A whim.

Swallowing the sadness building in her throat, she looked up at the ceiling, trying to fight the urge to break down.

"B-But Papa-"

She slowly mumbled, again, before getting abruptly cut off by her dad.

Again.

"I told you no!! Return to your room. Now!!", his thunderous voice echoed in the room, followed by uncomfortable glares from her mother.

As the echo died down, the room was filled with silence. Seconds later, her mother strided towards her and placed her hand on Sorrel's back, shoving her forward. Sorrel caught herself from falling and slowly walked, more like fumbled to the stairwell, running up to her room, the tears becoming unavoidable now.

She slammed her door behind herself and locked it before facing the mirror and slowly wiping her tears off with the front of her wrist.

As calmly as possible, she took the water jar and poured herself a glass of water with shaking hands, breath stiffling as she inhaled, trying not to break into giant ugly sobs.

Finally calming down she proceeded to sit on her desk, sipping on water and logging into her account at a website called CandleLimes that basically enabled nearby people to chat online.

As the screen loaded, she allowed herself to go into deep thoughts.

𝘏𝘢𝘩. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯?

𝘛𝘴𝘬...

𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘚𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘭..𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘳..

She sighed, blinking back as tears stung her eyes again.

The screen showed that she had logged in to her account and proceeded to go to her chats, searching for a particular username. A small shine of happiness started dancing in her eyes as she saw him, her friend, online.

CandleLimes was a weird name for a website but was supprisingly quite popular. She often wondered if the creator was too lazy to think of a name for it.

A ping of text from her friend suddenly popped up on her chats, bringing her back to present.

Crime𝙨𝙤𝙣: 𝙃𝙚𝙮. 𝘿𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙮?

She smiled at the text and replied.

Hothead: 𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙝, 𝙢𝙮 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙢𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙢𝙚𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙪𝙥 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖 𝙜𝙪𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙚𝙞𝙧𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨.

Crime𝙨𝙤𝙣: 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩? 𝘼𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣? 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙢 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥0𝙧𝙣 𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜..𝙄 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣..𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚...𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙨? 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙄 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨.

A sudden rush of anger flooded to her chest. It hurt more because he was kind of right. Suddenly losing her temper she snapped.

Hothead: 𝙄 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩. 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙨𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙚𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧.

As if sensing her anger the boy on the other end inhaled sharply, trying to calm his anger towards a stranger.

Crime𝙨𝙤𝙣: 𝙃𝙚𝙮...𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙮..𝙄 𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙠𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨. 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙣𝙤 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙠 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙚.

Hothead: 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩, 𝙋𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙚?

Crime𝙨𝙤𝙣: 𝙃𝙖𝙝. 𝘽𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙚, 𝙪𝙣𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨, 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨.

He replied, fully knowing that soon this stubborn whim of his' was going to develop into a fight. Heck, it was already a fight now.

At the other end, Sorrel just stared onto the screen in disbelief.

You see, friends were a sensitive topic for her, since her parents used to "select" friends for her before eighth grade, which is when she told them she doesn't want to have friends anymore.

And she told him, her online friend, about it, who just took advantage of the fact.

Jerk..

She typed a final text and logged out, slamming her laptop shut and plopping onto her back, letting the tears flow till she dozed off.

𝘗𝘪𝘯𝘨!

the text showed up on the boy, Aiden's phone.

Hothead: 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢. 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙨 𝙖 𝙡𝙤𝙩.

𝘏𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

Aiden inhaled sharply, realizing what he just did, holding his head tightly he groaned at his stupidity, before grabbing a pillow and punching into it furiously.

Finally calming down, he sighed and plopped down on his chair with head on the desk. And soon he dozed off.

*****

Sorrel woke up to the heavy curtains of her room being pulled with the sunlight pouring in from the windows and falling onto her face.

She ran a hand through her cheek, almost feeling the dried tears and looked at the maid that was busy scuttling around the room, dusting it's corners.

As soon as the maid noticed her she gasped.

"Oh no, madame!! I was so busy I didn't notice you!", she said in her high pitched, French accent.

"Morning...how did you get in..", Sorrel said in a raspy voice while rubbing her eyes.

"Greetings!! I er had the..the.. what are they called again- keys!! I don't want to interrupt, madame, but unfortunately you are er...late to school!"

Sorrel chuckled lightly and got up, stretching her limbs.

"Hm..how late can I possibly b-"

She was cut off by the grandfather clock striking eight and chiming dully.

"Oh no no no no no", she panicked.

Almost sprinting across the room she dove into the bathroom and washed herself off, for what seemed like the shortest time she had been in the bath.

She rushed out, drying her red mane of straight flowing hair hastily and sliding into some pants and a neat, not-so-badly-fashioned blouse and a black hoodie.

Suddenly the time was moving too fast, by the time she was in the car with a driver, it was already thirty minutes late to school, which meant she was going to miss the first period by the time she reaches school.

*****