6 Packin'

Dust scattered out on the naked mattress as a suitcase was thrown on top of it, causing her to cough and frantically waved it away.

"Damn dust." She heaved as she continued wheezing out a violent cough while unzipping the suitcase, swiftly flipping it open, she strolled over to her closet, sliding the doors open and frantically pulled her clothes off its hangers, throwing them into the suitcase. She strolled away while furiously pulling her dampened hair back, she was now in front of her drawers, she paused and stared down at the polished wooden handle, the information that she just received weighed heavily on her heart and her mind. She was having a hard time breathing as she began to heave in and out. She slapped her hands on top of the drawer before her knees gave up on her causing her to buckle down. Charlie couldn't face the fact that she was trapped, that she was sold out by someone close or at least you can call close. The anger that she was feeling caused her to bang onto the drawer hard as she let out an enraged scream.

"Charlie, I didn't mean to!" Her sister's words echoed in her head as the situation that happened only minutes ago was replaying in her mind like a broken record. She sucked in a wad of air and fastened her eyes. She let the memory replay itself once more, the pain that she felt in it coming back. That pain poked at her mind and her lungs as she felt like she was a sizzling pot of water.

"How could you do this to me?" Honestly, at this moment, Charlie wasn't surprised anymore. Her sister sold her out to some rich guy, what was there to think about? She knew it was going to happen to her eventually, she knew her sister would continue to push her, but now she was just beating the nail deep into the wedge. Hell she even used Charlie just to cover up her own problems in her own life.

"I was drunk!" Her sister claimed, as she was trying to make her "mistake" valid by pleading the excuse that she was "drunk", but Charlie could see right through her. 'Shallow thick skulled bitch,' Charlie would habitually think to herself each time her sister came to visit which was dreadful, but this; this! This was just low; low even for her sister. Charlie huffed, "Of course it's always that!" She was instantly recalling how many times that her sister let her down, those memories. She shouted each one of them, each incident in short sentences.

"But this...this is just the tip of the fucking iceberg isn't it, Vivan? This is just another sob story for poor big sister Vivan, hm?" She was beyond furious, anger wasn't the thing to begin with. Shouting, no screeching in some kind of emotion, Charlie didn't even notice that the things around her were pushed out of her way. She stomped her way towards her sister not detecting the thin cracks or creaks that were happening while she stomped down on her wooden floor boards. Her sister was frightened, unable to move because of fear and shock coursing through her body. She never seen Charlie so angry in her life, besides that day. That day was dreadful.

As tensions between the two continued to rise and their world's continued to collide with each other, smashing into a long war of oppression and anger towards each other until one sister stopped to detect the large and small cracks that were now forming around the apartment walls as the other was too busy screaming at her. Vivan's eyes followed those deep cracks that were promptly making their way to connect with the big ones as her eyes continued to track them to the ceiling. She noticed the ceiling was becoming weaker as her sister continued to scream in anger.

Charlie noticed her sister wasn't paying attention to her, but actually paying attention to the ceiling instead. The expression on her sister's face, made Charlie's screaming go silent as she finally was hearing the cracks within her own apartment walls. She gradually lifted her head to her best friend, the cracked ceiling, but now the bigger cracked ceiling. Charlie began gathering realization that if she continued screaming in anger, her apartment would crash down on her and her sister, crushing them both somehow. As she proceeded to stare at those cracks, she gulped and fastened her eyes, letting out a slow exhale.

Reopening her eyes, she let out another slow exhale, taking her time to pull herself up by using the dresser for help. She had no time to be in her feelings about this, about her sister, about anything! The only thing that Charlie knew was that she had to move, get out, go into hiding that was the only thing that was coursing through her brain.

***

Slamming the suitcase close, she wiped the tears she shed while packing. Her eyes narrowed to the floor as she stood there silently. She was thinking why. Why did this have to happen to her? She was on the right path and everything, she was becoming much better, and she hasn't really been smoking. Is that why she's getting this karma; for smoking? Smoking. God knows that couldn't be it. The universe is going against her for smoking. Thinking about that made Charlie think about another thing from her past.

Looking back at the old memory was sometimes painful, hell a nightmare, but as Charlie grew more older, she learned to accept it.

"Charlie, you can't always hold a grudge against me." Charlie's mother whispered, she put her hand over her daughter's back, rubbing it gentle to know that she was here for her.

"Well holding a grudge is the only thing I can do," Charlie paused, she took the time to flip herself over and sit up, crossing her legs. Charlie remembered looking down at her naked mattress, her fingers picking at the small yarn knots that would spring up occasionally. "I knew you weren't going to come…. am I even important anymore?" Her voice was layered with more disappointment than anger. She had a feeling that every time she asked her mother to support or at least a little bit of care,she forgets or does the opposite. It'll be another excuse over another, another disappointment, what's the point of even asking anymore?

"You're important...I promise I'll come the next time." Her mother's voice picked up it's high pitched determination, she was obviously using this tactic to make her daughter happy again, to put that belief in her back into her daughter's eyes like when she used to.

"You'll always be important to me, Charlie," She pulled Charlie into a tight embrace, but sadly Charlie couldn't forgive her enough to give back a hug.

The knock at the front door yanked Charlie out of her memories, blinking to regain any kind of thought of what she was doing. She continued to stand there in her empty room, she switched her view to the closed suitcase. 'Oh yeah…' she reminded herself on why she was packing in the first place. The knock at the door became louder, it snapped her out of her thoughts once more.

"Hold on!" The hard thumping at the door continued despite her response. She made another response to the continuous knocking by rolling her eyes. It was probably her sister coming to apologize once more about selling out, she thought, but in the back of Charlie's mind she had a feeling that it wasn't her sister. Her small feet pitter pattered towards the door as she got closer, she felt a wave of paranoia go over her. Her senses were heightened themselves already, sweat was slowly beginning to form on the temples of her forehead. When she reached for the door knob, she eyed her trembling hand. "Damn paranoia…,"she grumbled as her breathing was becoming shallow,"...it's probably just your neighbor...calm down...stop trembling." Charlie coached herself as her hand finally touched the doorknob, she held her breath as she was turning it, closing her eyes and letting that breath that she was holding in out.