Skinny Love

Chapter 1 - Backbird

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly…

I flutter my eyes open when I hear the well-known melody of Blackbird by The Beatles, a little ray of sunshine has made its way through the glitch in my curtains and I squint my eyes at the bright light but smile nonetheless.

 I stretch over to my nightstand and turn of my alarm before snuggling back into my covers, this is my favorite part of my day. Just lying in bed and enjoying the silence, the quiet. Mornings have always been beautiful to me, the sun rising above the horizon and a new day begins. It’s a clear slate, a new beginning every day whether we decide to take the chance of today being different or not we still have the opportunity and that is a gift.

But soon enough I hear little feet sprinting down the hallway and by the sound of it the destination is my room. Like every morning my door is quickly opened and in runs  Emily, my six year old little sister.

“Morning Sissy.” She beams at me before jumping on my bed and joining me under the covers. I giggle slightly at her enthusiasm and hug her to me and mumble:

“Morning sweetheart.” The little girl in my arms is my sunshine, Emily is the cutest little girl I’ve ever seen. Though I may be biased since she’s my little sister I stand by that. I try to make life as fun for her as possible before she has to grow up and face the real world, she’s just a kid and if I can help keeping her that way for as long as possible then I will.

Emily doesn’t remember our father, he left when she was just a baby. I was twelve, I remember the day like it was yesterday. It’s something I carry with me and if I can protect Emily from feeling like she has to carry that kind of weight around I certainly will. She does not deserve being left behind, but I guess our father couldn’t handle being a father? I don’t really know what happened, I just remember him telling my mother that he “Just couldn’t do it anymore.”  What does that even mean? What couldn’t he do anymore? Was I that much trouble for him? Was I that much trouble that he couldn’t handle another child?

I get shaken from my thoughts by a slap to my arm, startled I meet Emily’s disapproving eyes.

“Sissy!” She whines drawing out the y. “ You weren’t listening to me again, you spaced out like always.” She pouts at me to show her disappointment, I bite my lip to keep a giggle from leaving my mouth and nod at her showing that she’s got my attention. She eyes me suspiciously and starts from the beginning.

“Yesterday a new girl started in my class, her names Jessica. She’s really nice and mum said I could play with her after school today at her house. Great, huh?” She’s practically bouncing in my bed from excitement and I laugh and nod at her.

“That sounds awesome, Emmy. Making new friends is always good.” I’m so happy Emily hasn’t got the awkward, shy and strange personality I’ve gotten. I have few friends, although they’re great sometimes I wish I could be more outgoing, fun, not so serious, more easygoing. But I’m more the socially awkward kid who prefers sitting at the back in class to avoid getting called out by the teacher, I’m that girl who would rather stay at home with a good book on a Friday night than going to a party. Yeah, I’m that girl. The nice, shy one, who nobody remember the name of but who isn’t bullied or anything. I have my group of friends and I intend to keep them, but they have all known me for a few years now and that’s why we’re all so close. We just get each other and it’s nice knowing I have people around me who actually knows me.

“I know, you tell me that almost every day. But I need your help.” Emily looks up at me through her long eyelashes and I sit up indian style and nods for her to continue,