The trees swayed, and the sun’s rays illuminated the surroundings, good enough to stay home and play some video games, but instead, I was looking at math problems, pretending to study. Using my time on something other than leisure.

I had done the homework a long time ago, and by doing it, I mean I took my sister’s book and copied her answers and notes after she got home from school, done during recess or some free time she had.

To be honest, she had left her backpack unguarded in the living room, rushing to the bathroom and urgently locking the door. A feminine emergency or maybe the cafeteria food didn’t agree with her, though I’m usually the one with a sensitive stomach.

Anyway, I just took her notebook and copied everything from it, only making sure to change a few words here and there. Job done without breaking a sweat.

My advantage.

After that, I was alone, just waiting for punishment or a miracle to happen, which for my situation was impossible to expect any help. In the end, they arrived, much sooner than I expected.

I should act, a serious look, teary eyes, head bowed, and fingers intertwined, maintaining a low posture.

An attempt to lessen the scolding.

Useless with them, and beyond my expectations, my punishment was much worse than I thought.

Even though I tried to tell them about my lack of sleep, to them it was just pure nonsense. Which didn’t help my situation, as being my own lawyer made things go much worse for me.

I mean, wasn’t this different just a week ago?

Whatever the situation, in the end, I was left to stay in my room, only coming down to eat and returning as quickly as possible.

Anyway, my parents wouldn’t be around to eat together, they left so quickly after taking away the only thing that made me happy, leaving food they bought for us.

Annoyingly against my tastes, not even a middle ground. Clearly, I could see some kind of punishment from them towards me.

I mean, I can eat anything, but drenched in olive sauce? Mashed broccoli with potatoes? It had a very strong garlic and parsley flavor. And what was this thing that looked like a cake but was actually pasta? It was more like a weird lasagna.

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It only took me a while to understand everything when I saw my sister sitting down and happily eating her food, and of course, taking some photos with her phone. No need to connect the dots, she had always been careful with her diet.

Surely she must have intervened in the food selection and being the model daughter, it was easy to please her.

In the end, I refused to eat the food and managed to rescue some leftovers stored in the fridge. They didn’t taste the same, but it was better than the food they brought.

I ended up eating a combination of burrito with rice, cheese, chicken from a soup, and some fresh salsa. With the hunger I had, it tasted delicious. It would be a good thing in this day, if not for a certain annoying person related to me by blood.

My sister, who should have been busy with her healthy lifestyle posts or chatting with her friends, couldn’t resist bringing up “Her” in her conversation.

XXX

The crunch echoed in my room, my gaze moving to my right hand, seeing the cheap pencil broken in half, pieces of it falling on the notebook page.

Immediately, I tried to clean the wood and charcoal bits from the pencil, a futile effort since I ended up smudging the entire notebook page and consequently ruining the rest of the anime girl drawing I had made, scratching the head and part of the chest.

Ruining a whole hour of work in an instant.

“Ah, shit,” I cursed out loud without thinking, standing up abruptly and tearing the page out and throwing it far from me.

Even when she’s not here, she causes me problems. Such reflections only made me frown more, sitting back down and settling again at my desk.

“Start over again,” I sighed, picking another pencil from the mess resting on the desk, ready to trace another drawing. I froze, staring at the blank page.

Now I didn’t feel like doing anything at all. It was 5 in the afternoon, with a scorching heat. I couldn’t use my computer or console; they had locked everything in their room when they arrived.

So, all I could do was draw at this moment.

Sure, the idea of disobeying had crossed my mind, but knowing them, if they found out, it would be much worse for me.

Watching the sun slowly set, I felt my eyelids grow heavy, just watching the sunset made me sleepy.

(Withdrawal from LoL)

Not thinking about it any further, I lifted myself from the plastic chair and walked to let myself fall onto my bed.

Looking at the ceiling, I wondered if maybe I should wait a bit before sleeping. I didn’t want more nightmares, but what could I do? Even though I hadn’t done any exercise, mentally, I was a wreck.

Family-wise, educationally, and romantically speaking, it was a disaster.

“Well, now only the social~, oh right,” I stopped, thinking about my words before saying them. I knew I wasn’t on a good streak, and I definitely felt like I should be careful with what I said.

Now that I thought about it, I could see a certain distance between my friends and me. I didn’t want to notice, but being without any distraction made me think more about things. Well, it would make sense if I ended up alone, after all, they were the same friends we shared.

“I will be that blank page, with nothing, maybe even start from scratch.”

“I wonder what nonsense they talk about now.”

And so, as I thought and overthought everything, I slowly fell into unconsciousness.