I watched as my body distorted under me.

The sun shone brightly through the oily leaves of a forest of palms - lifting to the sky as the wind shuffled through - on the glassy textures around me. My hair was slicked back out of a surface-breaking habit. The ripple textures were influenced deeply by the shallow breeze, an answer to a labourer's prayer against the scorching heat of Liken's climate. I closed my eyes and plunged away from the damp air and let the water swallow me until my torso skimmed the smooth tiles of the pools limit. A hand grazed the silky-smooth tiles, feeling every nick and chip as if it were my own flaw. The sudden familiarity of the rough concrete beneath the tiling brought me to let out a little too much air, and - struggling not to take a breath until I did - I reached the surface with a gasp.

That was when I was thankful to be alone.

At least I thought I was alone.

"You okay there? Seem a little rusty coming back for air." With a quick look at my thigh, Roude burst out laughing. I heard the thick laugh before I saw Creed's head of hair pull up from the stairs. "Callie, maybe you should try following doc's orders and not swim with your leg on?"

"Why can't you just call him dad like the rest of us, Roo?" I replied, ignoring both jabs at my leg.

"Because he's so cool!" Creed added, sarcastically.

I finally reached the edge of the pool and hopped out, shaking the water from my leg.
My eyes lazily slunk over Creed where he was struggling to sit without ripping his stitches, imagining the pain radiating off him in waves. He winced as he leaned forward, looking twice his age.

He coughed roughly.

Make that four times his age.

At a young age of eighteen, Creed had been shot twice, stabbed once, and 3 bones broken over the span of two years.

Ever since mother had publicly suggested for Creed to run for prime minister, his health has taken a toll. It was beginning to seem less and less worth it every day.

Roude sat with a thump next to my brother, both of them nearly identical. Creed had a few more years on him, but the two shared the light, hazel eyes, toned and tanned olive skin, and the dark brown-red locks that hung from their dough-filled heads. And while Creed's waves reminded me of warm winter embers, Roude's were more like a raging inferno covered by the shadow of night. And even with their constant changing sides, bickering and over-protectiveness, I managed to strongly dislike them both. What a surprise.

My towel hung from the railing that separates us from the overwhelming view around us, and I had just begun to reach for it when the mean brother who wasn't really my brother dragged it from my reach.

I simply ignored him and kept walking towards the stairs.

"Leaving so soon, Cal?" I hated the way Roude said my nickname, as if he were spitting his gum onto the sidewalk of the chum towns. I realized I had stopped walking.

"Yep," I replied, letting it sink in, before taking the next four stairs down in two easy steps.

"Oooh, what's this?" He cooed after me.

My steps didn't falter. Thank god they didn't.

"Hmmm," he continued.

"Roude, stop it. That's not yours..." Creed uselessly mumbled. Over-protectively, I might add.

Either way, my legs slowed beneath me, caution and curiosity boiling from the pool where they sat.

"Dangerous..." Roude mumbled. The word struck a hidden familiarity, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"Wow, do we really annoy you that much?"

It hit me. I turned around to clamber up the steps with rage stomping as my shadow.
"Roude, I swear to god..."

"You're going to go back?" Roude cried, acting hurt.

"Give it back."

"You seriously don't appreciate how much we've done for you?" He continued. "After everything we've done..."

"Roude, give it back. It's not yours," Creed was drowned out by Roude's disappointment. Or was it anger?

"Roude, seriously, I'm gonna kill you!"

"You would go back to that sorry excuse of a town, where those stupid people are literally killing each other due to 'laws'?"

"Roude!" I screeched. He just tried a different angle.

"You seriously think they would accept you?"

"Don't you dare tell anyone, or I'll tell them about your affair," I burst, and took the diary from his hands.

Well that was dramatic.

~~~~
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