Alicia was pretty neutral about the whole thing. Dad had been gone for a while, and her mom was still a grown woman, so it was only a matter of time before she was in a new relationship. While she didn't necessarily like Mr. Manawa, she didn't hate him either. He seemed like an alright guy with a decent head on his shoulders. More or less could be said about his son, Chris.
It stayed that way for a while. She hardly saw him at school, and occasionally he would eat dinner with her and her mom. Sometimes, Nick would join in. Even less, Chris. She prefered it like this.
And then, things started to shift. Not all at once, of course.
She remembered waking up earlier than usual one morning and going downstairs for a cup of orange juice, and there he was, cooking scrambled eggs fresh out of bed. Her mom's bed.
"I wanted to surprise your mom," he smiled sheepishly. "Did I wake you?"
Alicia shook her head no and took her glass of orange juice up to her room. She vaguely remembers pouring the juice down the sink in her bathroom.
Soon, breakfasts and dinners with him were more frequent. His son, too.
She noticed a pattern. Chris would accompany his father for three weekends every month. Chris ate dinner with them each time.
Chris also started sleeping over, too, although it took some time. She overheard her mom telling him that he could sleep in Nick's room whenever he wanted. While he awkwardly thanked her, he never did. She knew because sometimes, when she couldn't sleep in her room, she wandered over to Nick's and fell asleep there. She never had nightmares in his room.
She stopped though when she groggily wandered to Nick's room and found a sleeping figure in his bed. Happy to have her brother back after doing God-knows-what for weeks at a time, she jumped into his bed and hugged him from behind, wanting to fall asleep beside him like they used to as kids. Only, his hair smelled cleaner, like musky shampoo, and felt a thousand times softer when it was usually ratty and stiff.
"Mmm, what time is it?" Nick mumbled. His voice was missing that careless, couldn't-be-bothered twang to it.
"Shh, it's three in the morning. Go back to bed." Because it was Saturday, she hoped to sleep in with her brother.
Fortunately enough, he didn't. He roused himself from the comfortable and warm body lying next to him and lifted his head far enough to really look at her.
Alicia's eyes adjusted to the very little light filtering in from the window. That was weird… Nick always made sure to close the curtains as tight as possible to prevent sunlight filtering in in the morning.
They both held their breaths at the same time.
"Chris?" she spoke after an eternity.
"Alicia?" his voice cracked.
She blinked rapidly at him. "Shit, I-I'm sorry, I thought you were my brother," she sputtered, getting out of his, Nick's, bed.
"No, um, don't worry about it." His voice was still thick with sleep.
Alicia walked as fast as she could to her room without turning back. She wanted to slam her door behind her, but settled for flinging her pillow at the nearest wall.
She didn't sleep very much that night.