A Slobbery Good Morning

My alarm goes off, completely blaring and possibly even causing a headache. The gunshots from my favourite video game intro nearly make me scream as I lunge out of bed, falling straight onto the floor. My face is sore as I slowly lift myself back onto my bed and dismiss the alarm.

"That was certainly a good wake up call," I mumble to myself, scratching my head and making my fingers get stuck in my messy afro for a moment. The next thing to come into my mind other than gunshots and possibly dying on my birthday, is last night with whatever Afia and Ketia were doing. Was that a dream? If not, what were they doing? Actually, there's no way it could be real because Keita admitted to liking Alina, so I know for a fact that it was definitely a dream. Hopefully.

The sun shines brightly into my room, blinding me and possibly making the headache even worse than before. Fuck I should take some medicine. I definitely don't want to have a headache on both mine and Alina's birthday. She deserves a happy and cheerful sixteenth birthday, so I really don't want to risk being in a bad mood today all because of a mere headache.

Tiredly exiting my room, I enter the bathroom and grab some Advil and Tylenol. It seems that both Afia and Keita have gone back to sleep at some point after I passed out. Either that or they were asleep the entire time, and I just ended up having a fucked up dream about Keita liking Alina.

Waddling back to my room after swallowing both pills and brushing my teeth, I collapse back into my bed, not bothering to do anything till I'm either forced to or till Alina gets here.

"Knox!" My mother's voice shouts down from the top of the stairs and all of a sudden there's movement all throughout the house. How the hell did I not notice that literally everyone is already awake.

"What?" I yell back, not bothering to move my face out of my pillow.

"Are you going to school today?" She asks, not even lowering her voice. We have neighbours and it's like seven in the morning, she needs to chill.

"No," My voice is muffled but I believe it was loud enough for her to hear.

"Alright," She finishes and her voice is slightly quieter as she says something to someone else upstairs. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Sleep," I mumble to myself, a little annoyed that I'm up so early. "I don't know! Wait till Alina gets here and let her decide!"

"Alright," She finally decides to stop yelling and the TV upstairs turns on. I shut my eyes completely shut and hug the pillow around my face, waiting to pass out until Alina arrives.

But it's already too late. Between falling on the floor, the sunlight, the yelling, and already brushing my teeth, I'm wide awake, sadly. Fuck I just want to sleep in. After all, I still have an hour or so till Alina and Cerberus get here and the headache is still slowly getting worse. It's too early for all of this. Even my stomach is a little upset. So far this birthday isn't going too well. I hope that everything is alright on Alina's end at least. I need to power through this pain for her, it's her birthday too after all, so I can't be entirely selfish today.

Letting out a painful groan, I stretch my arms out into the air. My legs shake uncontrollably as I stretch them out, making my entire bed squeak along with them. Maybe I should just watch some TV or stream till Alina gets here. Though I doubt the light will be good for my headache. Fuck why do birthday's always have to be absolute shit. I've never had a single birthday where nothing ever went wrong and I didn't end up crying. Forcing my eyes to shut, it's not long before they're heavy again and I get as close to falling asleep as I could possibly get.

There's a knock at the door, promptly followed by the barreling of footsteps stomping their way down the stairs. Next thing I know, Cerberus is on top of me, smothering and spinning around in circles wildly. His slobber is soaking my bed, though I don't seem to have a headache anymore. So I guess that resting my eyes was a good choice, either that or Cerberus's slobber has some sort of healing powers. Although it would be nice, I still sincerely doubt it.

Alina and her light laughter floats into my room and saves me from the giant, loving hound. "Happy birthday, Knox. You feeling okay?"

I nod and do my best to wipe the slobber off my face but that just ends up making it worse. "Yeah I just had a headache, I'm good now though." As I sit up in my bed, soaking wet and barely able to have my eyes open without stuff getting in, Alina stands in front of me, holding Cerberus by his collar, and staring at me with her jaw dropped. "I should go take a shower, huh?"

She nods rapidly, Cerberus smiles and pants joyfully, "Yes. Definitely."

As I stand up, letting out an aggravated grunt, a pool of slobber drops to the ground, absolutely soaking the floor. Cerberus attempts to jump on me but Alina pulls him back, her eyes gaze at me with concern and remorse. Fuck, I'm already ruining everything with my terrible mood. If I keep this up then she'll never want to celebrate our birthday together again. I just need to put on a smile, eventually it'll be genuine so I might as well try.

"Want me to wait for you upstairs?" She asks in a low, worried voice. I can tell that she's worried she did something wrong and fucked up the day, but in reality, I'm fucking it up with my shitty attitude.

"If you want, sure," I shrug and grab some clothes out of my closet. I don't feel like having to socialize with my family just yet. "Or you can wait down here and place some video games or something till I'm back."

She seems to take the hint by me inviting her to stay and wait. Her smile is wide and upbeat, "Alright, I'll wait for you here then."

I can't help but smile and laugh at the contrast of Alina's smile and Cerberus's stupid face. "Good luck."

As I exit my room, she calls out to me, "Same to you!"

It's not long after I turn on the shower that I hear footsteps heading for my room. It's probably just Afia going to ask if she can take Cerberus for a walk. Though the weight of those steps were far heavier. I swear to god if Keita is going to do something in my room. He better not mess with my stuff. I'll kick his ass if he even thinks about it.