Whatever Remains, T. Richardosn [brene brown rising strong TXT] 📗

else feels about me.” I began crying over the words and I don’t think he even understood. “Go away!” I yelled. It echoed up and down the stairs which went extremely high. He pulled me up.
“No one thinks that,” he said. “I could bet you that not even Keely thinks that is true. I can bet you that Amanda said all that crap just to make you angry.”
I stood up steadily. “She said she’d kill her child if it looked like me!” I yelled still weeping. Glytherin shook his head and pulled me into him as I fell onto my knees harshly with a lot of force.
He pulled me back up. “I don’t think anyone would do that unless they were crazy murderers. I’m telling you, you’re beautiful, if you believe that, you don’t have to mind what those idiots might say.”
“I don’t believe that!” I yelled. He rolled his eyes up seeming annoyed. “Do you think I’m too over dramatic right now, Glytherin? Well then you can leave, I don’t mind being alone the whole day, I don’t mind committing suicide either, but you’d stop me because I’m the only fairy! Isn’t that correct, Glytherin? Isn’t that why you’d stop me? You don’t want the fairies to go extinct? Well I don’t care about my self! Meaning, I don’t care about the fairies meaning I don’t even want to be here right now!”
Glytherin shushed me now and let me fall down as he sat beside me. This was the worst morning for me today. I was being treated like a ten year old by Glytherin, all the time. For God’s sake! He wanted to keep me safe! Even though it seemed ridiculous, I was thankful for it.
“Thank you,” I said turning my words into a small whimper.
“For what?” he asked not looking at me but straight up. I looked at him though. He now turned to me.
“For the present, thank you. It made me exceptionally happy; out of all the gifts I was given.” He nodded.
“No really, thank you.” He nodded again looking up at the ceiling. That was it? A nod? I say thank you I usually expect something else, like a reply.
“I didn’t think you’d get that.” He said.
“Get what?” I asked.
“The poems inside.” He answered.
“The last one I didn’t understand, maybe the last line perhaps, explain that for me please.” I wiped a tear and laughed and he smiled.
“Why are we even talking about this anyway?” he asked. “It just probably means something different in our dimension than what it means in this one. You probably had the whole thing wrong. It’s probably opposite of what you’re thinking, I don’t know.”

One day, I wish that I can keep you safe.

Safe, safe, safe.

When I heard these words, I didn’t really think of his grandmother. I kept going through the poem in my bedroom wondering what he meant by opposite.
When he said this, I felt like a ten year old, opposite of ten to me, is twenty, a twenty year old. That seemed wrong, maybe it was opposite of young, maybe I could be a sixty year old. I was a fairy, maybe that’s all it meant. I was a fairy, and I was in danger.
I felt my cheek where the bruise was gone but I still felt pain. I took the large jacket off of my back and I let my wings out free. I cut a hole into my school shirt trying to let my wings out. I locked the door now whenever I was in my room. I couldn’t risk my step-mother or Shane trying to come in at any time. They would knock on the doors continuously asking me what happened at school today, or Shane telling me in private, “Orphelia, they were lying, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
And that made me disregard him even more. Whenever he was there, I had a sudden urge to repel and hide. That’s how I felt when I was around him.
I went through my mother’s poem book again. Being locked up in my room was devastating. I looked at the same poem I had stared at only once.

Love note can be written,
They’ll leave you feeling smitten.
Love notes can be sung,
They’ll leave your ear drums rung.
Love notes can be said,
But the one you’ll read will be read.

I thought about this for a moment. It gave me a lot to think about. I could think of a million meanings to each and everyone of my mother’s poems, but to all conclusions, there was only one.


We were all eating at a seafood restaurant about an hour away from the apartment. The crystal lights above us were spraying different colors and everything. The smell didn’t smell of seafood at all, it smelled more like chicken.
The personal table we were seated at was definitely personal. It was parted from the rest of the crowd: the dancers, the singers, the waiters; no waitresses. It was oddly silent on the top. I wore an uncomfortably tight white dress that went down to my knees. We were waiting to be served.
“So Orphelia,” my step-mother said. “I hear what happened at school.” I looked down at my glass filled with water. I nodded. What about school did you hear about? I would’ve asked that if I wanted to be sarcastic.
“Which part? The one with Keely and Amanda or when I was in science taking a test?” The woman stared at me uncomfortably.
“You know,” she said. “You would’ve been pretty if you were born from me, I’m not sure how your mother looks but I’m just saying, you’d be in better shape right now.” I scowled her.
“I’d end up worst if I were in your shoes.” I told her. Shane gave me a face.
“Why are you like this Orphelia?” she asked. “You’re different now; I liked it better when you were nice to me and did not say things-”
“At all?” I said trying to complete her sentence. “You don’t know the thoughts I think if I hadn’t talked at all. Now you know something I’ve been dying to say to you since I could talk again. Let’s hear a few shall we?” I ignored her answer. “Everyone thinks me being able to talk is a bad thing, something’s I think about you: You’re a brat, you raised a terrible son, you always want me to be like you but you and I don’t have the same blood, Shane probably even thinks about that with my dad. It’s absolutely obvious. Aren’t I right Shane?” He didn’t answer.
My step-mother looked at me astonished.
“I’m sorry, please excuse me.” I said getting up from the table. I wiped my eyes away. Why did I say that? Was it just because I was angry? I went over to the bathroom and into the handicapped stall. I took off a black shawl I was wearing to hide my wings. They sprung out of it. I looked at the deep red. I didn’t want them to be bent like Dominique’s.
I wanted my wings to be normal and I wanted to wear them freely, like any fairy in the other dimension could. If I lived there, would everything be better? I hated the princess and queen there. I could never be able to leave, and what about my father? Where was my father? I had this terrible feeling that he was gone, or cheating. Maybe he lost his job? I don’t know but where was he. I hadn’t felt related to him in any way. With him gone, I didn’t know what to do, didn’t know what to expect. The last time he came, was when I was grounded. Sometimes, I couldn’t even remember what my father looked like since he didn’t take pictures, he didn’t come home often and he didn’t talk to me on the phone so I couldn’t match a simple voice with a phone. I folded my wings up against my bag and pulled on the tight shawl around my shoulders.
I stepped out of the bathroom now and knocked into a waiter. “Watch where you are going!” he yelled dropping a large lobster on the floor. He had a suave Italian accent.
I stared at him as he picked the food up and put it on the plate. He looked at me angrily. “What are you doing here?” he said. “Go to the kitchen where woman like you belong! Make me another lobster! Now

!” I refused to.
“No,” I said. He turned around to me.
“NOW!” he yelled. I began turning to the kitchen. I walked in to seeing as much as fifteen woman and fifteen men all preparing food. The woman wore exactly what I did. A man took my arm now and escorting me out of the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“To cook,” I said. He shook his head only looking forward.
“We have enough cooking woman, go to the dance floor, and dance with the men, and every thirty minutes, change start-out partners.” I looked at him confused. I didn’t even work here.
“Change partners?” I asked. He nodded. I went down into the public restaurant where older and masked men were waiting to be approached. My eyebrows narrowed. “Why am I dancing with the men who work here?” I asked.
The man shrugged. “Just go, it’s entertainment; do you remember all of your steps?” Without letting me answer, he threw me out onto the dance floor. A couple of other woman were flung out onto the dance floor and swung into their man’s arms. I just went to the remaining guy as the woman who was supposed to be assigned to him went back into the restaurant.
The man didn’t look at me once at all. He flung me spinning as soon as he caught me and tango music turned on. Another guy looked strangely at me as he was dancing. I was almost flung by the guy’s strength but he caught me by the dress and pulled me back to him. He put his hand underneath my back and put me down slowly that my straightened hair touched the ground. He pulled back unlike the other people and grabbed me a mask. If he wasn’t looking, how’d he notice I wasn’t wearing a mask? I quickly stretched it on my head even though I had