When the pills were swallowed, Skylar dipped her head back down and closed her eyes. A tear slowly dripped down her cheek, a deep sigh escaping the redhead. A knock at the door caught the girl in surprise. The Holten girl quickly wiped the tear away and turned around, facing her brother. She cleared her throat in the hope her voice wouldn't be shaky, "hey, uh, what are you doing?"
The boy didn't say anything, a smirk plastered on his face as he held paperwork in front of the redhead. She frowned, gently taking the papers from his hand and scanning through the pages. Skylar frowned at the logo of Jaxton's school, "what are these? Why are you giving me papers from your school?"
Jaxton raised his brows at his younger sister, scoffing, "man, I knew you were homeschooled but I thought you were much smarter," Skylar was about to retort to Jaxton's comment until she comprehended what he said and asked, her voice pitched higher than usual, "'were homeschooled?' Wait–"
Jaxton laid his arms out, a knowing smile lifted on his lips. Skylar's breath shuttered, her nose slightly stinging from the sensation of tears of joys building. She happily jumped in her brother's arms, gripping him tightly and exasperated, "oh, my God! I can't believe it. Why didn't mom tell me she enrolled me?"
The brother shrugged and was the first to pull away, "mom wanted it to be a secret, so then you were accepted, we could surprise you. Those are the papers you gotta fill out to be caught up for the year. You might be late to the school year, but you can't fall behind. You hear me?" Skylar nodded enthusiastically. She agreed, "yeah, yeah. I won't fall behind, I promise. And by the way, I might've been homeschooled but I'm still smart. Jackass."
The teenage boy nodded, his tongue banging across his cheek. When Skylar thought his brother wasn't going to do anything, she was surely mistaken when his arms lowered to the side of her stomach and began to tickle. Skylar shrieked in protest, laughing as his fingers danced across her ticklish spot.
Skylar tried to hit away his hands but failed when he held her from under the arms, throwing her onto her bed and continuing the tickle war. This grew into a punching match. Though the punches they sent to each other weren't hard, more of a clap.
At that moment, Skylar's mind was off the effects of the pill that she previously took, but was filled with the happiness of being surrounded by one of the people she loved.
Йой! Нажаль, це зображення не відповідає нашим правилам. Щоб продовжити публікацію, будь ласка, видаліть його або завантажте інше.
The way that we showed ourselves to others was detrimental. The persona that we play off was important when it came to talking with people because you wouldn't be able to show the pain that was slowly killing you inside without being judged or laugh out. You had to seem like the confident type of person to be liked.
Hiding from the world was something that Skylar was very familiar with. She didn't know when it was the last time since she had purposefully let her real self shine under the spotlight. Instead, she hid it all behind the false smiles she practised to herself in the mirror like it was picture day at school, masking the sadness that was buried deep in her chest.
