SOPHIA & LUKE

CHAPTER 2: Humiliation

"What's wrong?" Melanie must have known the cause but still asked. Only my family put me in such a foul mood.

"It's my sister. I'm taking care of my nephew tomorrow."

She arched a brow and then shook her head in disapproval.

"Sophia, you can't live your whole life taking care of your family problems. Last week you had to deliver three assignments and you still took care of your nephew during the day. Then worked on your assignments in the afternoon and put on alarms every four hours at night to make sure your mother got her meds. And what did they say? Nothing!" Melanie always disapproved of the amount of time and help I was giving my family.

"I know Melanie but I just can't not help them. I feel this sense of responsibility and I can't ignore it. If I do nothing the guilt consumes me and I can't function properly"

She scoffed and ran a hand through her curly hair.

"And what about you Sophia? Who is taking care of you?" I couldn't answer because I didn't have anyone.

The truth was that no one really cared about me the way I cared about them.

I wasn't trying to get merits but I knew I was devoting most of my life to meeting the needs of my family.

It was always this way.

My parents raised me to be independent but they forgot that independent people need dependence too sometimes.

Ever since I was little I had to be more mature than my age to help my parents and with time I became their problem solver. Some days I had to be a psychologist, other times a banc, some other times a doctor, and many many times someone to blame.

The rest of the day didn't go well.

The moment I got home I found my parents arguing.

"You won't believe what your father did!" My mother turned at me and pointed at my father with a finger.

I didn't even manage to take my shoes off when she began explaining everything my father did.

"Well, let me see the contract first," I said after she finished explaining. They couldn't communicate well as usual and talked over each other making the understating a challenge.

My father went to the bank and they scammed him with this debit card.

I read the contract a few times and realized that my father was indeed scammed. They took his debit card which had zero cost of maintenance and gave him another one that cost 100€ per year.

I was trying to explain the situation but I was constantly interrupted.

"See? I told you! How many times have I told you to read before you sign!" My mother went on and on for at least an hour before she got convinced that the issue could be fixed. But even then I had to be the one going with my father to the bank to change it back.

And I was tired.

Exhausted of having to carry their burdens and problems. Extremely tired of having to always solve everything they messed up even now that I'm 28.

I went to bed that night with my heart beating fast. The anxiety was acting once again and I knew from previous experiences that I would not sleep well that night.

And I didn't.

I took care of my nephew the next day and it turned out into a whole week of me taking care of him.

I couldn't attend classes all week and had to work extra hours in the afternoon to catch up with my notes and pending assignments.

A week turned into two weeks and before I knew it three months went by. Three whole months in which I functioned on autopilot.