say in defense. He nods.

"True." Pierce doesn't say anything else for a while, looking ahead as he matches his pace with mine.

"You're not going to run?" I ask, wondering why he's still he with me. He's probably just doing it to be nice since we've been running together. Or he might feel weird or bad to leave me alone. I don't know.

"Nah, I'll have an active rest day too," he says with a grin. "Unless you're asking because you want me to leave you alone...?" I shake my head, my heart beating fact because I don't want him to leave. I want him to walk with me.

"No," I say quietly. I take out my other earbud and put them in my pocket, turning off the music. I can hear the birds in the distance. There's a noisy silence in the morning that feels really nice as the sun gleams down from above. As my thoughts begin to drift, I'm reminded of the letter, and of Pierce's dad and the rehab situation. I look over into Pierce's eyes which shine brighter in the glowing sunlight. "Hey," I say. "How's everything going now?" He shrugs, not looking at me.

"It's still just going."

"Oh." Pierce sighs, noticing the obvious drop in the tone of my voice.

"My dad's an alcoholic. That's why he was in rehab. He's still not one hundred percent clean but they let him out anyways."

"Ohh," I say, not sure what else I'm supposed to say to him. "Um, is it hard for you?" He lets out a little laugh I can tell isn't from amusement.

"It's like the roles are switched. I'm taking care of him while he isn't doing shit. That man completely broke and those shattered pieces got put together into something different than what he was before," Pierce says. Broke? I wonder looking at Pierce's sad expression. Does it involve his mom?

"How did he break, if you don't mind me asking?" I ask.

"When my mom left," he says. He doesn't say anything else, so I don't pester for the story.

"Is it lonely?" I ask him. "It must be. As frustrating as my family is, we always still have each other, so I can't really relate or fully understand what that's like. You don't even have any siblings, do you?"

"I do actually. A little brother. He's nine." Pierce stuffs his hands in his hoodie pocket. I frown a little because he didn't answer my other question.

"Oh, so like my little brother!" I say. "He--" My phone rings abruptly, interrupting me. I pick it up. "Hello?"

"Mishal!" It's Tammi.

"Yes?" I say, fiddling with my hoodie strings.

"I need you in early. Is that okay?" she asks. I glance at Pierce, a little sad my time with him is shortened.

"Yes, of course! I'll be there in half an hour."

"Alrighty, great! I'll see you then," Tammi says, then hangs up. I put my phone back in my pocket.

"I'm gonna go home, my boss wants me in earlier today," I tell him, starting to head towards the right path which leads towards the direction of my neighborhood. "But if you ever need to rant, like I've said, I'm all ears! I hope everything with your family gets better."

"Yeah. Thanks," he says. I give a smile before turning around, feeling super giddy and overjoyed. I just talked to Pierce, I sing in my head. I just had a whole conversation with Pierce. For once in my life, I'm actually getting somewhere!