Vanilla+brown sugar (Hyunlix)

Lunchbox cake

I turned to the other side of my bed, closing my journal while sitting up out of the uncomfortable sitting position I had been in for the past 20 minutes. I've been journaling for a year. It all started when I argued with my aunt about wanting to go out as normal teens do, and it ended with a slap to my right cheek. I needed some way to vent and let out my frustrations and journaling became my way of coping. Sad,but what else can I do?. It's not like I have anybody I can talk to.

"Felix sweetie, come eat dinner," I heard my aunt shouting from the kitchen. I quickly hid my journal underneath my pillow and jumped out of bed.

"Okay, just a second ", I yelled back immediately. I knew if I didn't respond on her first call. I would be in big trouble later. I walked down the short hallway to the kitchen, entering to see the dining table packed with a variety of dishes and a yellow lunchbox cake placed in the centre of the feast. It was decorated beautifully with white flowers and buttercream icing. The cake resembled the perfect birthday cake. Aunt Fiona is a baker who owns a very successful bakery, something like a birthday cake is something she can make in her sleep. I pulled out a chair and sat down, feeling slightly guilty. Here I was thinking about how I would run away tomorrow, while my aunt had spent probably half the day preparing this birthday dinner for me to enjoy. That guilt quickly turned into something bitter. Although my birthday was yesterday, I spent it alone. My aunt was busy at her bakery, as always. Preparing dozens of cupcakes that someone had ordered for their engagement party today.

Before she could tell me how sorry she was for missing my birthday, which would probably make me feel a lot worse than I already feel. I decided to bring up a topic she hates.

"So when are you going to let me leave this place? I'm 19 now." My voice didn't sound like my own.

I watched as her expression shifted from calm to something scary.

"We've talked about this before Felix, just eat your cake", she said, almost raising her voice.

I felt my chest ache.

"No, we haven't." I started bouncing my leg beneath the table. I wouldn't let her ignore me tonight. I wouldn't let her make me feel like what I just asked was irrelevant. I'm tired of being ignored or her changing the topic into something unrelated like she always does.

"Every year you do this !" she argued, this time raising her voice.

I wanted to laugh.

"I do it every year because every year you tell me the same thing." I could hear my voice shaking. "When are you going to let me live a normal life?."

I watched as she got up from her seat, a knife in one hand

"That's enough." She sounded calm but her expression said otherwise. She looked like she would snap any minute.

I shuddered. "Bu-but-"

"I said that's enough !" She screamed and I watched as she stabbed the knife into the cake. This is the aunt I know, not the nice persona she was trying to put on with this birthday dinner.

I got up quickly, running to my room. Making sure the door slammed behind me. She was right. Enough is enough.