Fireflies

Cynthia Vortex did not break. She could not remember the last time she had cried or even come close to doing so. But as she sat on her bed with her parents standing before her, their most painful words racing around inside her head, she knew that she was now fighting the inevitable.

"Honey, we're sorry, but we're getting a divorce."

The words repeated themselves once more. She wished the spiraling would stop, that they would merely sink down an unseen drain, never to be heard again. Yet around and around those words went, destroying everything they touched. The pain only intensified as more and more words replayed in her mind.

"We both still love you."

"You need to understand it's not your fault."

"I'll still come see you and your mother every weekend."

"You'll see it's for the best. I promise."

If Cindy had had any capacity for laughter, she would have laughed in their lying faces. Did they think her an imbecile? Or perhaps so controlled by her emotions that her misery would cloud her mind? They didn't love her or they wouldn't do this to her. It was her fault, because she had been the source of so many of their arguments. Her father would disappear and never return, because if he wanted to see her he wouldn't leave at all. And this was not for the best. This was like feeling that everything she had ever known was being torn away. This was hell.

Cindy narrowed her eyes and leaped off of her bed. She had seemed so weak, so broken, that the move surprised her parents. She sprinted past them as they both recoiled in shock. Cindy's heart had already broken from their news, but the fragments splintered into pieces as she watched them step back in tandem. The way their bodies recoiled, the shocked look on their faces, the surely false pain in their eyes; they were reflections of one another. They were so much alike, so why did they want to be apart?

Cindy felt the tears slide down her cheeks as she dashed out of her house. There was only one place she could go, one person she could talk to that might ease her pain. Her family may have just been shattered, but she still had her sister.

"I'm coming!" Libby angrily shouted while hopping off of her bed. She rolled her eyes in annoyance as the feverish pounding on her house's front door showed no signs of slowing. "Parents. Never there when you want them to be," she grumbled while heading downstairs.

Libby had thought it a miracle when her parents had finally agreed to leave her home alone without a babysitter. It had been an hour since they'd left on their weekly date, and Libby had immediately realized that she had overestimated her desire to be by herself. The house was too quiet; her music did little to replace the usual happy banter between her mother and father. Preparing her own food had been a struggle unto itself, and now there was apparently some maniac slamming his head into her door.

"Coming!" she screeched. The knocking abruptly stopped, and Libby halted in place at its unforeseen cessation. She slowly approached the door, finally beginning to get worried about who she would find on the other side. She struggled to see through the peephole while standing on her tiptoes and immediately yanked the door open.

"Cindy," Libby painfully whispered. The blonde-haired girl before her was nearly unrecognizable. Cindy's ponytail had collapsed, her eyes were swollen, her nose was running, and the pain on her face was horrifying. Before Cindy could utter a word, Libby wrapped her friend in a tight embrace and slowly pulled her inside.

"It…happened," Cindy managed to whisper as her body shuddered. She felt herself collapsing as Libby led her towards a sofa. Cindy slammed onto the leather seat and squeezed her hands into fists. Stop this. She dug her nails deeper into her palms and cursed the effect her parents were having on her. They're not worth this!