Deteriorate

Three

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NATALIA POV

I woke up close to midnight and the edges of my eyelids were crusted with dried tears. I rubbed my face and pulled my knees towards me, resting my chin.

I replayed the events that happened that day.

First Jason and his idiotic girlfriend getting spazzilistic with me. Then I come home to drunk parents who don't seem to give two craps about me. What a wonderful life, I thought.

My mind went back to Jason. I hated to admit that I kind of took a liking to him, as odd as that sounded. He had that bad boy vibe going on but also seemed vulnerable in a sense.

I pulled myself off of my bed and walked slowly over to my desk. I had everything neat and organized. My pens were in a flowered cup in the left corner, and my laptop was in the middle. In the right corner of my desk sat a picture of my parents and I at Disneyland. I was 5 at that time. In the photo, I was in the middle grinning away with Mickey Mouse ears plopped on my head. My dad was smiling his crooked smile beside me and my mom was in the background waving at the camera. We looked happy.

I picked up the photo and chucked it across my bedroom in anger. It hit my cream-colored wall before falling to the ground, and I heard glass shattering.

I sat in my desk chair in disbelief at what I had just done. Half of me felt bad but the other half? Not so much.

My laptop bleeped and I jumped and banged my elbow on the desk.

"OWWWWW!" I shrieked. My elbow was all red. Great, I thought. I'm bound to have a bruise now.

I opened up my laptop and saw an IM from Ariel on Twitter.

Ariel369: u all good?

Natalia_M: yeah why wouldn't I b?

Ariel369: Carmen?

Natalia_M: oh that was nothing. :)

Ariel369: she is such a cow.

Natalia_M: Definitely. LOL

Ariel369: well im gonna call Cesar and then hit the sack. ttyl

Natalia_M: ttfn :)

I exited out of messages and found myself typing 'Jason McCann' into the search bar.

Twenty-six accounts popped up and I scrolled through until I saw his picture. He was shirtless in the picture and holding a beer. I rolled my eyes. Of course.

I looked at his stomach. He seemed to have a little six-pack going on there. I forced myself to click on his username and looked at some of his tweets. He only seemed to care about alcohol, his car and his girlfriend. I sighed. He would never go out with me. I didn't want to drool over him. Besides, Carmen wanted to beat me up as it is.

I was hopeless.

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