Strings Attached

Chapter Five

I had felt totally devastated when Dad had left us. I felt embarrassed because I knew that people would talk behind my back, just like they always did.

Now that Theodore had proven to be smarter than me, people would probably think of me as the nerdy-want-to-be who could neither keep her dad nor her ranking.

I felt like a total failure. I had never been enough, and I was tired of it. Even when Diego noticed me, I had known all along that it was a matter of time before he left me for someone better, and it actually happened. I had been expecting it from the beginning, but even though it did not surprise me at all, it still hurt me.

The thing is... even when you learn to expect the unexpected, there is no formula to make any kind of pain bearable. Even though I knew that no one would be dumb enough to stay with me for more than two months, what Diego did to me had hurt me a lot.

"Maybe you just weren't made to be number one, Christina," I told myself. "Maybe you just were not meant to be successful or happy."

I turned to see the starry sky and wondered how life would be if Dad had not left us. Maybe we would have been a happy family. Maybe I would be sleeping in my own bed, feeling safe and sound, and being so full of happiness that my insides would be about to explode.

All I wanted was for my life to go back to the way it was before Sophia interfered, but perhaps that was just too much to ask. Maybe our family was never meant to be happy. Maybe our days would be full of misery and sorrow.

I sighed and stopped swinging. No matter how much I tried to escape from it all, reality always found me, and every time it happened, I felt more miserable than the last time. Maybe it was because the more I tried to escape, the more I trapped myself in this giant cage. There was not exit; there was no way to escape. There was only a constant reminder that my life was not perfect, and it never would be.

***

I woke up the next day, feeling completely tired and miserable. I had not slept well, and my only consolation was that it was Saturday. I could spend the whole day on Brianna's bed, and Brianna and Mom would not even be there to tell me anything because Mom was leaving with Brianna to an intensive Saturday dance course. They would arrive till night, so that left the whole house to myself.

Well, to myself and Theodore.

I yawned and stretched my arms and legs.

I hated to sleep on the floor, but it was Brianna's way of taking revenge on the fact that I had dyed her doll's hair purple once. She never really got over it, especially because she had spent her allowance on that ugly doll. In my defense, I had spent my allowance on the purple dyer, and I could not let it go to waste.

I noticed Brianna's bed was already made, which meant she was either having breakfast with Mom, or they had already left. I hoped they had already left because I did not want for Mom to scold me for not changing clothes.

I made my way downstairs and inside the kitchen. As I had suspected, Mom and Brianna were not there. There was only Theodore, who smiled at me as he motioned for me to grab a dish from the counter.

"Good morning," he said as I grabbed the dish.

"Morning," I said sleepily.

Theodore smirked and placed a pancake on my dish. It looked a little bit blacker than pancakes are supposed to look, but at least he tried.

"Thank you," I said as I sat on the kitchen's table and yawned.

"You look terrible," he said, concerned. "You didn't sleep well, did you?"