I watched from the window as my parents car backed out of the driveway and headed down the street. As soon as they'd turned the corner and were out of sight, I bolted upstairs.
My little brother's phone lay in his bed where he'd left it and I quickly typed in his password and downloaded Instagram from the app store. Nearly a month of being grounded, and I could finally tell my partner why I'd suddenly disappeared off the face of the Earth.
The screen flashed a bright white, displaying the small pink camera logo and I anxiously logged into my account, but everything froze as the very first post on my feed loaded.
"Already on episode 2! #StrangerThings" my partner's sister had posted, along with a picture of the two of them on the couch together.
I was taken aback. We were supposed to watch the new season together. I would have told them anyway that they could watch it without me while I was grounded, but why would they just assume that? Had they forgotten that I was excited to watch it with them?
With their betrayal heavy on my heart, I scrolled to my direct messages and clicked on their profile picture. There were messages from them- lots of messages, but I didn't really feel like reading them anymore. I was too hurt.
It wasn't the fact that they'd watched the show without me that was bothering me so much. It was that they hadn't even thought about me while doing it.
I typed out a generic message: "Hey, everything's ok with me. I miss you though. We'll talk more when I'm not grounded. I love you!" before logging out of my account and deleting the app.
I placed the phone gently back on the navy blue comforter where my brother had left it lying and walked out of the room.
I couldn't shake the pain from my chest all day.
——
"Why did you watch Stranger Things without me?" I asked, laying on the large sectional couch with my partner.
"You told me to," they said, flipping through the TV channels.
"I swear I didn't say that. When was it?"
They rolled their eyes at me.
"Right before you got grounded."
"But that doesn't make sense!" I exclaimed, a hint of frustration in my voice. "I didn't know I would be grounded when it came out so why would I tell you that?!"
"I don't know, but you said I could watch it."
YOU ARE READING
Look What You Made Me Do
Não Ficção"Don't tell anybody about this." "If you just ignore it, it'll stop." "There's nothing I can do to help you." And so I did everything I was told. I shut up. I put on a brave face. I followed all the rules. But that was the past and it's not who I am...
