This year, on New Year's, no one celebrated. I noticed my parents didn't go to a party and get waisted. Amy didn't kiss her boyfriend. She stopped caring about herself and soon her beautiful blond hair became a dark blond and there were hundreds of knots and tangles in it. I started to see red lines on her arms. She always warned me about cutting and how it becomes an addiction. Amy stopped for me. Why did she begin again? Wasn't she happy her little sister finally got lost?
Alex sat against his bed and tossed a ball against the wall. He had similar scratches on his shoulders and thighs where people wouldn't see them. Alex was getting thin. Too thin. If you blinked you had to find him all over again. It was scary to watch as this all happened.
My parents would sit and "watch" TV. Really a show neither cared about would play and they would stare blankly at the wall next to it or at the show on. Everyone was letting themselves go. None were smiling ever. Alex and Amy were missing more and more school. They all seemed so sad I was gone.
I thought they would be happier without me.
