A Pleasant Summer

I was running... Running away from sentient trees that rumble the very ground.

It seems weird that even when I am exhausting my body, I feel relaxed—Like I'm in a

bed full of pillows. "Why the hell does the forest smell like fucking bacon!!"

I couldn't help but yell out my frustration due to the trees....?

They somehow looks like pigs with leaves as hair now. They had curling wood as their tusks, and their lush 'furs' glowing vibrantly under the pinkish sunset sky.

They even look so fluffy! Oh, how I wish I could cuddle these beasts! I held myself back, of course, lest I risk myself being pig food.

But everything seems... amiss, everything is in a veil of mist that somehow makes my mind go nu—

"BEVERLY!!"

My eyes snapped open, taking in the common beige ceiling of my current room.

"urgh... has that always been there?" I winced at the sight of my brother's picture plastered on the ceiling.

"Hey Bevie, I've been calling you forever! Mom told me you sleep a lot, but I did not think it was this much!" He barged inside, almost destroying the white wooden door in the process.

I stared at my brother's stupidly smooth face for a few seconds until I realized that I had been dreaming all this time.

'W-wait, so there are no dragons and flying people?'

"I know I have a pretty admirable face, but you really shouldn't stare that much, it creeps me out."

I felt my face twitch, "What do you want? it's way too early." I said in a groggy voice while secretly glancing at the window and seeing the sun high up in the sky.

"10:56 am isn't exactly defined as early," he remarked haughtily while holding up his wrist—that has no watch, mind you—with his eyebrows raised.

This sight never fails to annoy me.

My room is a mess of scattered bean bags the size of a small office chair, and a bunch of blueprints sketches that look a bit like a lampshade—although it has a crystal-like rock as the base—lying on the floor.

My bed is a plain gray memory foam with an unnecessary number of pillows stacked on each other.

Getting ready to punch this guy, I straightened my back, raised my chin, and with my chest booming with pride, I asked "Bacon with Ramsay-style scrambled eggs on top of medium- toasted sourdough bread?"

With a face that seems to be tired of the world, he just went back to the kitchen.

"Tch, I'm feeling nostalgic all of a sudden."

"What's that?" I asked still in my morning voice, not understanding his mumble.

"Nothing, go eat breakfast. If you can even call it breakfast at this point."

I just stayed silent since I'm still trying to relieve some parts of my dream, it was so good that I just want to experience it again.

And I know I'm not the only one who does this, most of you do it too! Hmph! Hmph!

Anyway... as I'm eating my breakfast, I caught a glimpse of my brother drinking a cup of his 'fancy' coffee. Well, fancy for most people, not for him though, he's a professional barista after all.

It's currently the month of June which means—yes, summer vacation! I just got off school yesterday and my brother picked me up; I'm currently staying at his place.

"Kolin, can you also make me a cup? A flat white, please. Oh! And add some white chocolate. I also want it with a ristretto shot."

I heard him groan, possibly from cringing. "Can you not? This is not Starbucks, Y'know?"

Even though he seemed upset, he made it anyway. "Coffee up! A white chocolate mocha for Beverly!"

I look at him like I was looking at my cousin asking if I have games on my phone. "Can you not? this is not your café."

The high ceiling of this kitchen will never cease to amaze me.

On my left, there is a huge glass window that is about the same height as a utility pole and as wide as—if not more than the pool just right outside.

On my right, there are steps leading up into the living room, while green plants can be seen everywhere.

He set down the coffee on the dark wood table while awkwardly clearing his throat. "Anyway, any plans for today, Princess?"

"Net reaylly~ I just want to sit all day and chill, I guess." I stretched my back.

"You're boring. When I was your age, I made a god bleed." He looked nostalgic for some reason.

"You mean when you talked back to your teacher and got D-hall for two weeks?" He raised his eyebrows. Usually, when he does this, he will say something witty.

Not this time though.

"I really did make a god bleed." He said with a half-serious, and half-kidding smile.

"Have you run out of wits?"

"I cleaned the pool last night, wanna go for a swim?" He said, seemingly unbothered by my question.

"I guess. Your house feels lonely, when will you get married?" I pulled that question out of nowhere huh?

"Actually..."

I narrowed my eyes as I had never expected a response. Suddenly, however, a cat was meowing somewhere.

I looked around and found it perched on a platform hanging from the ceiling right behind me. "Is that...?" I looked at Kolin for confirmation.

"Yes, that lovely cat is mine."

"You adopted one?"

"found it right outside the garden." He said as he started doing the dishes.

I made a face that suggested that I didn't buy the story. "So, who's the lucky girl?"

He looked confused, then I got confused.

"What do you mean? There's no one, it's the cat I was about to talk about."

I look at him, my face deadpan. "Are you really gonna live alone? Forever?"

"The heck? No, it's just troublesome looking for someone. And I have a cat, I don't live alone."

"Uh-huh." I got up from the dining table, took a glance at the cat, then went outside.

The garden could be defined as simple if you ignore the fact that we're literally on a hill that overlooks the entire city.

To my right, there are a variety of vegetable plants, and a couple of steps next to it is a small fountain with two somewhat thick rings intertwining each other; they almost looked like wedding rings if not for the blade-like spikes that go around them like the teeth of a cog.

I found them quite peculiar as they look more like weapons than some carved stone.

"Pretty neat, huh?"

I nodded along and sat on the nearby chair, or more appropriately, the sun lounger close to the pool.

The cloud parted to give way to the sunlight, bathing me with warmth. Surprisingly, it wasn't uncomfortable as I had expected; it was pleasant.

"You look more like a cat than my cat." Kolin sat next to me with two glasses of drinks in his hands, one yellow, and one red. He gave me the red one.

Silence filled the air as none of us talked. The only sound was the loud slurping of his drink.

I tried to ignore it, but it irked me. "Does everything you do have to always be loud and obnoxious?!" This dense muffin always annoys me without even trying.

He didn't bother to stop his slurping as he looked at me provocatively.

"Whatever, do what you want." I just ignored him, trying to look for some swimming floats.

"Where are the flamingo floaties?"

"Inside the shed. Get the dinosaur one too." I made my way into the small shed—just ahead of the fountain next to an almost withered tree.

While the outside looks like rubbish, the inside looks quite organized.

I see some cleaning equipment neatly arranged in a line, and some strange, old-looking books. The books are stacked on each other quite clumsily, unlike the rest of the stuff.

I stared at them for a second; it piqued my curiosity but decided against opening one as I saw the floaties right beside them.

"Hey, your dino floatie is out of air," I said, tossing him the uninflated floatie.

He caught it, looked at it, then looked back at me. "You sure you didn't poke a hole through it? You sure took your time in there."

"How impatient are you?" It was no more than 5 seconds!

"4 minutes and 27 seconds impatient." I was dumbfounded, not because of his overly-specific time, but because I was in there for that long.

I didn't believe him though. "You gotta stop being distracted all the time.."

"Tch, and you should stop being so specific about everything you say." Although I'm used to it, I still find his super accurate 'Inner clock' weird.

I saw his left eyebrow twitch, but he didn't say anything. Meanwhile, I just threw my flamingo into the pool and then rode it. I didn't bother changing into swimwear, since I'm wearing light shorts anyway.

I was chilling under the warm sunlight when I heard a loud splash.

My idiotic brother cannon-balled into the pool, splashing water all over me, making me squeal.

"You idiot! Now I'm wet!" I was fuming.

"That's the point. It's a pool filled with water, of course, you'll be wet." He said while doing a backstroke, looking at me with a wry smile.

While I wanted to say something witty, I couldn't, because he was right... annoyingly.

Although he's right, that doesn't mean I won't get back at him.

*Splash*

I bombarded him with a splash of my own, but I suddenly couldn't see him anywhere.

As I was looking for him, I saw a shadow and I looked back. There's a wave of water behind me almost as tall as the shed.

"How the fu—?!"

My voice was cut off as the water slammed me, almost drowning me in the process.