I walked into my apartment just as the sun rose up into the sky, brushing away the night with its rays of light.

I stepped into the hazy light pouring into my dusty apartment from the large windows behind the couch. I clambered over the couch and pulled open the blinds, further illuminating my dirty home.

I really needed to clean up.

Shrugging it off like I usually did, I went into my room to get ready for another day of school.

As I did my minimal amount of make-up, I yawned, looking in the mirror. There were dark circles under my eyes, which was normal. I noticed how pale I had gotten. My blue eyes, which were now navy due to my insomnia and chronic state of nonchalance, stuck out in my otherwise gaunt face. I pulled at the plain black long-sleeved shirt I was wearing. At one point, when I first bought it, it fit perfectly. Now it hung loosely on my body.

Sighing and dabbing some brightner under my eyes with my finger, I pushed away the thoughts that flooded my mind at the sight of me.

After getting dressed, I went into the kitchen and opened up my cupboards. I pulled out the container of coffee beans and opened it. There was one bean left. Sighing, I threw the container away into the trash. Then I opened the top cupboard and pulled out a box of cereal. Shaking it, I heard no cereal. I threw that away as well. My last resort was the refrigerator and when I didn't find anything in there, either, I let out a frustrated yell and slammed the door shut, making the whole fridge shake violently.

Grumbling to myself, I walked out the door, already late, my stomach protesting and begging for food.

As I was walking to the bus stop, I looked down at my feet, which were pale and bony in my shoes. I was contemplating how they looked almost amphibian-like when I felt a strong force run into my knees and knock my bag to the ground. I felt a sense of dread fall over me as I heard the collision with the ground.

"Hey! Watch it!" I yelled, glaring in the direction of the force.

I looked around and didn't see anything.

"Down here, beautiful," I heard a voice snicker. I glanced down and found myself looking at a young boy, probably six or seven by the looks of it, smirking up at me mischieviously.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You were obviously looking for me. Well, here I am," he replied, holding his arms out by his sides. I raised and eyebrow at him. I honestly didn't know whether to be offended by the child's rude behavior or be amused by it.

"You know, running into people and knocking things out of their hands isn't the way to a person's heart," I told him, as kindly as I could. My knees felt like they were throbbing from the force of the impact.

"Maybe not, but it sure is a good way to get their attention," he replied in his high-pitched little-child voice.

"You really should apologize, though. My knees kind of hurt," I said.

"Yeah, but only kind of," he responded cockily, shaking out his silky dark brown hair and smirking at me. For some reason, this greatly annoyed me. I approached him, squatting down so that we were eye-level with one another.

"Look, kid. I've had a rough morning. I don't need you giving me cheek about--" I started saying before I heard a shout come from behind me.

"Liam! What the hell, kid?! I told you to stay with me!" the voice shouted.

"Caleb! Caleb!" the kid, who was apparently named Liam, yelled back, his voice instantly taking on a whiny tone. Liam ran away to the source of the second voice, whose name was most likely Caleb. I turned around to face this new person, crossing my arms over my chest.

"What happened?" the new person, Caleb, asked the little devil child.

"That girl was bothering me! She yelled at me for no reason!" he complained. I felt my jaw drop in disbelief and anger.

"What?! No way! That's not even--" I started saying, but the guy, Caleb, cut me off.

"What's your problem, huh? Messing with little kids? What are you, some kind of pedophile?" he hissed at me, anger evident in his eyes.

"Oh wow. Are you seriously going to believe what he just told you?" I asked back, feeling anger rise up inside of me, as well.

The guy, Caleb, was now standing in front of me, his full 6 feet in front of me. I stood my ground, squaring my jaw and glaring up at him. So what if he was probably the most gorgeous guy I'd ever seen? He was acting like a total prick.

"I do believe what he just told me. He's my brother after all," he sneered.

"Oh, well, it shows," I scoffed, feeling my cheeks flush with color. I hoped he would think it was out of anger and not sheepishness.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"I'll let you figure that out on your own. I, on the other hand, have somewhere more important to be," I replied, snatching my bag up. I looked into my bag and felt a sense of relief fall over me. My camera was safe. I sent a death glare at the little devil child, who was now clutching Caleb's black denim-clad leg and grinning evilly at me.

"We're not done!" Caleb yelled after my retreating back.

"I think we are!" I called back, without turning around. Before I knew it, I was face-to-face with the guy again. Huffing out an annoyed breath, I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Personal space, much?" I snapped.

I honestly had no idea why I was so worked up. Maybe it was because I was only awake on 2 hours of sleep and hadn't had any coffee yet to wake me up. Or maybe it was because this whole damn thing was the little child's fault.

"You were bothering my little brother," he said flatly. I rolled my eyes and looked at the kid.

"Why don't you tell him the truth?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"I did tell him the truth. You were yelling at me," the child responded.

"And what about telling him why I was yelling at you?" I asked.

"I don't remember that part," the kid said, shrugging his shoulders. I frowned and glared at him. Caleb at least now had the decency to direct his gaze at his little brother.

"What aren't you telling me, Liam?" he asked. Liam looked up at him innocently.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said.

"Liam..." Caleb warned.

"All right! All right! I knocked her bag out of her hands," he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air, frustrated.

"My bag that had a very expensive camera in it," I added, still glaring at him.

"Well, how should I have known that?" the kid asked, taking a step closer to me, putting his little hands on his hips.

"Well you should have known not to pull things out of people's hands!" I replied.

"Yeah? Well you--" the kid started, but Caleb stopped him by clamping a hand over his mouth.

"All right! That's enough!" Caleb said. I opened my mouth to say something. "Both of you," he added, sending a warning glance at me.

"Whatever, she started it," Liam and I said at the same time. Liam glared at me and I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Wow, seriously? He's seven," Caleb said to me. I blinked and looked at him.

"What's your point?" I asked. Caleb raised his eyebrows at me and shook his head.

"Look, I'm sorry about yelling at you. And about my brother. He's can be a little out of control sometimes," he said to me, his voice somber.

"A little?" I asked.

"Is your camera all right?" he asked, ignoring my little quip.

"Luckily, yes," I replied.

"Sorry again," he said. I shook my head, feeling bad about my attitude.

"It's all right. I over-reacted a bit, too," I said. He nodded. We stood there, looking at each other awkwardly. Liam kicked around at a pebble on the street.

"Umm...I have to go..." I trailed.

"Right. Yeah. Me, too," he said.

"Tell your kid brother to behave," I said. He nodded and glanced at the child warily.

I wondered momentarily what the story was there. Was he just his older brother, taking his kid brother to school? Were they biological siblings or step? Were they close or not? Who were their parents? What kind of family did they have?

He looked back at me and took in his appearance.

He was tall, much more than me. He had long dark brown hair that came up to about his chin. He had a square and defined jawline, and his eyes were dark green color. He was lean and probably muscular, but not in the obvious way. With his all-black attire and leather jacket, he looked like a thug, but I bet it was all a charade. No thug would look at his younger brother the way he just had.

He raised an eyebrow as he realized that I was checking him out.

"Like what you see?" he asked cockily. I felt my cheeks flush with color and looked down.

"I should go," I mumbled.

And without another glance at him, I turned on my heel and walked away towards the bus stop.

Well, that was an interesting start to the day...

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A/N: Yeah, I know. It's short. I promise these chapter will get a tad bit longer once I get into the story. This is just the exposition.

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