The Entanglement

I'm jarred awake by the sound of the blaring alarm clock on my nightstand. Glancing at the time, I see it's 7 AM.

"Piece of junk," I mutter angrily to myself, staring at the alarm clock for some time before hitting it to stop the ringing.

I lay back down on my bed, pulling the covers over my head. I gaze into the darkness in silence, mustering the energy to fully rise up. The creak of my door opening snaps me back to reality.

"Still sleeping?" my mother's voice fills the room as she walks in.

She moves swiftly towards my window and draws open the curtains, then immediately pulls the covers away from my face.

"Ugh! Mom!" I groan, squeezing my eyes shut as the bright morning light from the window pierces through them.

"Get up, Ava!" she commanded. "It's time to head to the grocery store. We're out of almond milk and your father needs his milk," she announces, gathering the pile of clothes from the sofa in my room and tossing them into the laundry basket she came in with.

"Ava!!" my mother snaps, already impatient from observing my usual routine before I get up.

"Jeez, Mom! Give me a break!" I cry out in frustration before storming off to the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind me.

"5 minutes, Ava," she says as she closes the door to my room.

My mother never failed to remind me how I had always been a sluggish riser and a grumpy person every morning, consistently pointing out how it was always a struggle to get me out of bed, from my preschool days, down to my kindergarten days, even through high school.

"You always made your brother go late to school, crying all the way," she always said.

"One time, you cried all morning while we prepared for school and you ended up sleeping all through class, eventually peeing your pants," she never failed to chip this part in, causing Ethan to burst into a silly loud laughter every time. Pfft. So annoying.

**********

After every morning shower, I find myself feeling more energized. I swiftly dress in my regular oversized joggers and a sports bra, observing my features in the full-length mirror propped in the corner of my room. Standing 5'9 tall, slender shoulders, toned arms, slim waist, well pronounced curves in my hips and thighs, long straight legs. I definitely possessed supermodel qualities. Tanya often teased me about this, saying I could be a model on the cover of various fitness magazines but I couldn't care less, I had never been one to wear outfits that revealed my body shape even though I had a well defined physique.

Coming down the stairs, I could hear my mother's familiar nagging from the kitchen.

"She's always late. Always late!," she complains as I walk into the kitchen.

"Good morning peeps!" I greet aloud, ignoring the side remarks from my mother and reaching for a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

"Sleepy head", Ethan teases with a silly grin on his face, setting down his coffee mug on the kitchen counter.

"Jerk face!"

"Always late!"

"Fish brain!"

"You two that's enough!", my mother cuts in. "You're late for school, you're supposed to have been at the grocery store thirty minutes ago. Leave my kitchen now!", she scolds us, pointing towards the door.

"Quit nagging, Bernice!" my father finally intervenes from where he was seated at the dining room table, probably tired from his wife's daily habit. "I'm trying to get this word right and you keep distracting me", he continued as he scribbled something down with a pencil. Crosswords. He was filling crosswords. My father never skipped his "brain teaser" like he calls it every morning. He always said it was his little challenge to keep his brain active the whole day.

"Quit nagging?? You tell me what you do to help out in the mornings apart from filling those irrelevant crosswords", my mother bursts out, standing upright and folding her arms. "Why don't I just move out for y'all since I've been tagged a nagging old woman".

I notice Ethan silently mouthing these words along with her as she speaks. My mother often says this to guilt trip my father whenever he snaps at her. It's more like a familiar routine at this point and my father apologizes right away.

"Oh c'mon sweetcake, now don't be angry", he says as he stands up from his chair and moves towards my mother, bringing her into an embrace, her head resting against his broad chest. "You know I wouldn't survive a day without you, my honey bunny."

"Cringe", Ethan says with a shrug, slipping on a leather jacket swiftly and heading towards the door.

Without another word, I pick up the grocery list laying on the counter and duck out of the kitchen, following right behind Ethan. He notices I'm rushing towards him and quickens his pace. The car keys. I needed to get to it before him but he's faster and grabs it from the bowl of keys on the side stool by the door. I curse him under my breath for having longer legs than mine.

"Not so fast, are you?," he teases, laughing as we walk out the door, the keys dangling from his finger.

"You really are such a big jerk, Ethan", I say with a frown on my face.

"You're going grocery shopping, Ava. Just take the bicycle like you usually do. It's really not

a big deal."

"Why don't you take the bicycle today then, if it's really not a big deal, you shit face!"

I was visibly fuming at this point. The smile on his face only fueled my anger, causing me to clench my fist tightly. He had the habit of pushing me to the point where I wanted to punch him hard in the face. The car had been handed down to me by my mother when I started college, and now I had to tolerate sharing it with Ethan ever since he learned to drive.

"You know what? I'll offer to drop you off at the supermarket since you wanna use the car so bad."

"Screw you, Ethan!"

"Mind you, sis, a lot of girls are waiting in line just to screw me," Ethan boasts, his face beaming with pride.

The anger on my face slowly turns into a mix of surprise and shock upon hearing his statement. I knew my brother was mischievous but I wasn't ready to come to terms with the fact that my nineteen year old little brother could now utter such words to my face. The revelation that girls were now hovering around him wasn't entirely surprising because even I couldn't deny the fact that he was a handsome young man. His height, fair skin, ocean blue eyes and long brown hair, which he often styled into six cornrows definitely contributed to what attracts the girls. Being the captain of his basketball team probably added to his appeal. He also took his athletic lifestyle seriously, never missing early morning workout sessions with our dad.

He goes forward to open the passenger side of the car, gesturing with his hands for me to enter and take a seat. Seeing I wasn't moving, he leans against the body of the car, folding his arms and crossing his legs.

"What if I go tell Mum and Dad right now that you're screwing girls already," I threaten.

"Prove it!"

"Well you just said it to my face, out here on the porch."

"Who said what?"

"Oh you little crook," I say, amazed by his swift act of feigned ignorance.

A message pops up on his phone. He looks through it and immediately rushes to the driver's seat.

"Apparently, my people need me sis. See you later. Don't miss me too much, aight?" he says with the usual grin on his face as he starts the car engine and drives off, blasting The Weeknd's "Starboy."

Letting out a heavy sigh, I make my way to the garage and roll out my bicycle. It was a big shiny bicycle with red and brown stripes and a wicker basket on the handlebars. I hop on and ride into town, heading towards the grocery store.