TIRED

Chapter 3

TW: mentions abuse, blood, suicidal thoughts

Yuzu woke up quite some time before her alarm. So she sat up the bed quietly so she wouldn't wake up Mei because that would be a pain in the ass. She got up and went to the bathroom to wash her face but as soon as she looked into the mirror she felt disgusted. So she quickly washed her face and exited the bathroom and went into the kitchen. She was surprised her mother wasn't there, she would often get drunk and sleep somewhere in the kitchen and leave a mess. This was the first time Ume didn't leave a mess and actually went to her bed to sleep. Yuzu knew why. While she waited the clock to hit 7 am and for her "step-sister" to wake up, Yuzu dozed off. Mei woke up not short after and saw the empty bed and sat up thinking 'What was that last night? I really want to ask her but it seems like it's too personal', so without further thinking she got up and went to the bathroom then kitchen, where she saw Yuzu on the chair, sleeping. She called her out and Yuzu woke up immediately and asked "What time is it?" Mei replied "It's 6:57 am". Yuzu just nodded and went to her room to get ready for school. Mei following her.

A few moments later

Ume woke up and started making bentos for Mei and Yuzu. Of course putting more care into Mei's while just throwing food into Yuzu's. As they were leaving the room she called out to them "Hey girls, come get your lunch. I made you both bentos". Yuzu flinched because her mother never made her any. That was one of the moments where she saw hope and thought that her mother still cares. Well she was wrong. For the sake of keeping up an appearances she made Yuzu one too so that Mei wouldn't suspect anything. As they were leaving Ume said "Yuzu. Can you stay behind for a few moments", the girl that had hope of course said yes and so she did. Mei went off on her own. After a couple of minutes of silence, Yuzu finally spoke "What is it mot-" she got interrupted with a slap on the face. "W-wha-ACK!" she got interrupted once again when her mother hit her with a stick on her back. Ume panted heavily and said "Don't let this plastic filled with leftovers get to your head! I made this for the sake of Mei..." Yuzu looked at her with dead eyes as if the last hope she had for her mother was crushed miserably. After a couple of moments Yuzu got up "Ur-urgh..." with the pain in her back aching. She quietly exited the house. As she was walking she took her bento that her mother oh so carefully prepared and threw it in the trash.

Mei got to her school and was wondering why Yuzu wasn't behind or even at her desk, as Mei did make detours while walking towards her classroom so Yuzu had plenty of time to get there before her. She sat down and looked at Harumin. She was just as confused as her. Meanwhile Yuzu was slowly walking with her cheek red, thinking of an excuse for it. She had to stop a couple of times as her new wound on her back started to sting. When she looked at the time, she was already late, but it was fine because she was already in front of the academy. When she slammed the door open saying "I am sorry for being late" everyone looked at her, scared because of the loud bang. Mei looked at her noticed the girls red cheek. The teacher also startled said "Ahem! It's fine, please take a seat.". When Yuzu took a seat Harumin turned around and asked her "What happened?" and pointed at her cheek. Yuzu said "It was nothing, I wasn't looking and slammed into a pole." Harumin laughed out loud for a moment before covering her mouth. Yuzu just looked at her with dead eyes, which Mei noticed.

It was finally time for lunch and Harumin asked Yuzu "Wanna go to the cafeteria?", Yuzu of course said yes. Mei glanced at her and saw her leaving without her bento. She was very confused. After grabbing something from the cafeteria, Yuzu and Harumin went to the rooftop. They started eating there and Harumin asked "Hey Yuzu can I ask you something?", Yuzu said "Yeah". Harumin asked "What's that scar above you eyebrow. I thought you got it from a fight when I first saw it so I wanted to confirm." Yuzu flinched at the question. She got that scar from the accident and hated it so much because it reminded her of her dad and her abusive mother. So she just said "Hehe, yeah I got it in a fight". "WOAHH" Harumin exclaimed, "Did you win?". Yuzu thought about it for a couple of seconds. "Yeah, I won", Harumin started cheering "WAAAA. YUZUCHI! YUZUCHI! YUUZUUCHIII!" And laughed. Yuzu chuckled a bit when she saw the girls behaviour.

As they were heading towards the classroom, Harumin playfully raised her hand at Yuzu because she knew she was a delinquent and wanted to see her reaction. Yuzu, having so much trauma from her mother, put her hands up in a guard and screamed "I'M SORRY!". Harumin shocked by the exclamation said, "No I just...I just wanted to hit you as a joke." As Yuzu was putting her hands away she trembled slightly that no one noticed. But Mei did notice, in fact she was behind them the whole time and witnessed everything. As Mei started approaching them to calm Yuzu down, Yuzu already had her usual emotionless face and dead eyes. So she stopped and let them go ahead of her. Harumin tried to laugh it off to ease the atmosphere but she did just a little.

The day went as normal after that period. They finished school, and Mei and Yuzu started going home together. Yuzu was ahead because she was tall and had long legs, so Mei was trying her best to keep up. When they arrived, it stinked of booze. Yuzu already knew what was coming so she told Mei "Can you wait outside for just a few minutes", Mei didn't have time to answer as she was already pushed put and Yuzu closed the door and locked it. Mei listened what was happening. She could hear Yuzu and Ume arguing. At one point she heard glass shatter, she flinched and yelled "Is everything okay in there!? Guys?!" After a couple of minutes of silence, Yuzu opened the door, she had a cut on her neck and it was bleeding, quite a bit. Mei shocked started panicking but Yuzu reassured her that she was fine. She entered the house, it still stinked of alcohol and in the kitchen there was shattered glass and a couple of other alcohol bottles on the table. She didn't see Ume and asked where she is. Yuzu said "She went to bed to sleep for a bit." as she was cleaning the mess. Mei still shocked asked Yuzu what happened, Yuzu replied "I was yelling at her because she got drunk again and when I slammed the table a bottle fell off and shattered and piece flew at my neck." That was the only story could come up at the spot because she couldn't possibly tell Mei that her mother shattered the bottle and took a piece of glass and swung it at her neck. Mei had to believe the story because it was the only one. Yuzu cleaned the glass and said she'll go take a bath. And so she went into the bathroom, filled the bathtub with warm water and soaked. She went underwater and thought to herself 'Haa~ I wish I died that day. I had so many chances to die, yet I survived all of them...' She then got her head out of the water and dozed off.

Damn.

Wow, these 3 chapters were boring as hell. I'll try to make the next one even more interesting. Like Mei discovering Yuzu's cuts, maybe her mothers abuse. I'll try to make the story as short as possible. But when I start writing my imagination goes everywhere and I try to put those thoughts together to make something out of it. Anyways, I'll try to make the next chapter as angsty as I can :) -dittos