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“Almost done with your exam, hon--Paulina?” Mrs. James knocked lightly on her daughter’s bedroom door, pushing it open to check on her.

“Yeah, Mom,” Paulina muttered, keeping her graze glued to the screen. She clicked the last few answers for her final exam for her last class. If she passed this, she’d graduate high school and be done with the whole thing, able to apply for colleges for the Fall semester. Once she’d clicked to submit her answers and gotten back her passing score, Paulina spun around in her chair to see her mother still standing near her bed. “You know, Mom, parents aren’t supposed to be in the room while I’m testing.”

“Well, you’re done now, anyway. You passed, right?”

“Yep.”

“So what happens with your diploma now?”

“They’re going to mail it.” Paulina cracked her knuckles, a habit she’d picked up from Ray, who had a tendency to press his fingers roughly into his palms whenever he was thinking about something.

“You’ve never cracked your knuckles before, Paulina.” The mother took a seat on the bed, busying herself with smoothing out the covers. “And you’ve never made your bed before either.”

“Yeah, well.” Paulina shrugged. She rubbed her palms on her jeans, trying to crack her knuckles once more. She had to sit awkwardly, since these were jeans she’d had long before she’d ever gotten taken. They were uncomfortably tight, and rode too low on her hips. Mrs. James seemed to realize this as well.

“You know, hon--Paulina…I’ve noticed that a lot of your clothes are too small on you. Would you want to go buy some new clothes? I mean, I wasn’t going to say anything, but you look like you’re in pain.” Paulina sighed. She wasn’t one for real shopping. She had developed an affinity for online shopping. Less interaction with people, more gratification when new clothing was delivered on otherwise bad days. There were a lot of bad days. Paulina would prefer to buy all her clothes online. However, her mother looked so sad, which made Paulina feel just a bit guilty for being so distant.

“Sure, Mom. Let’s go shopping.”

An hour into the trip, Paulina was loaded down with shopping bags. Her mother had been so excited that they were spending time together that she’d bought her daughter anything she showed any interest in. Paulina begged Mrs. James to sit down for a few minutes, as her stamina was not up to this. She’d scarcely left her room since walking out of school three weeks ago. Mrs. James agreed, but only if Paulina would eat some lunch. Paulina complied; anything to get off her feet. Her back was killing her.

“Are you having fun, honey?” Paulina’s mother smiled at her from across the table they were seated at in the food court.

“Mom,” Paulina said warningly. The mother took a deep breath before smiling again.

“Okay. Are you having fun, Paulina?” Paulina went back to picking at her salad.

“Yeah. Sure. Thank you.” There was far too much dressing on her salad. “Salad’s a bit wilted,” she observed, pushing the leaves around in the bowl.

“Well, you don’t have to eat it,” her mother said, giving her a strange look.

“You have to eat it,” Bob told her, looming over the kitchen table. “I don’t know why every damn meal has to be an ordeal.”

“Look at this. It’s swimming in cheese. That’s disgusting.” Paulina pushed the plate away, sitting back in her chair obstinately.

“You know, Paulina,” Bob said, squeezing his temples between his fingers. “I don’t know why you allow yourself to believe this delusion where what you think and want matters in any way to me.”

“Matter or not, I’m not eating that.” Paulina shrugged and cocked an eyebrow to show that she would be unrelenting.

“Will you just fucking eat it and stop being so difficult all the damn time?”

“Fuck you! I’m ‘difficult,’ maybe, because I don’t want to be here! I don’t need to be here, I don’t need to eat every ten minutes, and I don’t need any of you!” Right as it left her mouth, Paulina realized that she probably should not have said that. She froze, not daring to breathe until Bob spoke again.

Bob sighed. “Fine.” Paulina faltered; fine? That was fine? In what way was that fine? “Just go upstairs and tell Mikey that you won’t eat. And what you said.” Ah, there was the catch. Some kind of verbal abuse. She’d already bumped up to a size two. No doubt, Mikey would make some mean-spirited comments about her weight, size, anything he could think of. Paulina pushed herself away from the table and ascended the stairs, finding her way to Mikey’s room with ease.

“What do you want from me?”

“I’m sure you know that if it were my choice, I wouldn’t be here.” Paulina shook her head and walked over to where Mikey was laying on his bed. She sat on his shins, making him jump and recoil.

“You cow! What, are you trying to break my legs?”

“Something like that.” Paulina brought her legs up underneath her and sighed. “Bob told me to come to you because I wouldn’t eat.” She sighed. “And to tell you that I told him…that I don’t need you guys.” She mumbled the last bit. Mikey nodded.

“What didn’t you eat?”

“My pasta.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t care for the sauce he’d made it with.” Mikey nodded, thinking for a moment.

“Alright,” he said, standing. “Let’s go. Put that blindfold on,” he added, nodding to his bedside table, where a blue scarf sat when Paulina didn‘t move. “And let’s go.”

Paulina sat through the entire car ride, half-wondering what she’d have to do, half realizing that it really didn’t matter until she got there. It was a long drive, as always. As far as Paulina knew, they lived on an island, hundreds of miles away from any civilization. However unlikely this scenario, every drive was a long one.

“Okay,” Mikey said when they finally stopped, removing Paulina’s blindfold. They were at the grocery store that they frequented on a weekly basis. “Go in and get some more pasta, since you wasted what we had.” Paulina faltered.

“You should probably turn the car off,” she said, raising an eyebrow inquisitively. Mikey smirked.

“Oh, no. I’m not going in with you. I’ll stay here while you run in and grab some pasta. It’ll take two minutes.”

“I--I…” Paulina glanced at the doors of the mom-and-pop store as though it were dangerous. “I…can’t.”

“Sure you can,” Mikey said, grin widening. “It’s simple, isn’t it? Even someone with as low an IQ as yourself can do this.”

“Please don’t make me do this, Mikey,” Paulina begged, turning to him and clasping her hands together.

“Oh, why not, baby?”

Paulina had a knot of nerves and anxiety twisting in her stomach. “I--I don’t know. I’ll mess it up. I’ll get the wrong thing. I don’t know, just…please, don’t make me go in alone.” Tears leaked from her eyes and she allowed her hysteria to take over more and more, hoping against hope to incite even a drop of pity from Mikey. “Please! Please! I swear, I’ll do anything, Mikey. Anything at all! Please!” Mikey only chuckled.

“And what can you give me? What can you do for me? You depend on me for your very existence.”

“Anything! I’ll do anything! I’ll fuck you! I will, anything you want! Just don’t make me go in alone!” Mikey laughed again.

“Oh, Paulina.” he said, reaching across and unbuckling her seatbelt. “The last thing I want from you is any kind of sexual favor. Not like I couldn’t take it if I wanted to, anyway,” he added, shaking his head.

“Mikey, please,” she whined, her stomach twisting uncomfortably. She gave him her most pitiful look, but he was so obviously unrelenting. “Please, don’t make me.” A few more tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes.

“Paulina,” Mikey said. “Take my credit card.” He handed her the little plastic card. It, like the card of every man in the house, had the raised letters with their last names scratched away with some kind of blade. And all their signatures were just the first letters of their first names followed by a series of loops. “And go in there.” He leaned over her once more and pushed open her door. “And buy some pasta.”

Paulina gulped, shakily taking the credit card and exiting the car. “Mikey,” she said croakily, turning back to him before closing the car door. “Please. I didn’t mean it. I need you. I need you all. I’ll never say I don’t. Please.”

“Go, Paulina.”

Walking into the store alone felt completely foreign and…wrong. Terrible. Paulina gulped, measuring every step. Something was wrong. Something would go wrong. She would do something wrong.

“Can I help you find anything, Miss?” Paulina jumped. A tall, slim man with long hair, wearing a polo shirt with the store’s logo on it, along with a nametag that declared him a shift manager.

“Uh…N-n-no,” Paulina managed to sputter out. “No. Thank you. But no.” She stayed frozen until the man offered one last smile and walked away. She gulped and continued down the aisles, looking for pasta. When she finally found the shelf she was looking for, she stopped. There were so many brands, types, shapes…

Well, they usually had regular pasta…or was it angel hair? Was it wheat pasta? Gluten-free? Paulina couldn’t even remember the brand they got. She never paid attention to that stuff, but she knew that if she got it wrong, she’d definitely suffer consequences.

Finally, after what seemed like ages of sweating bullets and chewing a hole in her bottom lip, she grabbed a box of generic brand pasta and hurried to the front counter, handing the pasta and Mikey’s credit card to the cashier with shaking hands. She signed for it as quickly as possible before dashing out the door, relief flooding her veins when she saw the car sitting right out front, waiting for her. She yanked open the door, practically leaping inside and slamming the door closed behind herself. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“How’d it go?” Paulina just glared, cheeks pink with anxious tears she was trying desperately not to shed. “Let’s see what you got.” Paulina handed over the bag and the card. “Hmm…” he said, pulling out the box of pasta. He opened it and pulled out a fistful of the raw food, snapping it easily in half and tossing them out his window. “Looks like you got the wrong thing,” he sighed, shaking his head and looking at Paulina, eyebrows raised disapprovingly. “You know, Paulina, I send you in to do a simple task, and in the time it took you to get the wrong thing, I was able to drive to another grocery store, buy the correct thing, and get back here, all with ten minutes to spare. Now, what do you have to say for yourself?”

“I was wrong,” Paulina murmured, staring at the dashboard. “I need you. I need all of you. I can’t do anything on my own.”

“Hmm…” Mikey hummed, smirking triumphantly. “That’s right, baby. You need us. Just don’t let yourself forget it again.”

“Paulina!” Her mother snapped her fingers in front of the girl’s face impatiently. “Paulina!” The teenager looked up, eyes glazed, as they often were these days.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Definitely,” Paulina muttered.

“You have no idea what I just said, do you?” Paulina shrugged for a moment before shaking her head.

“Sorry, Mom, I was…thinking. What did you say?”

“I said, what colleges are you going to apply to? You should start as soon as possible, because the fall semester will be starting in a few short months.”

“Oh, well…I don’t know. I have a few in mind. I’ll get on it soon, Mom. Don’t worry.”

“You know, I do worry about you, Paulina…” the mother said quietly, but Paulina was already lost deep in thought, once more.



I've been assessing these chapters, and how I think each one is going to play out from here, and...Okay...I think...It might end up being over 50 chapters. Possibly. Don't quote me on that, because I could be miscalculating. Anywho, I've gotta tell you guys, the doctor is probably not coming back into play. I don't know why you all got such a bad feeling from him. He's just a bad shrink. Anyway...I'm tired, and I have work tomorrow, so, with nothing left to say, I'll leave you here. Please go comment/subscribe and let me know what you thought of this chapter. Cleared up a few things, I hope. Was emotional, I hope. I'll see you guys with the new update. OverAndOutxx