Blindside

Cleo I was late. Plain and simple. This morning was not going according to plan.  “Cleo! I told you not to go this way! Your stupid short cuts don’t always work you know” my brother groaned from the passenger seat. “Not HELPING! Please, for the love of whatever higher power that is out there, would you PLEASE just shut up because I was NOT expecting construction. Do me a favour and quit harassing me, or you can get out and walk” I snarled in reply. I was fuming at this rate. Nothing was going right, and after the wake up call I had, I was ready for this day to be over and it hadn’t even started yet.  7:00 AM I was dead to the world in my peaceful slumber, dreaming of walking along the beach of our cottage. As I’m walking, feeling the sand between my toes, I started to hear the faintest sounds of music. The further I walked, the louder it got, yet there was no indication as to where it was coming from. Louder and louder still the music gets, and the lyrics become more clear. I know this song “…and everybody around, ‘cause he ain’t got nobody to listen..” And then I heard it:   “ I’M BLUE DA BA DEE DA BA DAE!” My brother belted Eiffle 65’s ‘I’m Blue” at the top of his lungs while music played from the speaker of his phone, startling me half to death. Soaring upright with full fists swinging, I landed a mean right hook to my bothers stomach, causing him to double over and land beside me on my bed. “Ugh! Cleo! What the hell was that!” My brother half coughed, half yelled at me as he clutched his stomach. “Serves you right Cairo! You should know better. I’m not much better than you are when getting up in the morning, let alone being shocked back to land of the living with your terrible pig squeals. So really, I should be ask you that question; what the hell are YOU doing Cairo?” I replied, glaring over at Cairo waiting for his poor excuse of a reason. “Cleo, you slept through 3 alarms! I had to make sure you were still alive somehow” He replied with only a bit of attitude. “If you don’t get moving, you’re seriously going to be late there little sis. It’s your first day, don’t want to make a bad impression” He added while smirking at me.  “THREE ALARMS?! Cairo, seriously, why would you let me sleep that long?! Also, would you quit it with the ‘little sis’ jab? Just because you finally hit a growth spurt this summer doesn’t all of a sudden make you hot s**t” I retorted. I will admit that the extra height will do Cairo some good. At 14, I was starting to wonder if that kid was ever going to grow out of his chubby cheek phase. Now standing at 6’1, Cairo towered over my 5’3 frame, finally allowing him to even out his 210 lbs of body weight. The kid was huge and still hadn’t quiet realized his size.   “If you’re not careful, I’ll make sure everyone at school catches on to calling you cheeks” I added, giving Cairo my classic evil smile telling him I wasn’t messing around. “Okay, okay, no need to fight dirty all mighty Cleopatra. Seriously though, get moving, you have t-minus 30 minutes before we need to be out the door.” Cairo said with a huff, rolling off my bed and leaving the room, closing the door behind him. Hesitating, I looked back at the clock. 7:15 AM. Damn, Cairo wasn’t kidding. I had 30 minutes to pull myself together before heading to school. Getting out of bed, I made my way to my ensuite bathroom to start my morning routine and reflected on the night before. I swear I slept for maybe 4 hours last night. The last thing I needed was having to deal with my brother’s unwelcome intrusion, which in hindsight I was semi grateful for because I was way behind schedule. Last night I was too nervous to fall asleep; letting my anxiety get the best of me. I tossed and turned before calling it quits and heading to the medicine cabinet. “There has to be something in here…” I said to myself, keeping my voice low so I wouldn’t wake up the whole house. “Come on, come on… Oh! Bingo!” I exclaimed quietly to myself. Melatonin. I should have started with this. Grabbing two 100mg tablets, I crept back down the hall to my room, careful to avoid the squeaky floorboard outside my brother’s bedroom door. That kid could be the biggest bear if his sleep was interrupted. Making it back to my room, I made my way to my bed and took a swig of water from my glass before setting it back on my night table. As I took the melatonin, I quickly glanced at the clock on my phone dock. 2:30 AM.  “Gah! Crap! s**t, s**t, s**t. Of course, first day tomorrow and I’m going to be walking in like a god damn raccoon with the little amount of sleep I’ll be getting.” I grumbled to myself. With a huff, I climbed into bed and snuggled deep into my plush queen sized bed and numerous pillows. Do NOT get me started on my pillows. I have a problem and I’m not ashamed, a girl can’t have too many pillows. Tossing for what felt like forever, which was probably a total of 5 minutes, I finally succumbed to sleep. ~~~