All Bottled Up (Unfinished)

Chapter Two

Honestly, I love walking home from my sessions. It gives me a sense of ease and relaxation. It also gives me time to think about my session and contemplate what I talked about with Cassidy. My braids drift as a breeze blew through.

Today's session was different. Something about how Cassidy wouldn't stop smiling creeped me out, especially after talking about bottling up emotions. Did she bottle up her bad emotions?

Is that why she is always so happy?

These thoughts flow through my brain as I hop up the steps and into my house. "I'm home," I call out, wondering if my mom will even hear me. I untie my shoes and drop my bag off by the steps. I wander into my house, finding the pantry, grabbing some pretzels, and flop onto the coach, pulling out my phone. My mom is always stuck in her room, typing away on her computer. She's always busy, and never comes to my session or does anything for me. She has been too focused on her book that will never publish. Ever since she split with dad, she has been a mess. It makes me sad when I think about it, cause I do miss him. I do miss my dad. But what he did was awful, and I will never forgive him.

I shake that thought from my head and I pull out my phone, immediately pulling open one of my favorite group chats called "Stupid Stuff". It is a group chat that has me, Ethan, Emily, Rose, and Lukas in it. The five of us have been friends ever since elementary school, and we have this chat to talk about anything. It actually started as a study group chat for us to help each other, but as we've grown up, so did the chat. As I'm munching on my pretzels, I watch the interesting conversation play out about the talk we had at school.

Emily: Dude, did you guys hear what they said today??

Rose: Yes, dummy. I was there.

Ethan: yeah, that stuff seems scary. Bottling up emotions? Weren't we taught to not do that?

Lukas: Does anybody know anything about the bottles? Like, anything?

I perked up. I did know a little bit about the bottles, and I might as well tell them about Donation Day.

Lucy: Well, I got back from my therapy session, and Cassidy was telling me about this "Donation Day" where we donate emotions. And it isn't a metaphor. We ACTUALLY bottle up the emotions.

Rose: No way.

Ethan: That's scary.

Emily: Guys...

I suddenly hear my mom's footsteps and quickly put my phone away, disappointed. I really wanted to see Emily's text, but my mom is a bit strict on multitasking, especially eating while texting. I get up and throw away my pretzel bag as she makes her way into the living room. I turn to her. Her brown hair is bunched up into bun while her face is caked with makeup, but you can still the see the bags underneath her eyes. "Hi honey. How are you? Did you have a good day at school?"

I shrugged to give her a sign that I heard her. She smiled at me. "You'll enjoy tomorrow. Speaking off, I probably won't be home when you get home from your...therapy or whatever," she said, waving her hands in the air. Another sign that she doesn't really care about my life. I rolled my eyes and ran up to my room. I pulled my phone back out and opened up the group chat. I scroll a little bit and read her text. My heart immediately stopped as I read her text:

Emily: Our first donation day this month is tomorrow. During school.

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You gotta love a bit of a cliffhanger ;)