The Laziest Girl Alive Chapter 01

The Laziest Girl Alive Chapter 01

My brother was dating a breakout actress, and their live-streamed reality show was being filmed in our house.

All I wanted was to go home, crash on the couch, and disappear, but somehow I became her built-in control group.

When she worked out, I lay there.

When she read, I lay there.

When she cooked, I was still lying there.

People online were dragging me like crazy.

[Chloe is way too nice. Imagine having such a lazy, freeloading future sister-in-law.]

[Kick the lazy girl out already. I just want to watch Chloe and her boyfriend being cute together.]

[I heard she didn’t even graduate high school. Now she just sits at home all day. Total dropout energy.]

[That’s our Chloe. A straight-A overachiever who just got into Adler University’s graduate program.]

I lazily rolled over, thoroughly confused.

Since when was getting into Adler’s graduate program such a huge deal?

And who exactly was this lazy academic failure?

Were they talking about me, the one who had just won an international physics prize?

…

When I shot to the top of the trending page for getting roasted online, I was curled up on the couch, trying to catch up on sleep.

My brother Ethan Reed’s girlfriend, the breakout actress Chloe James, was on a yoga mat in perfectly coordinated activewear, stretching like she was filming a commercial.

As she stretched, she spoke in a soft, gentle voice to the camera closest to her, sharing her secrets for staying in shape and casually mentioning the research article she had stayed up late reading the night before.

Comments flooded the livestream.

[Chloe is so disciplined. She’s up early to work out and read. No wonder she’s in Adler’s graduate program.]

[My baby really is the best. So pretty and so hardworking.]

[Where’s Nora? Yesterday she was just sprawled on the couch. Where is she today?]

[Where else would she be? Still asleep, obviously. I have no idea how the Reed family raised a daughter like that. She’s a total trust-fund leech.]

The very next second, the camera swung around and landed on me.

I was wrapped in a blanket, my hair a complete mess, sunk so deep into the soft couch that only my eyes were showing.

The camera was apparently very patient and stayed on a close-up of me for a full three minutes.

In those three minutes, the only thing I did was roll over because the living room lights were too bright, turning my back to the lens.

The comment section exploded.

[So that’s the Reed family’s long-lost daughter who grew up in some nowhere town? What a disgrace.]

[Kick her out of the Reed house. Don’t let her ruin Chloe’s mood.]

They were so annoying.

I frowned, buried my face deeper into the cushions, and tried to shut out all the noise.

A mug of warm milk was set down quietly on the coffee table beside me.

“Nora,” my brother Ethan murmured, his voice low and a little helpless, “we’re still live. Can you at least pretend to be awake?”

I didn’t move.

I couldn’t even be bothered to lift my eyelids.

Ethan sighed, lowering his voice even more until he was almost whispering.

“Mom and Dad just came downstairs, and they look furious. If you keep this up, they’re definitely going to lecture you after the show wraps.”

I knew.

From the day they brought me back to this house, they had not stopped being disappointed in me.

I wasn’t polished enough.

I was too lazy in everything I did.

I hadn’t even properly finished high school.

I made them look bad.

They liked Chloe, the perfect future daughter-in-law who always wore a flawless smile.

Chloe was like a piece of art they had carefully curated.

I was the defective item that somehow slipped in by accident.

“Look at Chloe…” Ethan’s voice held a quiet plea.

I finally moved.

Not to sit up.

Just enough to pull my head out of the cushion and crack my eyes open for a glance.

Chloe had finished stretching and was holding a glass of freshly blended green juice, sipping it in tiny, picture-perfect sips.

Her back was perfectly straight.

Even the way she drank looked rehearsed down to the last detail.

Noticing my gaze, she lifted her glass toward me in a little air toast and gave me a sweet, harmless smile.

The comments went wild praising her again, and, as usual, they had to drag me in the process.

“Nora,” Ethan kept murmuring by my ear, “I know you hate all this, but just do me a favor, okay? Go wash up, eat something, at least sit up and watch some TV.”

Too much work.

That was the only thought left in my head.

The next second, I grabbed the blanket and pulled it over my head, wrapping myself up completely and blocking out every last bit of light and sound.

I could feel Ethan standing beside me for a long time.

In the end, all that was left was a barely audible sigh and the sound of his footsteps walking away.

The world finally went quiet again.

I happily went back to sleep.