Asundered Soul

Chapter 1

Stretching my afflicted limbs, my eyes adjust to the bright light and I groan from the shearing pain in my muscles. Yawning loudly, my eyes lazily trail to my phone to shut off the ear splitting voice of the alarm. I silence it with sleep lidded eyes, my hair spread all over my face in an ungraceful manner.

8 am, ugh time for school.

I push myself off the bed letting out another deep yawn that sound exactly like a monster's groan. When I walk over to my dressing table, I wince at the abominable sight of myself in the mirror.

My midnight black hair cascades down my shoulders in waves some of it sticking to the drool at the edge of my chin. My jade blue eyes stare back at me tiredly and my cream complexion looks pale. I enter the bathroom, brush my teeth and get out of my night clothes into jeans and a fitted black shirt. I brush my tangled hair and pull them back into a high pony tail.

"Zoella, get up already or you are going to be late!" My mom says in a high pitched voice from downstairs.

I grab my backpack, check myself out in the mirror one last time and rush down to see my father and little sister on the dining table eating breakfast silently.

"Good morning." I chirp which gets the attention of my family. Mom comes over to me giving a small peck on my cheek. I smile sweetly at her while grabbing a chair and sit opposite to my father. Giving a small smile to Lucy, my little sister, which she returns back, I start stuffing my toast with strawberry jam and have some fresh orange juice along with it. When I'm done dad looks up from his newspaper.

"Darling, this is your first day at school. You sure you don't want Mom to accompany you?" Dad says with a concerned expression, his bushy eyebrows raised.

"Dad, don't worry. I will be fine on my own." I say with a tight lipped smile.

He nods but doesn't acknowledge any further. He knows how much I loathe being treated like a child, but I didnt miss the glances Mom and Dad exchanged.

"Zoe, you know we have financial issues and that-", Mom mutters, her voice dark, but I interrupt her about-to-start nonstop rant. She fiddles with the knot of her apron and turns to face me.

"Mom." I address her with a forced smile. "I promise you and Dad," nodding towards him,"that I wont let you guys down this time. I will do my utmost in school and get a scholarship. And so you won't have to pay for me again. I affirm you that I won't be a burden, really." I finish in a small voice, my eyes gazing down onto the table. A buried memory surfacing it's way up into my head and I try pushing it down. My throat constricts as I remember the day Mom had completely gone insane on me.

"I didn't mean-," Mom starts again but I brush it off.

"It's okay, I should get going now or I'll be late. Bye everyone." In a flash of a moment I get up, grab my backpack and keys, walking to the shoe-rack.

"Bye Zoe." Lucy mutters in a small voice, unaffected by the intense altercation.

I get out of the front door and walk over to the bus station which is a 5 minute walk from my house. Taking a seat in the middle of the bus, I place my bag beside me and stare out of the window. My mind strays off to the day I flunked my 9th class.

And I failed not just the class but also my parents and their pride in me. Though, I admit, it was all my fault. If I hadn't trusted Brandon, I wouldn't have been bullied to such an extent that my physical presence didn't matter in class if I mentally wasn't there. I would numb myself out and drown in the depths of my thinking. I would condemn myself for all the bad luck, for betrayals. Basically for everything. Gradually, I lost interest in being a bright student, a responsible daughter, and a caring sister. I isolated myself from the world and stayed crawled up in my bed for days.