Broken glass

Just like a bird that was locked in a cage, she longed to be free, to fly and see the world and live my life as she pleases.

But dreams are deceitful, just like a glass frame around your heart that allows you to see and dream of what lies outside it but if shattered it becomes a piercing pain that lodges itself into you and makes you wish you never dreamed, that you stayed in the cage, never tried to break the glass and set yourself free only to be left with shards in your heart and pieces scattered all around.

That was how she felt right now as she lays there picking up the peices of shards that were once her dreams and ambitions.

How naive.

_________

She lays there in her bed staring out the window at the birds chirping outisde, flying with not a care in the world oblivious to what's happening around it.

What I'd do to be a bird.

She hold on to that thought as she thinks about tomorrow and how she is going away for college and finally get away from here, finally be free.

No more fake smiles.

No more image to uphold.

No more duties as an ellis.

She can finally just fly.

College has always been her one-way ticket out of this hell hole they call home.

She stares at the clock as the hours tick by and the sky gets darker and the birds go back and she's left in the silence staring at the sky engulfed by clouds as lightening strikes the sky and it turns a deep purple as if it's a warning of what is to come.

Beware it says.

But she watch the clock as it strikes midnight indicating that the day was over and the new day starts and with it a new year of her life begins, one that will hopefully be different from the last 18 years of her life.

She closes her eyes and let the sleep consume her as she think of tomorrow and what it'll hold.

Happy birthday to me.

__________

"Carson! What are you wearing? This is outrageous you're a young lady no man will ever want to look at you in this state!" Her mother shrieked as she climbed down the stairs of the cold marble floored house and into the pristine clean almost lifless dinning room.

"Carson go change immediately, me and your father need to talk to you we have some good news"

Good news?

She turns around and mutes them out as her mother rambles about how unruly she look and how she couldnt believe she was her daughter.

She stalks back up the stairs and walk down the hall that lead to her room as she rake her fingers along the empty and lifeless walls that became a representation of her life in the past years in this house.

As she enters her room that is like the rest of the house, lifeless and cold, she's met by lia, her personal maid, that of course has a look of horror on her face as soon as she sees the state she's in.

No ellis should be anything short of perfect.

Typical.

"Ms. ellis you cannot wander around like that" she gasped out appalled by the pair of beat up shorts and tanktop she's wearing and ushers her into the dressing room where no doubt a thousands-dollars worth dress is awaiting.

Lia has been her maid since she was seven when her mother decided she was done parenting and had other stuff to do and of course she picked a woman much like herself.

And yet again no one can be like vivian ellis so maybe a watered down version?

"Must i wear this?" She said as she stares at the dress that to many may seem like a dream but to her it only feels like chains wrapped around her body tying her down to the title of the youngest ellis daughter -Carson Ellis- a person she never wished to be and can never seem to escape.

"Yes ms. ellis today is an important day! It's your birthday, you cannot wander around the house looking like that what would your mother say." She said disapprovingly as she grabbed the dress and handed it to her and left her to her own accords to get dressed.

She put on the dress and stared back at the pale young girl looking back at her in the mirror, she looked like a lost soul that was in the middle of the ocean with no destination and no one to save her.

She had long black hair full of curls that were always hidden never to be shown.

Straighten it. It looks awfull.

Why do you have to look like that.

It's so vulgar.

the words her mother said to her on the occasions she'd see her hair out of its perfectly straightened state.

Her eyes are a pale shade of green that was once full of life as she was a child oblivious to the world around her.

No more.

She was finally accepted into college a couple cities away from here in and she was leaving in a few days.

Only a few more days.

________

"Carson sit down we have some thing to say." Bane ellis -her dad- said as she re-enters the dinning room but this time more decent.

She walks over to the the chair opposite her mother's and take a seat as her father sets aside the papers he was reading and does the one thing she feared.

He breaks the glass.

Locks the cage and throws the keys.

Ruins it all.

"Me and your mother decided that it's time you push your weight around here and do your duty as an ellis and help the family."

"You're getting married!" Her mother blurts out clapping her hand as if she just announced that she just won the lottery.

All the colors drain from her face as her vision blurrs and her ears start ringing.

I'm...getting...married?

Marriage.

"No." She choked out in a barely audible voice.

" You dont get a say in this it's already decided." Her father says with his arms crossed and dissaproval plastered all over his face.

" Don't be such an ungrateful child! We're doing this for your own good, you don't understand" her mother huffs out.

I don't understand?

My own good?

" Your dad and i already talked to your husband and you will be getting married in a few days we've already planned everything." Her mother said with a happy look on her face.

My husband.

__________

A contractual marriage.

Her father decided that the best way to form a partnership with another family was by selling her off to their son in exchange of some business alliance.

Hayes Co.

Atticus hayes.

Her soon to be husband.

She lays on her bed staring outside the window as her vision blurrs just like the images of her dreams and freedom, the tears stalk down her face treacherously proof of what has just happened.

Proof of how her life was flipped upside down, how her heart was peirced with the shards of her own hopes and dreams.

She stare at the sky as she think back to the day before as she sat here oblivious to the warning the sky was sending her as if it knew what was going to happen.

A warning that her life was no longer hers.

That it never was.