Flashback

[ P A S T ]

Adira was a normal high school girl. She grew up in a middle-class family with her elder brother and sister. Their parents were ordinary office workers. With her genius elder brother, Alex and her talented elder sister Alicia little Adira always seem to pale in comparison.

As Alex had always topped in his class and was said to be a genius student, the Dovino family soon became an envy object in the neighbourhood.

After their second child, Alicia was born, they soon discovered her talent in piano. Under her mother's influence, she too paid attention to how others viewed her and loved hearing others' praise. Besides looking beautiful like a porcelain beauty, she had a glib tongue, she knew when and how to put up a front to gain the other person's favour.

The Dovino couple thanked their good fortune of having double blessings. They had always taken pride and spared no effort to show off their blessing in the neighbourhood.

However, their third child Adira was bright and sharp, but unfortunately, they couldn't find any specific talent to groom her into. They tried putting her in music classes but all were futile efforts. Adira seemed like tone-deaf and the whole struggle was a terrible experience for the couple. Thus, they chose to give up and left Adira by herself.

Little Adira grew up playing and going to school. She was a bright student with a sharp mind. She could understand and analyze any data, info or knowledge very quickly. But she was never competitive. She felt it was good enough to receive around 80% marks. She never wished to be a topper or gain attention. She was comfortable without everyone's gazes on her.

She preferred being left alone in her private space with her little group of friends. She was content with this life, she enjoyed studying at school, hanging out with her friends, having a responsible elder brother and kind sweet sister.

But her parents never felt that way. They wished Adira would be more like their first two children. Although Adira was a bright and spirited girl but compared to her outshining elder brother and sister she always seemed to pale behind like a wallflower.

Thus they always criticized her, finding faults with her. They believed since they could groom their first two children, they could groom their third child outshining as well. Their criticisms became harsher and harsher with time. They felt they were doing it all for their child's betterment.

But those criticisms were too much to take for a young delicate child Adira. It might not show on the surface but those criticisms had scared little Adira's heart, making her feel inferior to her siblings. Feeling like she could never be enough to satisfy her parents.

Whenever she tried to talk about these feelings, her friends would look at her as if she was seeking more attention. She was already so brilliant compared to them, for them, it seemed like she was asking to hear more praise about her when she told them that she felt she wasn't good enough. Seeing the glances her friends gave her, Adira realized no one actually understood her.

She had no one to open up her inner feelings. So she buried those thoughts deep inside her and continued living her seemingly normal life surrounded by her so-called friends.

She did not dare to say her feelings out loud to her family members, because she felt it might break the peace and tranquility the family lived with. She decided to tolerate them by herself. She thought they were only little criticisms, nothing serious, she could handle it. As for her inner voice telling her those criticisms were little by little killing a part of her, making her doubt her own capabilities, damaging her spirit... she chose to ignore it.

-

18-year-old Adira was growing more conscious about her future career. Next year she would be taking the admission test for University. But she still hadn't decided as which path to take.

Her elder brother was about to graduate from Z Nation's no.1 University and had been already approached by many well-known companies. The Dovino couple could not stop bragging their son's accomplishments. Alicia was also studying in a prestigious music university with a bright future ahead of her.

Adira wondered which career might make her parents proud. At least for once in her life, Adira wanted to see her parents look at her the way they looked at her siblings, eyes filled with pride.

She was like a little girl waiting to be adored by her parents.

Though the Dovino couple did not neglect her, they did not pay much attention to her either. Like everyone else, Adira wanted to be acknowledged and appreciated by her loved ones. She daydreamed when she chose a career her parents deemed worthy maybe then she would be finally able to satisfy her parents.

She continued living her life pleasing her friends and family, prioritizing them before herself because they were her loved ones, the ones who cared for her and would always protect her. She felt it was worth it to make sacrifices for their peace of mind. So, as always she kept her insecurities, self-doubts, her inner conflicts all by herself and tolerated all the criticisms with a smile. But what she did not know was that those bonds, their opinions about her had become shackles on her, confiding her.

She thought everything was fine until reality slapped her face.

-

One day as usual her mother was scolding her. She found problems in everything Adira did. Adira might not have shown it on the surface but her inside was bleeding, those words poked her heart. She couldn't take them anymore. She wanted a break from all of these. And that's when her friend called to go to a party together arranged by a rich classmate. To get away from all of these, even if it's for only one evening she said yes.

She usually didn't attend parties because she preferred being quiet and comfortable in her own space but that evening she went for the first time.

Her school friend, Molly was very excited and talked about how rich Jonathan was, how he was well connected with the higher class socialites and this time he has invited their whole class. So she started daydreaming that Jonathan's rich friends from the upper circle would be there was as well, those are the people she could never even see with her status.

Adira decided to ignore her daydreaming and giggling friend. She just went there to get away from her family for a few hours, to take a short break. She looked for a quiet place to seat down and spent the evening peacefully.

Unfortunately, her plans went down the drain when Molly dragged her to the centre where all the rich, popular persons of the party were seating and drinking. With no choice left, she took the corner seat at the very end hoping nobody would notice her and leave her alone. After some time she suddenly heard a commotion and everybody around her started cheering to welcome a guest.

"Here comes Alaric Xavier, heir of the Xavier Clan. Let's give him a warm welcome."

The crowd started shouting again and all Adira noticed was a pair of green eyes. They were mesmerizing. But when she looked at the face, she frowned. He had a handsome face but what's up with the 'I am a bad boy attitude' he was showing off, Adira rolled her eyes seeing Alaric's attitude.

One or two hours passed, Adira started getting thirsty, she wished for this party to end quickly. She wanted to leave but no one had left yet. She dared not leave first in front of all the high-class persons, she wondered if it would be rude or they might feel offended. She tried concealing her presence as much she could but sadly it did not go according to her plans.

One of the flunk type boys at the centre noticed and suddenly said, "Hey little missy, what's up? The drinks here are not good enough for you?" he laughed out and started taunting the host about serving low-quality drinks.

Molly freaked out and started poking her and gesturing her. Guess she did not want to be labelled as a misfit by these rich kids, well neither did Adira. But she really didn't feel like drinking. Then she noticed everyone was staring at her and sneering. Why? She never wanted everyone to notice her, why was everyone looking at her like that? Did she need to drink to prove everything was alright?

Adira thought to herself, "Please stop staring at me… it's only one drink, right? Com'on Adira you can do this. It's only one drink, you can handle it."

She gathered up her courage and took the glass in front of her. She drank it all in one breathe. Eeeewww.. it tasted awful, why did people enjoy drinking this stuff! She forced herself to smile and praised the host for the wonderful drink. Soon others lost their interest as they didn't get to see her make a joke out of herself.

She sat there quietly, with head downward. After some time she started feeling weird sensations and dizzy. Shit! Was that drink spiked? She felt even worse with time. Then she heard a male voice from the centre,

"That's it, it's getting boring here. I'm leaving. Anyone wanna leave with me?"

Adira shot up straight wasting no second at all, "Me!"

She happily thanked her stars, "May God bless this kind fella, because of him I can finally leave this place without any trouble. I want to go home and sleep on my soft bed. But why does my body feel so weird? My steps are getting more unsteady, I can hardly make out which direction I am going."

"Hey, chick which way are you going? Don't get on my nerves. It's this way."

She flinched at the sudden shout. Someone grasped her hand with force and pulled her. She tried taking her hand out and started shouting for help. He stopped.

Suddenly she saw angry green eyes looking directly at her. She whimpered feeling scared. He seemed to get angrier,

"Bitch who are you playing hard to get for? You intentionally left the party with me and now you are acting all pitiful! Useless!"

He started pulling her and dragged her, by then her legs had already gone limp.

"Noooooo… please let me go. I only wanted to go home. Please.."

"Enough of your nonsense! Stop wasting my time. I can see right through your little tricks. My body's already reacting, I don't have any time for your nonsense. Let's just be done with it. I don't want to see your ugly face again, stupid bitch!"

"Please NOOOOOO..….."

"Shut up bitch!"

"Nooooooo...."

"Ple-please don't!"

"Please...."

She could only hear her screams till her voice dried out…but no one listened to her pleas.