Curiosity is a dangerous thing

Chapter 1

I made a wish as i blew the candles. It was a specific one. I wished for everything to go back to normal. I wished the night that I heard my dad closing the door with force to be erased. When I opened my eyes I saw smiles and hands clapping. Maybe my wish could come true. I mean, it was possible, right?

But let's take the story back to the beginning. Or where I thought the beginning was.

I was in the last class of high school, studying to get in college. My dream was to study literature. Generally, I wasn't the typical romantic type of a girl, but something about literature mesmerized me and made me feel so vulnerable and powerfull at once, like a drug.

Although everything at school had a perfect flow, at home things didn't. I was in my room every night, while my parents were fighting uncontrollably. I didn't know what the problem was. They never told me anyway.

It was June 16, the day that I finally
finished my exams. One week later, we'd know whether i made it to literature.

My father came back from work and we sat on the table to celebrate the end of my finals. Everything was so good. Until my mom said that we should go somewhere for holidays. That was the moment that everything broke. Or at least the moment that I realised everything was broken.
Μy dad shouted that we didn't have the money to go anywhere, to which my mom responded that we had money but apparently someone was using it behind her back. I was so tired, i didn't want to listen to their shouting, so I went back to my room without them noticing. Their voices were so loud, I decided to put my headphones on and lay on my bed, thinking about the new life ahead of me.

I got up scared when I felt something shaking the whole house. I took off the headphones to listen to what was going on. But instead, there was only silence. I climbed off my bed and made my way to the stairs. In the living room, there was mom, sitting on the floor with her face in her hands.

"What's going on, mom?"
"He left".

And then I realized. While I was paying attention to school, my family was falling apart. I couldn't understand what was the problem or when it started. And of course why my dad left. I didn't ask either.

I made it successfully to literature. But my mom was too occupied breaking her teeth on vodka bottles. I think she stopped breathing when he left. I think a part of her died. I think he took her heart with him when he walked out. Her chest was empty, just a shattered mess and depression pills .

And now it's my 18th birthday, October 20. I see smiles everywhere. My classmates, my grandparents, my cousins, are all smiling. My mom, too. Me, too. But I think ours are empty. And one is missing.