Mirror

Sisyphus's Stone

                  

The world is not a wish giving factory—John Green

Standing there, frozen, she could only think of a story Michael had once told her. So the story went that some ancient Greek dude-whose name had decided to elude her-did something to anger the gods and as punishment, he had to roll a rock up a mountain. But the gods of Greece must have had a sick sense of humour because as soon as he had rolled the rock halfway up, the rock would just roll back down again. So there he was, eternally bound to continue pushing a rock that would inevitably fall down again, restarting a cycle that would go on forever. When Michael had told her the story, she had found it interesting, funny even. Now though, laughing was the last thing on her mind. She realised she had a lot in common with the man who was punished. Every time she had the guts to hope that things would change, that things would actually get better, it just came crashing down again. She kept pushing, but the rock always came back down.

"Honey, are you okay?" Shiv's mother asked with concern. Then it occurred to her that she'd been standing there for about five minutes, just staring. She had to leave and she had to do it now.

"Oh, I'm fine, I just remembered that I forgot to do something at home" she said, shakily. It wasn't a lie, though. She had forgotten something very important. She retreated to the front door, practically running at this point. She heard Shiv call out to her as she left. "Don't forget the party tomorrow"

Party? She'd worry about that later, now she had something bigger to worry about. Luckily her estate was small, so everything was next to everything. Jade Aspen was a nice place but right now, in her half jogging half running stage, was not the best time to appreciate it. She pushed the key into the front door and silently eased the door open, silently praying to God that the worst hadn't happened. God must have been busy that day.

"Where have you been, this girl?" she heard her mother shout.

She was about to offer up an explanation, telling her that she'd wanted to tell her that she was going to her friend's house but it had slipped her mind with all the commotion in the past few days. But her mother wasn't having any of it, she was a slap first, ask questions later kind of mother. She didn't even see it coming, her mother's hand flashed like lightning and then next thing she saw was a brief burst of darkness as she held her hand to her cheek. She stood her ground this time, she was not going to cry.

"Do you know that I've been waiting for you for how long? Every single day with you is like having a caesarean section. You are just a stupid useless..."

She tried to ignore her mother's torrents of insults, but it wasn't easy. Why was she so mean? After close to three minutes of that, she decided that enough was enough. She barged past her mother and ran towards the staircase, taking two at a time. Her mother shouted at her, calling her back and threatening her, but she didn't dare look back, she locked her door and slumped on her bed. Her phone made a sound and she pried it out of her jeans. She opened it and saw that she was getting DMs from Shiv.

@Shivtastic: heyy, what happened? u looked sick when u left my place.

@Idunu3349: yh, I forgot 2 tell my mum I was coming over.

@ Shivtastic: ohhhhh, sorry about that.

@Idunu3349: it's okay, so what did u mean when I was leaving, what party?

@Shivtastic: THE party, Adora is throwing a costume party at her house and it's going to be lit, you better come.

Adora was something of the kingpin of popularity in her school, her parents rarely stayed at home so her parties were endless, she seemed to throw one every weekend. She had heard about the party from some people in school, but hadn't paid much attention to it. Parties weren't really her thing but what the heck, why not?

@Idunu3349: sure, I'll come.

@Shivtastic: YASSSSSSSSSSSS, but b, how u feeling?

@Idunu3349: like a jigsaw puzzle

Minutes passed, then

@ Shivtastic: what??

That night, she wondered if anyone else's life was as horrible as hers. She wondered if she'd ever find her missing pieces because now more than ever, she felt incomplete and conflicted. She remembered a time when her family was a happy one. She reached towards her desk and pulled out a photograph she hadn't looked at in years. That was from the time they went to Disney World. It had rained that day, and the ride she had wanted to go on was undergoing maintenance, but none of that mattered. She was with her mummy and daddy and that was all she needed. They'd keep her safe. They'd never hurt her.

She felt the tears before they even dropped and for the third time in as many days, she cried herself to sleep. That night, she dreamt about pushing rocks.