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How bad can a good girl get?
With her entire future planned out in excruciating detail, all Adelina Baker wants is to protect her little brother and maybe do things that she never thought she would along the way. And who better to teach...
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"She loves too much, and you could see it in her eyes: where she kept all the hearts she put ahead of her own"
-Ariana Dancu
✥ ✥ ✥
A HEADACHE GROUNDS on my temples. It pounds, the pain is sharp and heavy across my face where the marks from last night formed. The fact that the sun is streaming through my window, hitting my eyes, doesn't help either.
I look at the clock on my nightstand.
6:40 am.
I curse in my mind, thinking about going through another day. But what worries me the most isn't what happens during school, but in my own house at night.
Sammy is still asleep, his chest calmly rising and falling as he breathes deeply.
My feet touch the cool ground and I carefully move off the bed so I don't end up waking him, at least not yet.
I go straight to the bathroom, avoiding my reflection in the mirror. My puffy eyes and bright red left cheek were something I didn't want to see. They were reminders of my father's acts.
But I can't help looking at my thigh as I walked in the shower. It's now purple with a little bit of blue tint at the edges. The bruise hurts, making me hold my breath whenever I move quickly or accidentally brush it against something.
The scalding water runs down my neck, slightly relieving the headache I have as I relax. But it still pounds against my head as a constant reminder of all the worry and pain.
A while later, after taking a long shower, I choose a dark red v-neck sweater and some light blue ripped jeans. I compliment my simple look with a pair of light brown ankle boots, my mom's heart necklace, and little gold earrings. And my long dark brown hair is piled into a messy bun on the top of my head.
I don't bother to apply mascara to the long eyelashes surrounding my dark brown eyes or even lipstick on my heart-shaped lips. All I do is apply some blush to my right cheek so no one notices what really happened on the left one.
7:00 am. Time to wake up Sammy.
I sit next to him on the bed and run my fingers through his chestnut curls, his green eyes that resemble so much my dad blinking open as he yawns. My little brother smiles, making me smile too.
"Morning, Sammy," I say, kissing his nose. He giggles and rubs his eyes.
"Morning, Lili," my brother whispers before quickly standing up and running to his bedroom to get ready.
I chuckle as he roars down the hall, pretending to be a lion because of his pajamas.
I would do anything to protect my brother.
Anything.
As I slowly go downstairs, the maple syrup smell starts to get stronger. Almost halfway down the stairs, I see my dad cooking pancakes in the frying pan, humming what mom used to sing to us during breakfast. It makes me roll my eyes.
