🦋 MIRA 🦋
I walked out of the building with a trembling body and a traumatized mind. I buried my face in my hand, breathing heavily.
I dragged out my phone and dialled my best friend Ariel's number. She picked on the first ring, and I almost praised her for it.
"Hey baby girl, I'm sorry, but we were just alarmed for an emergency. Let's talk later."
"Ariel, I…" with a beep, the call ended. "Really need you right now, I'm also having an emergency – I'm having enough trouble breathing."
Inhaling sharply, I dragged my distressed feet and got into a cab, ordering it to take me straight home.
I won't cry. I was kicked out… yes, but it's not the end of life. Neither is it the end of my relationship – I won't let it end.
I walked into the house, and my belongings were thrown to my face, "Get out!" my mother screamed.
"Mum!" I cried out. "Mum, why are you doing this to me?"
"I just finished speaking to your Coach, you were kicked out of the team," She snapped, "How dare you come here after being kicked out?"
"What should I have done?" I snapped back, "Should I have committed suicide rather than coming home?"
"Yes!" she said, throwing the rest of my clothes on me. "What are you doing alive if you can't take care of your family."
"Are you even listening to me at all?" I murmured, "Do you even care about me or how I feel? I was just told that my career was over!"
"Whose fault is it? You shamelessly got drunk before the match, how dare…"
"I SAID I DIDN'T DRINK!" I interrupted. "I have never gotten drunk before, Mother how can you believe whatever the media says? I said I wasn't drunk."
"Then why did you fall?" she growled, "Did you do it intentionally to punish your family? Your innocent sick sisters because you think of them as a burden?"
"How could you say that, Mother," I cried, "Even with everything going on, you know how much I love my family, but why do you keep doing this to me? Why do I have to make money and live my life for them?"
"Because they are sick, Mira… you are healthy, so it's your responsibility to take care of them," She snapped back.
"They are not sick mum. Sora is deaf, and Eve had a hole in her heart when she was born, and she's fine now. Deaf people are doing well, aren't they?" I muttered, "Sora is thirty, and Eve is twenty-eight. I'm only twenty-five, everyone has their own life to live, so why can't I live mine? So what if they are sick? What's the big deal about being sick?"
"Get out!" she spat, kicking my luggage, "We no longer need you."
My eyes turned red as a drop of tear fell, "You keep making me regret being born."
I stormed out of the house, where does she want me to go? Should I just kill myself? It's better being dead… right?
"Hey?"
I looked up and found Leo ogling at me.
"How long have you been standing here? Did you hear everything?" I asked, and he nodded.
"Don't mind it, that's just how my family is."
Without saying another word, he pulled me into a hug, tapping my back to assure me everything would be fine.
"I'm okay," I whispered, trying to pull away from the hug, but he held me even tighter.
I had been holding it together for so long, trying to be strong and brave in the face of adversity. But as soon as he wrapped his arms around me and began to speak softly, something inside of me cracked.
His words of comfort and reassurance were like a key turning in a lock, unlocking a floodgate of emotions that I had been trying to keep dammed up. I felt a lump form in my throat, and before I knew it, tears were streaming down my face.
I was surprised by the intensity of my own emotions; I had thought I was doing okay, that I was handling everything just fine. But as he held me, speaking softly… I realized I wasn't okay; I was barely holding on.
The tears flowed freely, a mixture of sadness, relief, and gratitude. I felt like I was releasing all the pent-up emotions that had been building up inside me, and it was a relief to finally let them go.
As I cried, he held me close, offering words of comfort and reassurance. He didn't try to fix everything or offer a solution, he just listened and held me, which was exactly what I needed.
"Why is all this happening?" I cried out, "Is my life not hard enough? Or is fate playing a trick on us?"
"You don't have to be like this, Mira, you just have to find another team that is willing to accept you," he responded.
"With the rumors around? Even my mother believed that I was playing drunk… nobody will accept me on their team." I retorted, "Even if they do accept me, doesn't that mean we would be rivals? I would have to battle against you, too. We only just started dating Leo after twenty-five years of being friends."
"We will never be rivals," he whispered, "I won't let us become rivals, so you don't have to worry, just focus on getting into another team."
I nodded, wiping my tears. "I'll just go back home and apologize to my mother," I murmured and turned to leave.
"Mira," Leo called, and I turned to look at him, "I know you weren't drunk that day, you have never gotten drunk, so what happened?"
"Nothing, Leo. I lost balance while trying to defend, and I fell," I replied, and he slowly nodded.
***🥀***
🥀 LEO 🥀
I walked into my home, my clothes were soaking wet from Mira's tears, but I kind of liked it, it was the first time I saw her cry, and I felt like we were closer.
I slammed my eyes shut from exhaustion, "I told you Mira, we won't be rivals because I'll quit fencing, I meant it when I said I'll leave if you get kicked out."
"Leo," my mother called, "Come here, let's talk."
I walked into their room and bowed my head, "Hi mum, Hi dad."
"How's your game going? I heard Mira was kicked out," Mother blurted out. "That's an opportunity for you to focus more. Even if she wasn't that good, she was still blocking your spot. You would have been selected this year if she wasn't selected.
"Mum, can I ask you a question?" I murmured, and she nodded with a smile, "Did you anonymously post that Article about Mira?"
She looked at me, "Yes. Even though we are neighbors, I have to do my job."
"Mum, you know she wasn't drunk," I growled.
"I don't really care about any of that. Like I said, I was only doing my job," she snapped back. "Since everything is going well with your training, you can go."
"I'm going to quit fencing," I blurted out.
My father looked at me, throwing away the newspaper he was holding, and my mother flew to her feet.
"Are you out of your mind?" she yelled.
"Why can't I quit? It's my life, it's my choice," I retorted.
"You love fencing!" mother exclaimed.
"Not anymore," I barked, "Someone more important to me is involved. So, please… I want to quit now. I've been playing since I was little, can't I just look into something else?"
My father angrily slammed his fist on the table, "Have you perhaps forgotten who you are and why you are here? You are Leo Santiago, the only reason we adopted you was to play fencing, so get your stupid head straight. You are the top Fencing award-winning player, just keep it up that way because that's the only way you will be recognized by the family. Once you quit fencing – you are quitting this family. Do you understand? We only showed you a little love, and you are already thinking you can do whatever you want… fool."