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Post by hazel on Apr 21, 2013 12:59:39 GMT -6
| [atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, opacity:.7, BTABLE][atrb=style,background-image:url(http://i.imgur.com/lYjBq.png); width:100px; padding:20px] ❝ Thin and bare, Stuck in the stiff stare, I wait up in the air, That makes it all fair, We stop and grow and stop and grow, We co-exist, flourished and sun kissed.❞ | [atrb=valign,top][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=border,0,true] There were consequences for everything.
So far, Hazel had gotten away with her brother's confrontation. But what had it been, like a day? A day since she sprained her ankle stupidly. A day since she, in an unexplained manner, brought herself to the hospital. And surely - with the way Auro was - the nurses had giggled to themselves and him about the boy that so dutifully carried her all the way there.
It was a little bit of pure luck (and hiding her crutches in the closet when she slept, and her boot under the blanket) that she'd gone this one day without him knowing. And being eighteen, she was able to take care of all the hospital stuff.
But she had to face up to her day of reckoning.
She went to work today, but didn't really do anything. Hazel couldn't really deliver anything, so what was the point? She was bored, and useless, and decided to go home, even though she knew Auro was waiting. It was about time he said something to her about it, though. It wasn't exactly something she could pout her way out of.
"I'm home!" She said lightly, uncertainly, when she opened the door. |
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Post by terra on Apr 21, 2013 15:08:06 GMT -6
[atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=border,0,true]
[atrb=style, width:100px; background-color:#efefef; padding:7px; padding-right:12px]a that's what the water gave me and time goes quicker between the two of us | [atrb=style, border-left:1px solid #dddddd; background-color:#efefef; padding:5px]Despite how much Aurelio was the kind of guy who relished in the time he spent outdoors, the house he lived in with his sister kept growing dirtier and dirtier as none of them were particularly on the clean side.
Finally he had decided that he couldn't put it off anymore, as the stack of unwashed clothes and mold-growing dishes were beginning to unleash an unpleasant odour through the small house. He didn't own much, but at least there were two bedrooms and a bathroom.
The kitchen had been in the same room as the modest living room, but as soon as they had moved in, Aurelio had had a wall put up so that it was separated. For some reason he didn't like people watching him while he cooked, although all he ever cooked was fish, and he didn't do it a lot. Hazel didn't cook that often either, so they usually bought take-outs, which was probably the reason Aurelio was so broke all the time.
The brunette removed his reading glasses - he had been reading the instructions of some detergents, but still didn't know what to do with it - and sighed. Cleaning was far from easy, and he just didn't know how people could ever do this more than once a month. He wiped the few drops of sweat that had accumulated on his forehead with his wrist and carried on.
As he grabbed the very large container of dirty fabrics, the young man heard his sister enter the front door. He grinned, put the container down, and went to greet her. She had been working hard lately, contributing what she could to the household, and he just wanted to give her a hug.
The moment he rounded the corner out to the outer hallway, the grin disappeared. His precious sister was standing in the doorway - obviously - with crutches. Crutches?! Why was she using crutches? His eyes immediately fell to her feet and there he noticed the special boot she was wearing, protecting what was underneath.
He quickly sprang up to her, grabbing a hold of her shoulders with both his hands, slightly shaking her. "What happened?! What did you do- did someone hurt you? Did you fall down and break your foot- did it happen while you were at work?" He patted down her arms in search of more injuries, but that was more of a panicked state of mind. After all, this was his beloved sister. The girl he had raised by himself since he was fifteen years old, and he absolutely hated the thought that she went out into the world and hurt herself.
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Post by hazel on Apr 21, 2013 16:07:48 GMT -6
| [atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, opacity:.7, BTABLE][atrb=style,background-image:url(http://i.imgur.com/lYjBq.png); width:100px; padding:20px] ❝ Thin and bare, Stuck in the stiff stare, I wait up in the air, That makes it all fair, We stop and grow and stop and grow, We co-exist, flourished and sun kissed.❞ | [atrb=valign,top][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=border,0,true] Before she could even address her brother's questions, Hazel looked around the house a bit dumbfounded. "It's so clean..." she muttered in distraction.
The house wasn't often clean, and Hazel never contributed to it. She could clean, if asked, but she was a mostly disorganized person. She couldn't keep things neat, and definitely couldn't put things where they belonged. Some organized their dressers by clothes: pants in these drawers, shirts here, etc - Hazel just stuffed everything in. That description was applicable for her presence around the Romano household as a whole.
Hazel blinked when he shook her, balanced on her foot without the boot, and grabbed his face between her hands as he began to pat her down. "Calm down," she muttered, eyebrows knotted. "I sprained my ankle. It'll be better in like a month." She took a breath, but kept her palms on either side of Auro's face so he wouldn't freak out again.
It was true; in a few weeks she probably wouldn't need the crutches, and she already had a walking boot on. She would just have to get better at her coordination. Oh, but there was physical therapy... that couldn't be too bad, could it? Suddenly, she was dreading something she hadn't even noticed.
Oh wait, the situation at hand - her brother's face was still between her hands. "I was working, yeah, I tripped stepping off a curb by one of the older houses. It's okay though, Sal-" Dammit, Hazel, you were trying to avoid that. "Uh, someone brought me to the hospital and it was all sorted out and fine and stuff." Hazel didn't always have the most clipped and coordinated speech, but she definitely didn't use ands and stuffs like that. |
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Post by terra on Apr 22, 2013 13:00:39 GMT -6
[atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=border,0,true]
[atrb=style, width:100px; background-color:#efefef; padding:7px; padding-right:12px]a that's what the water gave me and time goes quicker between the two of us | [atrb=style, border-left:1px solid #dddddd; background-color:#efefef; padding:5px]He didn't even register her comment on the cleanliness of the place, as he made absolute sure she was hurt no other place on her body. To spectators it might have looked inappropriate, but Aurelio had no inhibitions when it came to his sister's health.
"Good, you seem alright -" His face was caught between Hazel's hands, making him unable to continue his freaking out.
"Wait, you sprained it? .. A month?!" The words came out shuffled and uncontrolled, but then again Aurelio was never known for his eloquent speech.
Ah, why had this happened? His beloved sister, hurt like this. It might not have been a big deal to any other brothers when it came to their sisters, but the twenty-two year old still felt accountable for her, despite how she was eighteen and could handle herself well enough. He would always be there for her, if it was up to him.
"How are you going to do your work with a sprained ankle - no, you're just gonna have to quit for a month, yeah, I don't want you running around like that, you could hurt yourself even more and then what would I do."
What would he do without her, was what he was thinking. Not that it would come to that, but the thought of losing his sister was far too much for him, so he was just not going to think about it. Positive thoughts, Aurelio!
He was relieved when she started explaining what had happened - he didn't even bother with the fact that she was still holding his face between her hands - and was about to let it go when he heard something suspicious.
Sal? Who was that? Had he done this to her? Had Sal hurt his Hazel?
Wait, now she was becoming unclear. Someone? It didn't come as a surprise to him that she had gone to the hospital, but it made him angry that this Sal had brought her there and not back home, explaining himself.
"Did this Sal do this to you?" he asked. Was she starting to hang out with the wrong crowd? Oh no, what if she was turning into a hoodlum, what would he do? Ah, he knew she was going to rebel against him some day, but why? And here he thought he was doing his job as an older brother good enough. "Who is he? How old is he? I should speak harshly to him for not apologising to us!" 'Us' being him, because he thought he deserved some decent explanation, even though he wasn't the one who was hurt.
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Post by hazel on Apr 23, 2013 11:21:15 GMT -6
| [atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, opacity:.7, BTABLE][atrb=style,background-image:url(http://i.imgur.com/lYjBq.png); width:100px; padding:20px] ❝ Thin and bare, Stuck in the stiff stare, I wait up in the air, That makes it all fair, We stop and grow and stop and grow, We co-exist, flourished and sun kissed.❞ | [atrb=valign,top][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=border,0,true] Auro was right in that Hazel wouldn't work; she couldn't do anything much at her job like this, and it was borin to just sit around. To boot, she felt awful racking up money staring into space. It gave her a guilty and dirty feeling. So he was right, but only on that front.
"Salem," she said with a huff, because although he said that Hazel could call him Sal, she didn't feel comfortable giving Aurelio the same permission. Not to mention she had been trying to say his whole name. She just stopped herself in time. Hazel let go of his face, but her voice was stern and her eyes remained so, too. She had to keep some kind of check on her brother, right? He may be the one who raised her but, honestly, what would he do without her?
Hazel didn't like lying to her brother, but at this point she would have if she could get away with it. She couldn't though - lying to Auro, at any point in her life, was impossible. They were too close, he knew her too well. She was an awful liar, on top of that. He deserved the truth in this situation.
It wasn't like she'd done anything wrong; she just knew he was going to blow everything completely out of proportion.
Hazel's eyes were half-lidded, and she sighed her resignation. All this while, he rambled excitedly. "Salem," she repeated again, the punctuation to her submission. "He's nineteen, okay?" Auro really needed to calm down. "He doesn't owe you an apology! He helped me, he didn't hurt me," she put emphasis there.
Then she sort of put her palms out, but she didn't know what she was offering. Maybe the opportunity for more questions, because Hazel didn't know what to tell him. |
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Post by terra on Apr 23, 2013 12:25:05 GMT -6
[atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=border,0,true]
[atrb=style, width:100px; background-color:#efefef; padding:7px; padding-right:12px]a that's what the water gave me and time goes quicker between the two of us | [atrb=style, border-left:1px solid #dddddd; background-color:#efefef; padding:5px]"Wait," he said, freaking a little less now, "this .. Salem," he emphasized the whole name as she had done. It was obviously a thing, he wasn't sure, but he didn't want to upset her any more than he had already. Then again, he was the one upset! She had gone and sprained her ankle, and not even telling him! Why hadn't she called him from the hospital to come pick her up? How did she even get home? All these questions buzzed in his mind, and he probably looked like he was super confused.
"- nineteen year old Salem -" At least he wasn't older.
He had already calmed down, but he was starting to feel hurt that she hadn't come to him about this. Where was the little girl who come crying to him when she had suddenly grown a second pair of ears? The memory was fresh in his mind, and he hung his head out of dispiritedness.
"He didn't hurt you?" His eyes peeked down at her from under his bangs, pouting. A sudden feeling of relief welled over him and he put his arms around her in a warm hug, his face already released from her constraint. He was about to start crying, but instead sniffed silently and wiped his wrist over his eyes.
Aurelio didn't expect to become this incoherent, but sometimes he just became a whole other person. He wasn't even sure what he would do now. Would he meet the boy who helped his sister? He supposed he should thank him, but whether or not he would accept him was another thing. Hazel was becoming of the age where she would fall in love and act crazy, he guessed, so he should act the adult and be the bigger man. At least until he got to talk to the boy.
"I'm sorry, Aze," he said, still holding her in his embrace. "I just got worried seeing you like this. You know you can talk to me about anything, right?" And he knew in his heart that she would never be two-faced with him, let alone leave him hanging. For some reason, though, she was the only one he felt like he could be this close to. He was wondering if he should be jealous with another boy in his sister's life. "You're all I have."
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Post by hazel on Apr 24, 2013 8:46:45 GMT -6
| [atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, opacity:.7, BTABLE][atrb=style,background-image:url(http://i.imgur.com/lYjBq.png); width:100px; padding:20px] ❝ Thin and bare, Stuck in the stiff stare, I wait up in the air, That makes it all fair, We stop and grow and stop and grow, We co-exist, flourished and sun kissed.❞ | [atrb=valign,top][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=border,0,true] Auro's hug was a familiar constant for Hazel.
He was warm and encompassing and when she was younger, she felt like she was hugging a skinnier version of Santa Claus; he was jolly and good-natured. She could melt into his hugs countless times. If her ice cream had melted off its cone, Aurelio would pick her up and swing her around and suddenly it wasn't so bad. Bruised knees were accompanied with kisses and coddles, and sometimes the hugs worked both ways.
Sometimes Hazel was her brother's life vest. Sometimes his hugs felt more like desperate grabs for solidity than they did a comfort. When things were too awful and traumatic for an eleven year old to understand, he clutched her and cried and Hazel learned to do the simplest, most important thing. She was just there, and she was his.
Really, what would he do without her?
She smiled and wrapped her arms around him, too. Hazel hugged him tightly, tight enough to really squeeze him because it made her giggle a little. "I know," Hazel replied to all his questions, and her voice sounded deep and wide beyond her years. They both knew that she knew; Hazel was well aware of what she meant to Auro and vice versa. She would never lie to him, and she would do everything in her power to keep him safe.
Even if she was her little sister.
Hazel pulled away, and went to work on damage control. "See, everything is okay. I'm gonna see him soon, and I'll ask him to meet you, okay?" She smiled sweetly to soften the blow but it was a blow all the same.
Hazel liked Salem, and he had her attention.
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Post by terra on Apr 28, 2013 9:33:43 GMT -6
[atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=border,0,true]
[atrb=style, width:100px; background-color:#efefef; padding:7px; padding-right:12px]a that's what the water gave me and time goes quicker between the two of us | [atrb=style, border-left:1px solid #dddddd; background-color:#efefef; padding:5px]She was his foundation he could call home, when both of their parents were gone. She was his shining light in the darkness. Even though that darkness was shrouded in overcompensating their loss.
He loved how understanding she was, but maybe it was just to be expected. Aurelio never took anything for granted, however, because how could he? One day all the reasons for his happiness could be taken away from him, just like back then.
"Thanks," he said when she pulled away. Right now she was the stronger person, even though he was supposed to be. Being the oldest and all that.
It was weird, though. Sometimes Hazel acted like she was the eldest, being responsible and what not, but she wasn't being responsible now. Even though his judgement was clouded by fear of losing her, he was still afraid that the boy she talked about was going to take her heart and crush it. And he couldn't have any of that, because he would protect her. He would protect her to the end of the world.
That was why when she told him she'd ask Salem to meet him, Aurelio didn't object. He'd see the nineteen year old who had helped his sister without the courtesy of even bringing her home. He'd see him and tell him to stay out of her life, unless there was some other significant reason to not.
"Okay, Aze." He wasn't sure if she wanted to ask him over here, because their house was tiny and poor, and reflected their economy more than well. "I'll meet him." But he didn't promise to accept him.
FIN.
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