Little Sister

Chapter V

At first, a few days passed, and Mia barely left her room. She stopped attending school at all. The assignments had begun to heap upon her, but she didn't bother to do them. She even stopped checking her text messages and answering her calls. Not that she got that many; almost all were from various salesmen. She didn't open her email either. All of the mails from her teachers, who were wondering why she hadn't done any of her work, were left unopened. She barely ate, and she didn't shower at all. All she did was wait. She wondered how long it would take for Alone to fully digest her. She waited for it to consume her until she was truly gone, and the world had forgotten about her completely. She guessed that the second part wouldn't take too long, assuming she wasn't forgotten already.

It took two and a half weeks before anyone checked in on her. By then her room had begun to smell icky, she had lost one and a half kilos, and the principal was threatening to expel her unless she started turning in her assignments. Of course, she hadn't noticed any of those things. All she was concerned with was how fast she would die.

"Is everything okay?" her mom asked. If Mia had still been able to feel, she would have felt surprised. Her mom hadn't visited her room in more than half a year. Now she shrugged.

"What's that smell?" her mom had continued and scrunched her nose in disgust. "When did you last clean your room?" Mia shrugged again. She didn't know, and she didn't care.

"We've received some messages from your school saying you haven't been to class or done your homework for a while." She sat down on the bed. "Do you want to tell me why?" Mia gave her no reaction. The girl continued staring apathetically at the ceiling.

"Are you sick? You don't look too well", her mom said with concern. Mia shrugged again and let her mom put her hand on her forehead without blinking an eye. "You're cold", her mom muttered to herself. She rose up and waved her hand to rid herself of the stench.

"I'll call the principal and tell him you're sick. Try to rest." She left the room.

More time passed, and Mia ate less and less frequently. In the beginning, all she had done was to sleep to make the time pass, but now she wasn't able to get any rest. Her body ached, and she had begun to doubt her plan. It took a lot longer to die than she had expected. Alone had an extremely slow metabolism, it seemed. Her parents had begun to visit her in her room to check her temperature and ask her if she still was sick. They were probably annoyed with her too. Mia wondered if she should just rise and continue with her life. This lying around had made her whole body feel bad, and it was getting rather boring doing nothing. She had almost decided she was going to tell her parents that she wasn't sick when one night they both came into her room at the same time. That was unusual.

"We are worried about you Mia", her mom had said.

"What?" Mia had said. This was the first time in weeks she had reacted to something someone had said. She was utterly surprised. If her parents were worried, then that must mean they cared about her. She wouldn't have thought they'd have even noticed.

"No, just you lay down and rest", her mom shushed and tucked her in. A warm feeling spread from Mia's stomach to her heart. It had been years since someone had tucked her in. The sentiment felt nicer than she remembered.

"You've been sick for a very long time", her dad continued. "You don't have a fever, no coughing or external signs, so we don't know what it is", he explained. "It could be serious, Mia."

"Don't scare her!"

"She deserves to know. But your mom is right; it could also be nothing." Mia squirmed uncomfortably. She wondered if she should tell them that she wasn't actually sick, but she didn't want to ruin the moment. It felt so nice when they sat there and talked to her and cared for her. She didn't want them to go.

"We are taking you to the doctor tomorrow at noon."

"What day is it?" Mia asked. She had completely lost count of the days.

"It's Wednesday tomorrow."

"Don't you two have work?" Mia asked suspiciously.

"Yes, but we're taking an hour or two off."

"Both of you? For me?"

"Of course, why do you ask? You're more important to us than work, Mia, you know that. Our daughter's health comes before everything else." The warm feeling inside her spread to her entire body, and for the first time in weeks, she felt happy. Who would have known that all she had to do for her parents to care was to get sick?

eyes out.