Forbidden

~Chapter Eight~

This chapter is dedicated to all of you who have stuck with me. I am so appreciative of your support, and look forward to reading your comments each day. I love you all! There are, as I've said before, no words to express my gratitude to you.

Anyway, here's chapter eight! Since this story is longer and seems to be read a bit more often, I decided to do another chapter of this instead of Caged Animals. So if you're reading that story, I'm sorry! You'll just have to wait a little bit longer!

Anyway, ENJOY!!!!

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~Chapter Eight~

Arabella stared up at the sky, forming the clouds into pictures with tears streaming down her face. She had witnessed River’s argument with his friend, and couldn’t believe what she had heard. “My choices don’t affect you at all,” he had screamed. “My choices don’t affect you at all.” How could he think that?

            Arabella rolled over onto her side, relishing the warm sunshine playing with her skin. The grass tickled her bare arms and legs, her sundress sprawled around her. No matter how beautiful the day was or how stunning her clothing was, though, it couldn’t stop Arabella’s tears from falling.

            The world was linked. Every choice a living being made somehow affected every other living thing around it. Humans, animals, even plants…whatever happened to them forced others to suffer the consequences, as well. Every mistake led to punishment for more than just the being who had made the mistake: their loved ones were punished too. Every display of happiness that occurred caused others to rejoice, as well. Arabella had thought that all humans knew that; she had thought that they had the amount of intelligence needed to comprehend that. But, unfortunately, she was wrong.

            Why had River become infuriated at Brock’s warning? Why had he not taken heed? Did he truly love Meaghan Burke now?

            These questions circulated throughout Arabella’s mind, like music played on repeat. However, though the questions may have bothered her, Arabella had an even more important one in her mind.

            Were they too late to save him?

***

I was still shaking from the fight with Brock when I walked in the door. I heard Layla prancing around upstairs as Mom flew by me. “You didn’t forget that you have to babysit today, did you?” she asked in a whirlwind of words. “Good. I’ll be back at nine!” With a quick kiss on my cheek, she was out the door and flying down the road in her vehicle.

            I groaned, tossing my backpack onto a kitchen chair. I had forgotten. Mom should’ve reminded me this morning. At least then I would have been less inclined to immediately get into a fight with my best friend. Maybe then my mood would be greatly improved.

            I opened the pantry door, scavenging for something edible to eat. After staring at one particularly bare shelf for a while, I sighed and grabbed a bag of chips. It seemed that with Mom working late nights and constantly having to go to court, our house was running low on food supplies.

            I snapped open the bag, the resounding “pop!” agitating my nerves even further. I reached in a hand and pulled out one chip, a salty, fattening piece of heaven. Popping it into my mouth, I turned to go upstairs and start my homework.

            I choked, pathetically gulping in air as my chip came back up, partly regurgitated. Layla stood in front of me, white as a sheet. She clutched her ragged teddy bear to her, with her Barbie doll dangling from one hand. She looked horrified, as if she had seen a ghost. I swallowed what remained of the chip and set down the bag.