The D-Day

  I and Darren finally completed the sale. Surprisingly enough, we had nothing left to spare. Dad was proud of us. At least I could feel that he was, since he bluntly refused to show it.

Night had already fallen and we were both ready for bed. It was soon 9pm and the lights were out. The only lights on were the nightstands in our room.

Darren and I were exhausted and possibly too tired to sleep at that time, because we were awake counting the ceiling and cracking small jokes till late into the night.

I laid on my back facing the ceiling and Darren did same. There were moments when an awkwardly long silence ensued between us, and these were the moments I coughed uneasily.

It was a long long night and I could tell it was going to get longer.

"So?" I said, trying to ease the tension lingering in the air.

"So. So what now? I can barely close my eyes." Darren said as he shifted under the covers.

"Let's do a game of five letters. We can only call words containing five letters, not wasting a second." He finally spoke up after another bone crushing silence.

"Dude..." I started, not caring to let him finish whatever he had to say.

Jerking my head to the left, my eyes fell on a nonchalant looking Darren, who had small bags underneath his eyes, almost unnoticeable, but I observed it so, it ruins the concept anyway.

"That's the worst idea you've come up with all day. Can't you think of something less...I dunno, boring?"

"How can i? When I'm completely surrounded by boredom." He said, without taking the bother to look at me, his expression tired, otherwise unreadable.

"Are you calling me boring?" Taking a little offense, my deep voice thundered a little as my body jerked up a little bit, using my elbows as support on the bed.

"Van, even the sheets are boring, so don't take offense." A smirk crept up his face as he spoke.

"I don't appreciate you playing on my intelligence Darren. I know when someone is being mean." I said as I relaxed my muscles and fell back on the bed.

"I'm being honest. Not mean. Go learn the difference before trying to argue with me." Darren replied after a little while, like he was thinking of a comeback.

I knew he wasn't.

Our little scuffle continued this way, until Darren's voice began to fade in my head. The ceiling became blurry and my eyes became heavy. Pretty soon, I became way less conscious of the goings on around me.

I had began to fall asleep.

I knew I needed it, so I didn't fight it.

Indirectly, I allowed Darren to win. Anyhow, I was going to get even with him. My name was made for that.

***                     ***                   ***                     ***

The next morning was a little odd. Mom had allowed us to sleep in for some reason. I woke up very late at around 10:50am.

Of course I stayed on the bed, staring blankly at the milk coloured ceiling, not knowing how to get up.

Knowing that mom might come in any moment to scold me, my heart and head felt restless.

It's almost like they have a parenting rule to open their mouths and let loud words fly out, in order to get things in order.

I must say, whatever tactic that is, it's very efficient.

I placed a hand over my mouth and let a yawn escape.

My jaws felt clenched on their own, and I knew I had to get chewing to loosen them up a bit.

I was way past that then. I didn't have a single appetite in me, not to talk of the strength to leave the bed.

I collected my thoughts and focused them on getting my sleepy head off the bed.

Instinctively, I looked to the left, where Darren was lying, unmoving, his sheets undisturbed.

I wondered how long he was up. Darren always suffered from mild insomnia, so even if he was tired, he could hardly sleep as soon as he got into bed. It takes several minutes, sometimes and very rarely, a few hours, for him to fall asleep.

I turned away back to the ceiling and threw my legs upwards, carrying the sheets with me. I huffed a heavy breath and dropped my legs forcefully, while pulling myself off the bed I was about to get glued to if I spent any more time in it.

I drew in a long breath through my nostrils and huffed them out almost quickly.

Using my palms as support, I pulled myself off the bed and stood on my feet, using a little effort to stay balanced.

My eyes felt a little sore and my mouth was dry.

I did a few stretches and bent backwards a little. A small pop sound emanated from my lower back region.

Being a mild hypochondriac, it gave me concern for the few seconds I remained in that position.

Slowly but surely, I pulled myself back to my original standing position, listening carefully for any other alarming sound.

Everything was okay. I didn't feel any pain, so apparently, I was safe.

I heaved a heavy sigh of relief as I resumed my journey to the bathroom.

My legs felt like 100ton bricks, and I could only drag them across the floor as I moved slowly towards the door of the bathroom.

The trip to the bathroom felt like a long one, since I was being magnetised to the bed again. In short, I felt like I needed more sleep. Besides, seeing Darren sleeping comfortably made me sort of jealous.

When I made it to the bathroom, I sat on the closed toilet seat to catch a few winks.

After what felt like a few nano seconds, I yawned and pulled myself off the seat. I was on my guard as usual. It would be a disaster if Mom walked in on me sleeping in the bathroom.

I walked to the mirror and stared myself down.

I looked like a boy who has lived in solitude in the forest with a bunch of animals, but just got discovered and rescued.

My hair was a tousled mess. My eyes were  red and nothing to write home about, my lips were dry and looked cracked and my thick eyebrows were all crooked and smudged.

I couldn't remember the last time I looked like that, except that one time in summer camp when we were forced to go hiking.

Good gracious! That was the worst!

"How did things get to this? God, please help me look good again." A sigh escaped my lips as I said those words.

With pure disgust, I looked at the sink in front of me.

My hands went to the tap and turned it on.

I knew I couldn't leave the water running for too long, else I wanted to get whooped, so I planned on making my face wash quick.

The cold water made contact with my skin as I put my palm into the rush.

I shuddered a bit as a chill ran through my entire body. We were approaching winter fast and the signs were getting clearer.

A small whimper escaped my lips as I quick splashed the water on my face. I immediately took off my clothes afterwards, and long story short, I brushed my teeth and took a long shower.

It did not take me long to finish washing myself, but I could tell it would take me longer to get ready.

With my blue towel tied firmly around my waist, I left the bathroom after drying my hair with another towel.

I already knew what I was going to wear that day, so I tried to limit time wasted. I moved to the wardrobe and quickly covered myself with my lotion. When I was done, I took out my white shirt, along with my plaid sweater and black jeans.

It was the perfect outfit for late November.

While I was putting on the sweater, Darren stirred up from the bed and sat up.

I glanced at him for a few seconds before dusting off my outfit.

"Good morning." I said out loud.

"Yeah, good morning. Did mom wake you up?" Darren asked while stretching.

"No. Actually, I haven't even seen her. It's kinda weird." I said as I took out my comb and ran it through my hair.

"Not kinda bro. Totally. Ugh...I need a bath." Darren said slowly as he pushed himself off the bed and waltzed into the bathroom.

"Yeah, go get one." I spoke in an undertone as I snickered as silently as I could.

I heaved a heavy sigh as I sauntered towards the room door and out of the room.

I strode towards the living room but stopped halfway. The house was unusually quiet, save for the sound of water running coming from our bedroom.

I was actually a bit scared. All home alone vibes began running through my body.

Could my parents really have left us behind? If not, where were they?

A massive amount of weird and scary thoughts rampaged my mind as I thought of what to do if things got ugly.

Straightaway, after collecting myself, I took a few steps back and threw my eyes to the right, where my parents' room was situated.

My shaky hands went to the door knob and at once, I slowly opened the door and hesitantly poked my head in.

I saw a few bags all packed and ready, and a couple on the bed.

My mom rested on dad's shoulder and his arm was draped over hers as they both slept like babies.

I smiled to myself as I realized what was happening.

Both my parents were exhausted and needed to rest. I didn't want to disturb them, so I quietly shut the door and walked back to my room.

Darren was all dressed up in a black sweater with a blue shirt underneath, accompanied with blue trousers and Nike slides.

"What's for breakfast? I'm starving man." Darren asked as he smoothened his hair.

"No breakfast Darren. Mom and Dad are still fast asleep." I said with a smirk as I walked to the wardrobe and took out my accessories.

"What? Hold up, you mean they're not up? How the..." He said as his face became contorted in confusion.

"It was pretty surprising. Can you please put these in your bag? Mine is already too heavy as it is." I said handing the things I had in my hand to him.

"Sure. I'm just hungry as hell right now. And how are we supposed to travel if mom and dad won't get up? This is super suspicious." He replied while taking them from me.

"It is, but we gotta wake them up soon. It's already past 11 and I heard mom say it's a 5 hour drive from here." I said thoughtfully as I walked back out towards the door, pulling my bag along with me.

"Are you ready for it?" Darren asked with a smirk I could feel radiating from his aura even though I wasn't facing him directly.

I fell silent as I understood what we were going up against.

I shook my head as I stopped in my tracks.

It was pretty late already and our parents never left the house any time later than 6am whenever we travelled

I swallowed hard and looked back at Darren, cause I knew, that once we woke them up, all hell was going to break loose.

"Shall we?" He asked again, this time becoming more serious.

"God help us." I whispered as my chest deflated.