LIVING THE DREAM I ONC 2024 [COMPLETE]

Eight: The male friend, the sister moments and the taste of happiness

Hayley scurried away into the kitchen muttering incoherent words under her breath, leaving two dumbfounded adults in the living room.

She didn't look mad, Mitchell could tell. In fact, Mitchell could swear that she'd seen a glint in her eyes before she scurried away - but she could have imagined it. After all, they weren't on good terms with each other.

Mitchell saw Austin to the door and upon opening the door for him, he cursed.
"That was your sister, wasn't it?"

"The one and only."

"Will she be mad?"

Mitchell shook her head. "I don't know. But I'll handle it, so, don't worry."

"Alright," he smiled. "If I return early, I'll come and see you. I just have to hurry and deal with something, yeah?"

After Austin was finally out of sight, Mitchell took a deep breath and prepared herself to deal with hurricane Hayley. She had no idea what to expect. Would Hayley think that Mitchell brought men in the house often?

Instead, she found Hayley standing near the door leading into the kitchen with a cup in her hands that she handed to Mitchell. As soon as Mitchell took the cup, a smile unconsciously graced her face. It was spiced milk - with tea masala, ginger and lemon grass, her favorite drink.

What she couldn't fathom though was why Hayley was giving her a hot cup of her favorite drink? It had never happened - for all she knew, Hayley was a disaster in the kitchen and probably didn't care about Mitchell's favorite drink.

"Let's go sit," Hayley gestured towards the living room with her thumb. She probably noticed Mitchell's confused expression because she added, "so, you can tell me about your male friend!"

"Uh- okay. But don't you want some juice? I made some."

"I'll go get myself a glass," Hayley skipped to the kitchen leaving a very confused Mitchell.

What is happening? Am I dreaming? Was there an alien invasion and one of the aliens now lives in my sister's body? Why is she not angry about something today?

Mitchell sat in the sofa and waited for her sister to return and when she did, Mitchell turned to her.
"Where did you get milk from? Fresh milk?"

Usually, Mitchell bought milk powder because fresh milk was expensive as fuck. And rare.

"I was analysing milk in the lab today and my supervisor said I could take the remaining one home. I know how much you like milk."

Again, Mitchell's jaw almost dropped to the ground. "You do?"

"Yes, I do," Hayley almost sounded offended. "You also like yogurt, the toffee flavor. You hate vanilla because it looks like plain yogurt which is ridiculous because vanilla is even sweeter than strawberry!"

Mitchell didn't know what to say. For starters, she was glad - scratch that, ecstatic that she and her sister were back on speaking terms. However, Hayley was like a ticking time bomb. You'd never know what pissed her off until it was too late. And Mitchell was scared of accidentally saying the wrong thing and ruining the mood.
Nevertheless, she had questions. A lot of questions. About internship, her new friend - William, her supervisor who apparently gave her fresh milk to take home and the burning question - the bruises on Hayley's forehead.

"So," Mitchell crossed her fingers and hoped that she wasn't going to ruin the mood. "Is your supervisor nice?"

"If he wants to be," Hayley shrugged. "Personally, he hasn't been rude to me or something. But he's rude to the receptionist. I think that's why she flings the door in my face every morning. She's a bitch!"

"Flings a door in your face?" Mitchell's eyes widened. "Is that why you have bruises on your forehead? Have you mentioned this to your supervisor? That's practically bullying-"

"You're overreacting."

"No," Mitchell shook her head. "That's bullying. I'm going to Vine tomorrow and I'll have a conversation with that dumb receptionist about manners-"

"No, you won't," Hayley laughed. "It's okay, I don't care. Are you going to tell me about that male friend, eh?"

"Not until you tell me about yours."

"Who?"

"William? The one who drives you to and from school?"

They talked. A lot. Hayley rambled on and on about her internship. Mitchell boasted about her new friend(s) - if Hannah and Claire were included. Hayley laughed and made fun of Mitchell because apparently, if anyone was willing to spend time with Mitchell, they were equally as boring. Mitchell flicked Hayley's forehead - forgetting that there were bruises - and Hayley chased after her in the house, after which she tickled Mitchell till she her stomach hurt from laughing.

Then they had spaghetti and Hayley's favorite salads. Hayley washed the dishes while Mitchell dried.

Then, they raced to Hayley's room - which was much more cooler than Mitchell's according to Hayley - and watched Ghosted on Hayley's laptop. Mitchell loved the movie. It was funny, romantic and packed with some action too - for Hayley's enjoyment of course.

"This was fun," Hayley said as she yawned after movie credits started rolling. "Did you have fun?"

"I had fun," Mitchell nodded. "Can we do this again?"

"Yeah."

"I'd really love that."

Mitchell went off to her own bedroom, her smile never fading and her heart felt full. She smiled because for once in a long time, she and Hayley had acted as sisters. She smiled because she was happy that Hayley was happy. She also smiled because she was at peace with everyone; herself, Hayley and Austin.

She hoped that when the morning came, everything would still be okay. Because she hadn't been that happy in a while. In a long time. Somewhere inside of her, as she sang to Jessica Darrow's A little more from Disney Christmas promos, a part of her wondered if that was what true happiness, the one she always dreamed of, felt like.

And then she swore that if true happiness felt like that, like a load of bricks has been taken away from your heart, like you are so light that you could fly, like your soul is on fire, she was going to stop at nothing but keeping it close to herself.

Because she had got a taste of it, she wanted more.

And that's 8k words 🎉 None of my previous ONC entries made it this far. So, it's kind of a big deal for me.

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