“I can’t sleep.”
Billy glanced up from his novel. There stood his little sister at the doorway of his opened room. In her hand, she clutched a grey dolphin stuffed toy that was half her size. Her black hair was messy and damp, with many loose strands sticking out of her head.
The boy sighed. “The monsters again?”
She only nodded, hugging her stuffed dolphin tighter. Billy’s watch dinged, alerting him that it was 10 pm. The girl was supposed to be asleep 2 hours ago.
“Go to your room. I’ll be there in a minute,” he replied, closing his book with a thud. His sister’s footsteps could be heard rapidly leaving the room. He followed soon after placing his book on his bedside table.
Billy could never get used to the sight of his sister’s room. Its walls covered in pastel pink and handmade stuck-on yellow stars were too much colour compared to his own grey walls with a few random sticky-notes and papers of sketches and notes. It was different. Her room had a queen sized bed filled with stuffed animals of every sea creature imaginable. His bed was twin sized, with about 5 navy blue cat-themed pillows. Vastly different. She had a white desk, scattered with art and craft projects and colour pencils. He had a dark grey table which was barely noticeable due to the excessive amounts of novels and textbooks.
…
Indeed, maybe they did share something called untidiness.
“You didn’t dry your hair properly,” he addressed the small bulge that was his sister hiding underneath the bed’s blankets. A chair was promptly pulled out from underneath the white desk.
“Sit down. You can’t go to bed with wet hair, or else you’ll get headaches in the future.”
Low grumblings sounded from the bed as his sister reluctantly crawled out with a pout on her face.
The whirring of the hair dryer was the only sound in the room. Billy tried to gently comb his sister’s tangled black hair with a brush, but all her fidgeting and shifting made it hard for him not to pull on her hair. Soon enough, her whining accompanied the hair dryer’s noises and filled the room.
“I’ll make you pancakes in the morning if you stop moving.”
Her movements stilled and she quietened down. The drying process proceeded smoothly and was finished with ease. Billy put the hair dryer away back into his sister’s bedside drawer while she jumped face flat onto her soft mattress and reburied herself underneath the blanket.
Click.
Billy switched off the lights and was about to leave the room when a whine that screamed ‘don’t leave’ erupted from under the covers. He stopped in his tracks and saw a head slowly emerge from the bundle of sheets.
“The lights?” he asked. A nod in response, and Billy chuckled.
“It’s already dark underneath the blanket, why do you still need it?”
The girl hesitantly pointed her index finger to the bottom of her bed.
“There’s nothing there.”
She didn’t believe him. Not when he looked under it, shone his phone’s flashlight to check, or used a broom to do an entire sweep.
He sighed. “Do you want me to just sit here and wait until you fall asleep?”
Another nod, and he sighed once again, sitting on the same chair she sat on. His sister looked content and proceeded to snuggle back into her covers, facing her brother who was busy scrolling and typing on his phone with a smirk on his face.
“Who are you talking to?”
He looked up. “A friend. Now go back to bed.”
She hummed, and turned over to face her plushies, murmuring something about her day before giving each doll a kiss on its forehead and wishing them good night. Billy chuckled at the sight.
It only took her 10 minutes to fall asleep, evident with her soft snoring. She must’ve been very tired. Her brother carefully got up from the chair and tiptoed to the door, double checking the air conditioning remote to make sure it turned off after a while and switched off the lights, thankful it turned off quietly.
“Good night,” he whispered with a smile.
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