Whispers At Night.

“Mum, have you seen my bandana?” I shout from the top of the stairs.

“It should be in your top drawer with the rest of them, if not look in the bottom drawer.” I yell a thanks in reply and run back into my room, searching my top drawer first. I find it there, and grab it, moving over to my mirror and placing it around my bright red hair - which I, personally, think is pretty fucking rad - and smile as it sits just as I want.

Instead of going downstairs to wait for whoever it is that’s coming round, I stay standing in front of my mirror and make faces at myself to pass the time. It’s times like these that I wish I had a life. I hear my mum shout my name up the stairs and I stop making faces at myself in the mirror and walk towards my door. “Yeah mum?” I shout back down the stairs from my doorway.

“Hurry up and get downstairs, would you?” She shouts in return and I sigh, leaving my room and shutting the door behind me, heading down the stairs with my cheeks puffed out like a puffer fish - my favourite type of fish, in case you were curious.

“What’s the rush,?” I ask as I walk into the living room, where my parents and older brother, Matt, are sat around doing, well, not much. “None of you are doing much anyway…”

“Stop being cheeky. We want you down here when our guest arrives, okay?” I roll my eyes and nod.

“I don’t see why it’s so important. You never usually make this much fuss when someone comes over.” I complain, throwing myself onto the couch next to Mark. He chuckles at me and pokes me in the side.

“You’ll appreciate it, don’t you worry your pretty little red head, little sis’.” I roll my eyes so that Matt can see that I’m not really that fussed. He just chuckles - again - and pokes me in the side - again. Sometimes I wonder how we usually get along so well; he’s so annoying!

“Who is actually coming over then?” I ask, bringing my legs up to sit cross-legged. My mum turns to my dad and smiles, then looks at Matt and smiles again.

“Mum!” I whine, dragging out the ‘u’, “Why won’t you just tell me who it is? I can’t be that big a secret, surely…” I trail off and place a scowl on my face. Matt rolls his eyes and places his arm around my shoulder, squeezing me lightly and I rest my head on his shoulder, sighing.

~

“Jess! You can’t do that, that’s cheating!” Matt shouts playfully in my direction and I grin at him, placing my last card down on top of the pile.

“You’re just a bad loser, Matt. Get over it - I won.” I grin at him and throw my arms around his neck as he pouts and mumbles something about Uno being a ‘crap game anyway’. I giggle at his childishness and remove my arms from his neck and gather up all the cards and begin to shuffle them. “So, who’s for another game?” I grin and everyone groans.

“Please, no more. I don’t think I can take it anymore. You two are terrible!” Me and Matt both stick our tongues out at mum and jokingly tell her to shut up. She laughs at us and dad wraps an arm around her shoulders and laughs along with her.

I turn to Matt and we grin at each other, then turn to our parents and pull sick faces at them as they act all loved up. But, alas, this just makes them laugh more and I groan, resting my forehead on Mark’s shoulder in mock annoyance. I feel Matt move his arm to take the cards from my hand and place them on the table before he moves his arm around my shoulders and plays with my hair with the other hand. I sigh in content and wish that Ivan was in Matt’s place. Ivan was always the one that stroked my hair and looked after me like this, now Matt does it. He says it’s his way of keeping Ivan here for me. I only wish I could put into words how much I appreciate it. I really do love my brother, no matter how much he annoys me sometimes.

“Hey, you two. We need to clear away these cards.” Mum says softly and Matt nods. I smile lightly and lift my head from his shoulder, gently removing his arm from around my shoulders.

I reach over and grab the pile of cards from the table, placing them on the carpet in front of me and making sure that every card is facing the same way and are all the same way up. I hear the rest of my family chuckle at my OCD and I roll my eyes, “Be quiet you lot, at least I’m tidy in something!” I hear them all laugh again, and my dad mentions something about wishing my room was as tidy as every pack of cards in the house. I giggle and place the cards back into their packet, content that they’re all the same way up and facing the same way.

I stand up and brush the dirt off of my jeans and make my way towards the dining room to put the cards away in the games cupboard. I pass the front door and notice a figure standing outside, about to ring the doorbell. “Mum, there’s someone at the door!” I shout towards the living room and she replies as the doorbell rings. I shrug and open the door, not waiting for her to come and open it.

My eyes open wide and my chest tightens as I open the door and see the figure on the other side, “It’s you.” I scream. They smile sheepishly and I stand there, shocked to infinity and beyond.