She picked her body off of the cold kitchen floor and walked lifelessly up the stairs to her bedroom, she was silent as she made her trek down her hallway. Some how keeping her emotions in check until she crashed on her bed in the middle of the room, where she allowed herself to cry freely without consequences.

After a while her sniffles died down and her ducts were dry, the wetness disappeared magically and she couldn’t remember what made her start crying in the first place. It was time for dinner, or a meal that would have to substitute for a dinner, cereal normally did the trick. That’s what she would have, a bowl of cereal, raisin bran to be more specific.

As she sat alone in the dim lit kitchen, at the spotless kitchen table, she was left with only with the option of entertaining herself through her mind. Eating like she hadn’t eaten in days, she inhaled her bowl of cereal afraid that she would at any second burst back into tears for no reason at all. Throwing her bowl in the sink she ran up the stairs and to the bathroom where she felt a little more privacy until she looked in the mirror. Face puffy, eyes bloodshot and red, eyelashes still a little damp. If this is what the brunette looked like at least a half an hour after her last shed tear than she absolutely didn’t want to see her face immediately after or even worse, during.

She blindly reached over to the shower and turned the knob, allowing the water to run freely next to her. She stared at herself in the mirror until she could no longer see her reflection in the mirror from the steam surrounding the bathroom. She sighed, undressed and stepped into the shower, letting the hot water hit her and run down her body. Washing away everything that she hated about herself.

Finally cleansed and dressed in her robe she began pacing her room quietly, before she made up her mind and went into her closet. She moved some clothes aside and pulled out a medium sized cardboard box that had been covered under multiple blankets, hidden from the naked eye. Only she knew this box existed and how to find it, what it’s contents were and what they meant. She pulled out a brown teddy bear, before pushing the box back into her closet so that she wasn’t tempted to look at the rest of what was inside.  The bear had seen it’s fair share of nights, the stuffing almost gone, one eye glued in, a white bandage on one of it’s arms and a brown ribbon around it’s neck. The brunette smiled softly at the feel of the bear in her arms and walked back over to her bed before laying on her back, bringing the bear closer to her. She squeezed it tightly, finding comfort in knowing this bear’s history.

Her eyelids grew heavy and she allowed her weakened body to lull to a sound sleep. She didn’t bother doing her homework or any of her other responsibilities or chores. She was tired of being the perfect student, tired of being a neglected daughter, tired of being someone she wasn’t.

She was just tired.