The silence roared in her ears,
making it difficult to concentrate, as if she hadn’t even been trying to
before. Throwing her pencil down she frowned and shut her text book with a
satisfying slam!
“Casey…”
Her mother’s warning floated up the stairs, making her eardrums pound with
impatience.
“Alright
mom, I get it!” She called back, the irritability swirling through her thoughts
increased to point of anger and petty, irrational explosions. She glanced at
her clock and felt a surge of furry sweep through her, it was already 8:30 and
she wasn’t nearly half done with her work. Cursing quietly she rubbed her
temples, gathering up all of her last reserves of faith, and plunged her nose
back into ‘Advanced Math with Physics’.
Two hours later, she awoke with her face hurting. There was
a stinging paper cut along her cheek from lying on top of the rim of her
textbook. Wincing as she felt the small rivet she rushed to the bathroom,
cupping her hands under her chin to catch the droplet of blood that oozed off
her face.
“Did
you do that on purpose?” A small voice made Casey’s head snap suddenly around
to the bathtub behind her.
“Oh,
Jordan, it’s you. Why are you still up so late?” Casey recalled the time before
she’d ran to the restroom, 10:34.
“I
couldn’t sleep, or try to anyway…” The little boy’s big eyes were somber with
pain, his hands knotted and unknotted themselves in anxiety. Casey eyed the
plastic tube that spiraled to his nose from the grey case on the bathroom
tiles.
“Its alright...” Casey tried to sound sympathetic, but she found it hard to when she was
still burning with the hatred she’d come to know towards her toughest subject.
“You
didn’t answer me. Did you cut yourself?” Jordan’s face was so earnest Casey
felt compelled to tell him the truth right away, instead of estranging herself
behind a veil of unfriendly mystery.
“No… No
Jordan, I wouldn’t do that…” She sat next to him and as she held his head to
her troubled heart, wondered if what she said was true.
“Okay,
I was just worried about you that’s all…” Jordan heaved shaky sigh and then
snuggled closer to his big sister, feeling safe and warm just before he dropped
off into a fitful sleep…
