Her Brother's Best Friend - Aching Hearts Series #2

Chapter 34 - Once upon a friend

CHAPTER 34 - ONCE UPON A FRIEND

FOUR YEARS AGO

Emily's head hung low as she trudged her way into school, for her first day of sophomore year. She did her best to tune out the voices around, of annoyed teenagers that babbled on how they would rather be still on holiday, how their holidays were, and how they wished they'd spent their holidays with their friends ... the sole word that kept prevailing in the air was holidays.

Emily couldn't care less. She'd spent hers remaining in her room, sulking, having decided that life outside the threshold was not worthy of her time. Why should she bother? She was alone, completely alone. Her volleyball team had left her behind once they'd figured she would only be a deadweight, Sandra, the one girl she'd been best friends with since she was five, had been the first one to dump her, the others had followed, and now she was lonely and invisible, so invisible that people didn't even notice when they bumped into her, therefore didn't care to apologize.

Emily sighed and move on. It was routine, nothing to bother. She did everything in an automatic mode, from retrieving her schedule for the new year, to attending homeroom, gathering her things from her locker, and going to class. Nothing every changed, the same things happened every single day, this might have been the first day of sophomore year, but it felt the same as the others before this one, with the sole difference of the classes she'd attend.

She was a ghost in that school, nobody even saw her, nobody paid attention to her, barely did the teachers remember her name even. Sure, at first, she'd been well known, for being named captain of the volleyball team at such a young age, for leading it to glory every time, Emily had been about to enter that elite class of sports champions that are eternally remembered throughout decades and decades. Like her brother, who'd been a football star at Sunnydale High, and the photos of him grinning while clutching trophy after trophy haunted her every morning as she passed the administrative office.

With time, the only thing she'd come to think about when seeing those photos was: lucky thing her brother's best friend didn't play any sport, otherwise her days would have been a lot gloomier, if she'd had to start them off with that grin facing her like her brother's one did. Jason was also well known in school, he and his friend had such a reputation that still haunted the school's halls, and their deeds still reverberated in the air as they were recounted, passing from one generation to another, as if they were the immortal exploits of some mythological hero like Hercules or Achilles.

Her brother was possibly the sole thing that rang a bell in people's mind, actually, because the teachers seemed to acknowledge her only when they scanned their list and found the name Robinson, to which a call would follow, and the unnerving question that had been following her since months now: related to Jason Robinson perhaps? Lately it took every fiber of control she had not to snap. She didn't blame them or her brother, though, she blamed herself. Because, after volleyball, she hadn't been able to make her name known in any way. She was, quite simply, a nobody. A walking ghost indeed.

By the time lunch break approached, Emily was already exhausted, pushing through the day was harder than one would think, especially with all those thoughts racing through her mind, the efforts needed to tune out Sandra's voice in every class they had together, the ones needed to dull the ache in her chest and focus on the various teachers babbling their lessons. Lunch break should have been a manna, because it meant that she could relax her mind for a few moments and recharge her energy, in order to get through the rest of the day, but in truth, it was the worst period of all, because it meant facing the beast she'd been fighting since months now. Food.

Food should be something enjoyable, especially for a teen, but for Emily it was the same as Don Quixote's windmills, because she kept losing against it, every single time. Maybe she wasn't strong enough, or she didn't try enough, but in the end, whatever she did, whatever she ate, it still wind up adding to the fat her body seemed to be brimming with.