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"Wake up." Taji said as he stood next to Aster's bed. Aster, still unfazed by his brother's words, slept peacefully.
"Dude, wake up!" He lightly shook his brother.
"Ugh, give me one more minute, Mom," Aster slapped his brother's hand away and fell right back into deep sleep.
"It's your brother, Taji," he corrected him.
This was not unusual. This happened every, damn, day since Aster didn't flinch at alarms, even the ones that woke up the whole neighborhood. And his poor brother was forced by their parents, who he never said no to, even for his own good, to wake him every day.
Today was a bit harder because Taji had to wake him up at 5 in the morning.
Taji shook him once again.
Aster, in a sleepy tone, said, "Piss off, fuckwart."
"Why the hell are you waking me up at 5 a.m.? Don't you see this man needs some beauty sleep? I mean, c'mon, where do you think all this beauty comes from?"
"Very nice, Aster, very nice, but the reason I'm waking you up this early is because you need to start packing up... you know, for summer camp."
Aster jumped immediately after hearing that. "WHAT?? TODAY? Nobody told me about this. What the hell. I'm not ready, Taji, I'm not ready for this!!"
"Maybe because you ran upstairs before Dad could tell you? I was also going to try to tell you, but we ended up fighting before I could." The younger brother seemed sad just thinking about the previous night.
"Can you blame me, Taj? If I didn't go back into my room, I would've exploded and made things only worse," he sighed. "So how much time do I have till the bus or whatever comes to pick me up?"
Taji checked his watch before answering. "About two hours."
"You gotta be kidding me," Aster thought to himself while rubbing his tired eyes. "I have to brush my teeth, fix my hair, get dressed, eat breakfast AND pack in two hours."
That was truly a hassle for him since he took about ten minutes to pick what to wear and yet always ended up wearing the same stuff: a baggy McDonald's t-shirt, old cargo pants from his dad, and his 4-year-old shoes. It's surprising how he still fits in them; I guess his feet just didn't grow at all through puberty.
"Are you going to help me? It's pretty obvious I can't handle packing all by myself in such a short time." He asked his brother.
"I'm sorry, you're alone on this. I need to go to the library and return some books," Taji replied, looking a little guilty.
"Advice: read e-books, dude. Stop wasting your time going to a library that's like 40 minutes away."
Taji rolled his eyes and turned to face the door. "Have fun packing!" And then he left.
"Bastard!" Aster yelled moments after his brother left. "Ugh, great. Now I have to pull my shit together and get ready for this stupid camp all by myself," the boy said to himself.
And he just remembered that he had to make breakfast on his own since his parents were still sleeping. His mother didn't really work, which Aster didn't like at all since he had to make great efforts to avoid her and her whining. Luckily, his dad actually had a job; it's just that his working hours are a bit later than normal.
Aster wasn't his mother, after all, so he couldn't make anything fancy. Settling down for toast with blueberry jam was truly his favorite flavor. You could give him anything, even like a turd, and tell him it tastes like blueberries, and he would eat it.
It took him around 15 minutes to finish as a result of his mindless scrolling on his phone. As much as he didn't care about what his parents thought of him, he did try to be helpful once in a while, so he washed the dirty dish where he made his meal. Then he went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth as fast as he could, and ruffled up his dark black hair. "I should probably cut it soon," the young boy thought, although he knew he wouldn't do it for probably the next few months.
1 hour and 40 minutes left.
He wasn't as worried as he had been originally. He could truly take his time with how much was left.
Until...
He realized he couldn't find his dang shirt. HIS MCDONALD'S SHIRT. The wardrobe was a mess as a result of him rifling through every piece of clothing he owned. Fuck, now he had more things to do: find his shirt, get dressed, pack up, AND clean the wardrobe, or his mom would go nuts. He's not doing it because he cares about how his mother feels, obviously; he's just grown tired of her constant nagging.
He tried to look for it for 2 more minutes until giving up. "Welp, great, now I have to choose something else to wear!" he whined to himself.
10 minutes later, plus the additional 15 minutes of cleaning the mess he made, he was finally ready for the next step: packing.
He was pretty aware that he was basically incapable of doing this without the help of one of his parents or brother. He was truly a mess, so he didn't know how to organize for shit.
So... he gave his brother a call.
The phone rang for about 30 seconds before Taji picked up.
"Uh... what is it, Aster?"
"CAN YOU HELP ME WITH MAKING A LIST OF WHAT I NEED FOR THE CAMP?" The older brother screamed into the phone, causing Taji to lower his volume.
"Well, I would love to help... but, uhm... I kind of don't have the time," Taji answered nervously.
Aster, confused, asked, "What? Why? What are you even doing right now?"
"Uhm, I uhm..." Taji tried to answer but failed miserably.
Aster knew something was up, something that his brother didn't want anyone to know, but as much as he was curious, he didn't have time.
For once, Aster was being responsible. Good job!
"Okay then, Taj. Have fun with whatever you're doing. Uh, I'll figure something out." And then he hung up the phone.
As he was getting started to attempt at writing a list of what he needed, his phone lit up with a message. It was from Taj, obviously. Aster didn't exactly have any friends who would text him. Anyway, the message was just a link—a link that was basically a list of the things you need for summer camp.
"Dork," Aster insulted his brother in his head with a smile on his face.
As much as he despised his brother for all the favoritism, he still loved him a lot, especially at this moment. Although he did not understand why he would take the time to find a website and send him the link to it because clearly his younger brother was busy. "Eh, I guess it's easier than listing everything on a call," Aster tried to reason with it.
After 30 painful minutes of finding everything he needed and putting it all in a big duffel bag, he was finally ready to go.
With 1 hour and 5 minutes left, all he did was laze around and watch TV. And with those last 5 minutes, he waited at a bus stop near his house for the bus to come and pick him up.
When it arrived, it gave Aster a panic attack because it was big and packed with so many kids. Truly a terrifying sight for Aster; he's not the best with people, well, except his dear brother.
He took a big gulp of air and exhaled anxiously.
"It's going to be okay, Aster. You can do it. It's just people. It's not like anyone is going to talk to you. You're just so gorgeous people see you as intimidating," he reassured himself before stepping into the bus.
He quietly walked to the back where there were barely any people because all of them—well, most of them—were sitting close to some guy... or girl; Aster couldn't really tell from how swarmed this person was. The boy rolled his eyes and put his headphones on to listen to music, full blast because he did not want to hear the loud chatter coming from the front.
And eventually, he fell asleep with his headphones still blasting loud metal music into his ears. Ouch, I don't even want to know how he managed to fall asleep listening to that.
Writers' note:
A chapter will be uploaded once a week , although there is no specific day in my uploading schedule.
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