A Knock on the Door

"Brielle, wake your lazy ass up!" Brielle moaned as she received several hits from whoever the demon she thought was waking her up early in the morning.

Brielle reached the ends of her blanket and covered her entire body in the pursuit of suppressing the annoying person waking her up. Opposite to what she is expecting, the person unknown to her pulled her blanket away while she struggled to pull it back.

Brielle aggressively got up on her bed with a fire burning in her eyes, with gritting teeth she asked, "What is seriously wrong with you? Why are you waking me up early in the morning?! Can't you see it is still dark outside?! The sun has not even gotten up yet so why the heck wake a miserable person like me this early?!" She growled at the top of her lungs, the veins in her throat popped out as she screamed while motioning her hands back and forth up in the air like some sort of an air puppet outside malls that had just been opened.

Her reflexes failed her when a huge and hard pillow hit her face as her annoying older sister, Cristina, threw it with brute force. "It is dark outside because of your dark curtains, idiot! You better get yourself together or I will beat you up! Wake up! Don't waste your life over that ugly asshole!" Cristina belted out, the veins on her neck are throbbing.

'She is letting her barbaric self take over her once again' Brielle clenched her fist until her knuckles turned white and inhaled deeply as she prepared for a counterattack.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, CRISTINA?!" That was not a question, it was a downright insult and she hopes her dumb sister gets it.

Brielle hates it to the core when people wake her up early. She has been in a tough spot these past few days and sleeping was her way of coping. Nobody messes with her when she is asleep, nobody could and should.

Cristina, one of the people with the bravest soul residing here in their house, was summoned by their mother to wake Brielle up. Nobody dares to wake her up because doing so is just like throwing yourself in the den of starved and famished lions.

Cristina stared at Brielle dead in the eyes which made her recoil, "It is already freaking six in the evening, you little piece of-…" She stopped midway before cursing the heck out of Brielle.

She hung her head low and threw the pillow she was holding in the other hand back on the bed and breathed out, "Mom wants you down, Brielle." She then stormed out of her room and loudly closed the door making pieces of cement from the ceiling fall down to the floor.

'Look at that woman with some nasty temper. I wonder where she got that from,' Brielle thought to herself.

Brielle crawled back to her bed with no plans of going down for dinner. This has become her daily routine for the past few weeks since her long-time boyfriend cheated on her with someone he just met online.

She wrinkled her nose at the sight of herself in the mirror. Melted black mascara ran down her eyes and left black tear stains on her cheeks. Her hair has become so messy someone would mistake it for a bird's nest or even worse.

She quickly searched for her phone to see if Jason, her ex-boyfriend, texted her and apologized because she was more than willing to accept him back even if he did her so badly. Brielle withered to see the picture on her lock screen, it is her and Jason kissing when he won an inter school basketball competition last month.

Brielle was there to cheer him up for all of his major basketball games and practices but all he did in return was to get caught torridly kissing a girl whom he chatted on Omegle who turned out to be going to the same school as theirs. What are the odds?

'What an idiot, the last thing he could do for me was not to get caught,' Brielle's shoulders shuddered as she started sobbing once again as if everything happened just yesterday. Good thing this all happened during summer because she cannot imagine herself going to school every day and seeing her ex-boyfriend with another girl.

She reached for a box of tissues and pulled several plies to sneeze and wipe her black tears. While she was on drama, two knocks resounded from the door of her room making her immediately lay down and cover herself up with the blanket to hide her melodramatic state.

"My dear," Her mother's soothing voice somehow appeased her. She sat down on the edge of Brielle's bed after putting a tray of food on her study table. This has become their daily routine, her mother would bring food to her room upstairs because ever since she broke up with Jason, she sort of lost the will to go on with life.

Her mother gently caressed the back of Brielle's head and wistfully stared at her daughter. She was used to her being bubbly and mischievous but everything sort of changed since she caught her boyfriend cheating. Their mother wonders when she will get her life back.

"Darling, we will be leaving. I will drop Cali off at your grandparents house and Cristina will be going to her summer job. I prepared some food for you downstairs for lunch so please come down if you are feeling better, alright?" Her mother sighed deeply as she looked at her daughter one more time before leaving.

Their mother has always been like this, soft and loving towards her children. She tries to make them feel happy as much as she can, especially because their father is not with them anymore as they have divorced a few years ago.

Her boyfriend's cheating was like rubbing salt and pouring alcohol into a fresh wound. The fresh wound was that her father cheated on her Mom with a girl younger than her.

It was one of the few reasons why Brielle has been extremely dispirited. She heard her Mom's footsteps going down the stairs and a few minutes later, she heard their car go off the driveway. Now is the time for her to eat, her stomach has been endlessly protesting since earlier.

She went down to the dining room with the food tray on hand. Brielle thought it would be better for her to start resuming her postponed life. At the stages of grief, she is now in anger. She thought how fortunate it is for Jason to continue living his life while she is miserable in the four corners of her room.

'Mom is really a good cook. There is nothing she cooks that fails to make me feel better,' Brielle scoffed as she shoved a spoonful of rice into her mouth.

Brielle was peacefully eating her breakfast downstairs when the doorbell rang.

She tilted her head and asked herself, 'Who may it be? Maybe mail?' She decided to ignore it and continue eating her meal but the doorbell rang once again this time, twice.

Sensing that it may be an urgent and important mail, she unwillingly stood up and walked a few strides to the door. She did not bother to look at the peephole because it is usually the mailman that delivers something at this hour.

Not bothering to think how ugly she looks today, her extremely frizzy hair, mascara-stained eyes, and dark circles under her eyes. In short, she looks like a personification of the word 'mess'.

She unwittingly twisted the doorknob and pulled the door open. A fine young man greeted her with a grin from ear to ear with his arms spread wide hoping for a hug. He is wearing a light blue button-down shirt and khaki trousers that fit him perfectly.

This man looks like someone straight from Greek Mythology. Brielle could already imagine the ripped abs under his clothing. For the first time in two weeks, this man made Brielle conscious of her appearance all of a sudden. But sadly, she does not know him.

Brielle scratched the back of her head, "I'm sorry. It seems that you found the wrong house. Bye-…" She pushed the door close but before she even got to completely close the door, the man placed his toned arm in between. 'It must have hurt!' She mentally screamed to herself and panicked.

"Brielle, it's me! Your childhood friend, Liam! I can't believe you forgot me!" He pleaded, desperation and happiness thick in his voice.

All she could ask for right now is for the ground to open up and swallow her whole alive.

'Liam? Since when did he become so hot like this?' She asked herself, trying to recall how skinny and boney he was since the last time they met when he flew to South Korea to study six years ago.

'Of all times, why must he see me in this ugly state?! Please send help!' Brielle stood erect like a plank on the ground, eyes widened and jaw-dropping.