For the first time in possibly four years, I actually got a fairly peaceful sleep. When I was in high school, I thought this was a rarity because the workload you get makes you want to rip your hair out with Freddy Krueger's glove. The relief of the burdens of high school, whether it be the tests, homework, or the ten page essays which made your heads explode, felt amazing. However, in my life, that was only one negative thing that had been removed.

When I wake up the next morning, the first thing that I notice is the smell of hot breakfast wafting throughout the house. It's like little fairies that fly around everywhere and cast happiness and comfort spells to whomever is there. The comfort of it makes me want to flop back in bed and sleep for the rest of the day. However, I know that I have to go downstairs so that I can finally eat some of the food. The deliciousness of the food is a key indicator that Dom was the mastermind behind this. 

The smell is enough for a smile to bloom on my face, and for excitement to flood me. I sit up, rub my eyes, and run my fingers through my blond locks that are tangled due to bed head. My legs fly out of my bed, and walk over to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I joyfully gallop downstairs so I can enjoy the breakfast that Dominic has taken his time to create. 

When I get downstairs, Dom is there immediately to greet me. "Morning, Nicole. Sleep well?" he asks, with his cheerful, brotherly instinct booming throughout his voice. My head cranes around to see the feast that he has created for me. 

"Yeah, thanks," I plainly say, as he lets out his hearty laugh. The sound of the food idly sizzling is enough to lasso my attention and keep it in place. Drool starts to form in my mouth, which I prevent from falling. 

"Hold on. I'll get your breakfast," he assures, and he prances back into the kitchen to fix my breakfast. I can hear him get out a plate, and gently slide the pancakes onto there. The sharp sound of the syrup bottle opening whips the air, followed by the crumpling of the butter paper and the sound of a butter knife scraping against a slice of toast. While he fixes a hot meal for me, Elena comes in with her cup of coffee, sipping it gently. 

"Morning Nicole. Ah, you're glowing. Trust me, the post-school glow is amazing. You feel so refreshed," she says, while she continues to sip her coffee. 

"Well, that didn't happen for me. I only felt more stressed because you were nagging me to fix your tablet that you somehow screwed up," Dom shoots above the sound of cooking and sizzling. The brotherly aspect is replaced by a playfully insulting tone gripping his voice. Elena rolls her eyes, as Dom rummages through the dishwasher to get what he needs.

Soon enough, Dom hands me my plate, which has all the components that a delicious breakfast should have to fill me up. A small stack of hot, fluffy pancakes, with a square of butter slowly melting into the stream of sweet, sticky maple syrup. A slice of bread toasted to be a pale golden brown color, shiny with the perfect amount of melting butter, and a big cup of hot, steaming coffee, with the strength of it wafting through my nostrils. I resist the urge to drool as I walk back to the table to devour it. 

"I'm not the one that spilled juice all over my homework two hours before it was due," she fires back, like a snake lashing at its prey, as she goes back into the kitchen to refill her coffee cup. Dom scoffs, as he opens the fridge to get milk. 

"Elena, don't deny it. You were the one that knocked over the cup and spilled it all over my English assignment. I still don't have an apology from that." Dom closes the fridge. Elena sets down her coffee cup, and looks at Dom with a death defying look on her face. 

"How about this, Dom? Why don't you take that desired apology, and shove it up your-." Before she can finish, my dad comes wheeling in. 

"Would you like to finish that sentence, Elena?" he asks, as he wheels up to the dining table. Elena's mouth, which was hanging open because of the insult she made to throw at Dom, snaps shut when my dad comes in. 

"Fine. But you're not getting away with this," she sneers at Dom, while he brings food out. "Right. You said the same thing about the Halloween candy," he says, and he sets food in front of my dad and I. My dad takes his fork and knife and digs in to the hot food. 

"Thank you, Dom," he says, before taking a bite of breakfast. "Of course, Dad," he says, as I shove some pancakes into my mouth. Dom continues cooking whatever's left to be made, while we just eat our breakfast in silence. The lack of dialogue makes this a little bit more awkward than it should be. Elena comes over, with a fresh cup of coffee, and sits down. 

"Say, Nicole, are you up for some coffee today, with Lara?" she asks. With a piece of toast in my hand, I perk up immediately, and nod. Excitement sparks inside of me like a firecracker. 

"Yes! Yes, please!" I say, with pancakes in my mouth, as Elena chuckles. 

"Okay, okay, that's good. Be ready at 11, and we can go," Elena assures, as she finishes the last of her coffee. As I finish up my breakfast, I look at her weirdly. 

"Elena, if we're going to go meet for coffee in two hours, why are you drinking coffee right now?" I bring my plate to the sink for washing. Elena puts a hand on her hip and looks at me. 

"Do you want me to go around looking like I pulled three consecutive all nighters for a biology test? Your girl needs her morning caffeine if you don't want to have people running away screaming 'THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE HAS STARTED!' " My dad laughs in the dining room. 

"Elena, you are too sarcastic. I love it," he says, as he continues to consume the breakfast. Dom fans his face a little bit and rubs the back of his neck with his hand. 

"Gosh, that was quite a bit of cooking. Elena, why didn't you help me?" he complains, while taking deep breaths. Elena chuckles, as she places her mug into the dishwasher. 

"Dom, unless you have the fire department on speed dial, then I wouldn't advise that you let me anywhere near anything involving cooking," she states, while Dom walks out of the kitchen. 

"Oh, touche." Dom walks towards the bathroom. Elena and I walk out of the living room and up the stairs. 

"Hey, have you seen Mom anywhere?" I ask as we stride up the stairs. Elena rolls her eyes, while tucking a dark lock behind her ear. Her face has molded from a careless expression to a disgusted sneer, as the thought of our mom creeps up onto her mind. 

"Probably hung over at a friend's house, Nicole. Nothing new. And besides, why do you ask? It's not like she's going to do anything for us anyways," Elena says bitterly, with a face more solid than stone. Her lips purse together out of resent, and she increases her pace in the steps. I race after her as she stomps her way up the stairs. 

"Wow. I'm sorry, Elena, if I got you mad. But I was just curious, that's all." We reach the top of the stairs. Elena stops at the stairs, and turns around. Her icy blue eyes are looking right into mine, and look like they can stab me in the face at any second. 

"I'm not mad at you, Nicole. I just hate her. I hate everything about her." She goes into my bedroom. I follow after her, where she's sitting on my bed, with her arms crossed. Her icy blue eyes are staring at the wall, with a blank look in them, almost as if she's reflecting on everything that's happened within our family. I join her, and snake an arm around her. 

"Look, I'm not her biggest fan either. I know how much damage she did to Dom growing up." Even with my reassurance, Elena still remains stone faced, staring at the wall. Even though her face is solid and expressionless, generally, there's a hint of pure disgust sprinkled into there. It's so subtle, but so noticeable at the same time, like the finishing pinch of salt onto a dish. 

"Let's not talk about it. I'll go get ready for coffee," she says, in a frosty voice, and gets up. She makes her way into the bathroom, to do gosh knows whatever, and instant regret fills me up inside. I let out an exhausted sigh, despite the fact that I've only been awake for about 45 minutes. I flop back on the bed, and I stare at the ceiling, wondering what my life is going to become if this goes on.

********

"Are you ready, Nicole?" Elena asks, as I run my fingers through my blonde hair. My hand rests itself on the lotion bottle, and I push down to squirt some lotion in my other hand. 

"Yeah, almost ready," I tell her, as I rub lotion on my face. The cool lotion gently coats my skin, which is a pleasant contrast to the hot California sun that's enough to burn my hair off. As I do so, Elena leans against the wall, and lets out a big exhale. She acts like she's waiting at the DMV for her driving test that she's been waiting for the past 1 hour to take. 

"Oh, stop being so impatient. I'm not going to take the next 14 years to get myself ready. Chill." I finish moisturizing my face. Elena scoffs, and rolls her eyes. 

"I'm not that impatient. Come on." I walk out of the bathroom. 

"Whatever makes you sleep at night. I'll be in the car." I can hear Elena muttering random curses in Dutch as I make my way out of the house. Before she makes her way downstairs, I spot her keys resting on a table nearby. 

With a smirk on my face, I decide to take them and drop them in my pocket. The keys are the one thing she can't risk losing, because it has the house keys, her car keys, and lots of important things attached. 

"Bye, Dad!" I call, once I hit the bottom floor of my house. 

"Bye, honey! Have fun with Lara!" he calls, as I walk towards the door. I turn the lock, and as I open the door, Elena comes running down frantically, with her head shifting everywhere. She runs through the dining table, pawing at the envelopes and all the cabinets. 

"Has anyone seen my keys? I could've sworn I had them in my hand," she worries, and she races downstairs to look for them in our closet. True fear is blended into her eyes, as she frantically runs around, like someone is chasing her down with a knife in their hand. When she reaches downstairs, I hold up my hand and jingle her keys. 

"Looking for something?" I ask sweetly, as she notices her keys in my hand. Elena exhales huffily, and swipes the keys from my hands. The recent worry is fresh on her face, but is slowly being covered up by annoyance. 

She flings open the door, and as she marches towards the car, she calls, "I seriously hate you sometimes." I can't help but snicker to myself as I follow her to the car.

"Come on, Elena, you love me," I coo, as we get to the car. She rolls her eyes at me. 

"Fine, I do love you. But you do annoy me sometimes," she reassures, and then she stops dead in her tracks. She's like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. The look on her face says, "wait, I think I forgot something." My eyebrow raises, and I turn to look at her in the face. 

"Uh, why do you look like you forgot you had a 13 page essay due last night?" Immediately, Elena dives her hand into her pocket, and pulls out her phone. 

"Are you expecting a call from somebody?" She scrolls through her phone. She scoffs, and shakes her head. 

"No. I'm just checking something. Aaaaand the coffee meeting isn't until next week! Hooray for my horrible coordination skills!" I groan at her sarcastic remark. I was really looking forward to having coffee with my sister and future sister in law, but thanks to Elena's bad planning, I'm not going to be able to do that. I really wanted my white chocolate mocha to sip on while Elena and Lara playfully argue about the proper pronunciation of "Pecan, mayonnaise, Caribbean," and other words that are pronounced very differently amongst the human population. 

"Are you kidding me, Elena? Thanks for getting my hopes up falsely!" I turn around and make my way towards the house. Elena sighs, and she runs to catch up with me. 

"I'm sorry, okay? I had a lot on my calendar considering my work schedule lately, and I marked the wrong day for coffee. Tell you what, I'll make it up to you. Ice cream at Baskin Robbins?" My sweet tooth is sprouting right now, and begging to be nurtured. 

At the mention of ice cream, I stop dead in my tracks. Ice cream does sound amazing, especially in the hot June weather. Elena knows my weakness for ice cream, especially the flavors at Baskin Robbins. The creamy texture, along with the distinct flavors blessing my tongues is something that could be made into an ASMR video. As I start to salivate, I just nod, while Elena chuckles a little bit. "Come on. Let's go," she says, and we get into her car and drive to Baskin Robbins.

"Say, how's your relationship with Roy going?" I ask, as we finally pull up to our house. Elena licks some of her honey almond ice cream off of her lips. 

"It's going great. I really hope that he proposes soon." We get out of the car and start walking towards the house. 

"Elena, I really think that Roy will propose. I mean, he's head over heels in love with you. Do you feel the same way about him?"  I nibble on my Jamoca cone. Elena vigorously nods her head. 

"Absolutely. He's the best thing that happened to me. I wouldn't trade him for anything." We get to the front of the house. 

"Well, that's your answer." Elena twists the doorknob. Surprisingly, it's unlocked, and we both let ourselves in. 

"Weird. I locked it when we left," she says, and before I can reply with an answer, we both hear yelling coming from the living room. The yelling is a mixture of high pitched and shrill and deep and dangerous. We both look at each other with the same look on our faces. 

"Oh no," I mutter under my breath. Elena groans a little bit, and closes the door behind us. The yelling is amplified by a few more times, and it's enough for the whole neighborhood to consider if they should probably call the cops. 

"I should've known," she snarls, before we walk into the mess we are used to dealing with every few days. 

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So, we got a little bit of a taste of Nicole's family. But at the end, it looks like something's not right. What do you think is not right? Let me know in the comments. 

Hey everyone! I hope you guys liked this chapter! It was pretty fun to write, not going to lie. I love writing about her family. 

As always, please vote/comment/share/follow/message if you like my work. See you all in the next chapter!

Love you guys, 

Shree