Strawberries & Cigarettes

Chapter 3

TW: minor negative self-thoughts and connections to child neglect in the flashback. 

If any of those topics/ideas trigger you or are too difficult to read, please skip over them!
I didn't write the topics too graphic but they're serious and could be traumatic to others.

And again please, if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here for you. You are a strong individual that shouldn't suffer in silence, and I know it's scary at first but trust me, things will get better!!

You are loved.

━━━

June 25, 2006

Younger Aurora always looked forward to moving day.

A new house, a new backyard, a new bedroom, a new experience.

But it became repetitive once her family kept moving every one or two years.

They didn't maintain stability and weren't pleased enough to settle with a house.

At that moment when they packed everything from their old house and hauled the moving truck, twelve-year-old Aurora wore a slight smile on her candied lips.

The new house embodied high white walls and a tall black roof.

Two stories, a carpet-covered staircase, and an open backyard that she loved already.

The house was more on the expensive side but they could afford it, so Aurora cherished the scenery of it before the temporary house was long gone.

And it did cease to be a muted memory within her little head.

She insisted to help her family move in furniture or heavy boxes, to not be seen as helpless when she stood around and carried lighter boxes.

Aurora was the youngest of all of her three siblings, and they constantly had to point it out to her.

She believed it was playful banter until that was all she viewed herself as.

Helpless, naive, weak, a burden.

The notions formed tears in her button eyes, no one corrected the words, or her thoughts, or them.

No one.

Not even her parents.

Her head spun in circles from the constant four words that overpowered each corner of her mind.

The summer heat of the state didn't help.

But her eyes were distracted in the clear blue sky that she tripped on her feet and fell to the ground.

Pain struck her knee and she noticed right away she had a nasty scrape.

She sat on the hard ground for a while, waited for someone to aid her, to notice too.

Her siblings walked over her small body, and her parents were too busy smoking on their cancer stick to care for anything else.