LOVE HURTS

I. Stupid

     Caitlin Crowe never thought that anybody's life could be worse than her own. Then she was faced with other people's realities and realized how nice her life was compared to others.

Her parents were rich, and both cheaters. In life, in games, even in their marriage. If they knew that the other was seeing someone else, they certainly didn't care enough to call them out on it. And they definitely didn't care enough to hide it from their children.

Caitlin had a younger brother. Sebastian was born on December 1, and he was barely old enough to understand what a cheater was. Caitlin cared about him like no one else did, as if she was his own mother. She wanted to protect him from the harsh world at all costs, even if it meant she never had a life because of it.

Jasper and Poppy Crowe were famous lawyers in Los Angeles, even though they were never home long enough to live in Los Angeles. The further away from home, the better, it seemed to Caitlin. It could have been worse, though. They could have not paid the bills while they were away. At least the siblings always had more than whatever they needed.

At school, Caitlin didn't have any friends. Maybe it was because she wasn't very much of a "people person" or maybe because everyone she met thought she was rude. It wasn't that she didn't like people, Caitlin just didn't have as much interaction with anyone compared to most kids her age.

Even though Caitlin didn't get much love from her parents, she never let that bring her down. While she was the furthest thing from an optimist, Caitlin decided that pitying herself wasn't going to help her get anywhere. That's when she finally enrolled herself into school. Lucky for her, she did it when she was going into high school as a freshman, so it wouldn't be weird. However, that didn't help much.

The kids at school ignored her completely. Not that Caitlin wanted to be recognized, then she'd be put into a clique at school and Caitlin hated being labelled. So, she settled with having no friends and being invisible, ignoring the fact that sometimes she would get picked on and called names. But no matter how hard things got for her at school, Caitlin put on the best smile that she could before walking into the house for Sebastian.

The kid was now nine, which meant he was starting to get a grasp on the situation. He, too, went to school, but it sounded like he loved it a lot more than Caitlin. He had plenty of friends and was even excited about what he was going to learn the next day. So, for his sake, Caitlin forced a smile every time they were together, only letting out her anger once a month.

The first weekend of the month, Sebastian was always invited to go to a little kids' sleepover/playdate with a ton of his friends, supervised by the parents whose house they stayed at. And every single time Caitlin was alone, she went down to the basement of the impossibly huge house the two lived in together, to the punching bags and other equipment, and let it all out.

Now, keep in mind that Caitlin was in no way trained. But she worked hard every time she went down in that basement. The basement, of course, was off-limits to Sebastian. So far, Caitlin's ruse about monsters and ghosts living down there had warded him off, but she had a feeling that his curiosity would get the better of him one day and she'd have to sit him down and talk. But until then, she was fine with bloodying and bruising her knuckles until she couldn't anymore.