The Heartbreaker's Game

30 - Curiosity Killed the Cat

Jay’s POV

I watched as Heather’s face crumbled. What is that stupid idiot’s problem that he wanted to make her cry? It seemed so barbaric.

She looked down, tears flowing down.

“Heather —” I started to say, reaching out to her.

But she ran passed me, to the kitchen. I turned to go after her but that asshole grabbed me by my hand and swung me around. I glared at him.

“Aren’t you going to serve us now that that bitch has gone off?” he asked me rudely, looking annoyed.

“Sorry, we don’t serve assholes who make girls cry,” I snapped back at him. He recoiled, loosening his grip on me, and I grabbed this opportunity to shove past him before running behind to the kitchen, after Heather.

I scanned around the kitchen. Everyone was busy at work. But then a staff pointed toward the back door, where I saw it was wide opened. Nodding gratefully at her, I hurried outside and found Heather crouching down the stairs, crying.

To get a girl’s heart, a guy must listen and comfort her when she’s upset, I remembered Scott telling us once when we first started playing the Games.

Right.

I walked cautiously over to her and kneeled down. I put my arms around her to comfort her and she turned around, collapsing into my arms. I hugged her and stroke her hair gently. “Are you okay?” I asked. “Who is he?”

She shook her head, crying too hard to response.

“What was he talking about, your parents abandoning you?” I went on, needing answers to all the questions in my head. “Why would he say that?”

“Because it’s true,” she whispered miserably. “They did abandon me.”

I frowned. What sort of parents would dare abandon their own child? Don’t they know that it’s wrong? In Oneirataxia, if you do that it’s torture before death as punishment. This was something that was never to be encouraged.

“Why?” I asked.

She looked down to her feet. “My family . . .” she began mumbling, “. . . we were really poor. We never have enough money to support ourselves, especially for my education. But my parents worked really hard for it. But when it was obvious that I’m not really smart, although I try my hardest, they got mad and said that I’m wasting their money. The teachers suggested to my parents to get me a tutor but they can barely afford to pay for my education fees, what more tuition fees?”

“But it’s not like you’re bumming out!” I argued.

She shrugged. “They didn’t see it that way.” She sighed. “Furthermore, when I was little, I used to fall sick. I’ll vomit the food they feed me and they were annoyed, because it’s also wasting money. They said, ‘What’s the point in us caring for you, feeding you, when you only waste it down the toilet?’ I was a burden to my parents. They didn’t want me to waste their money, so they threw me out. If it weren’t for Alex and my aunty, I would probably be dead by now,” she said sadly in a soft voice.

I shook my head. I can’t believe that something like this must happen to someone who always looked so positive. This is so absurd. “How old were you?” I asked.

“I was only twelve.”

Wow.

She was only twelve.

All this time, she had been having a hard time, struggling with her life, yet she managed to put a smile on her face. It’ll be bad if her parents died or something, but the fact that they threw her out was even worse.