The blinding sun casted golden rays across Carla Domiguez's room, reflecting looming shadows along her plain beige walls which have been screaming at her for what felt like months, dying to be decorated.

Whilst Carla tossed and turned in her sleep, her father shouted up to her, signaling his exit to make his way to his job in a crummy mexican restaurant ran by his grandparents.

The rays of sun shrunk and enlarged as the minutes went by, coming and going at their own pace as they pleased. Sometimes there was almost no hope that the room would be filled with light after being dark for so long, but sure enough the room would illuminate once more.

Carla finally broke out of her deep sleep as a beam of light landed straight over her eyes, causing her to shield them with her tanned, sunkissed hand. She yawned and stretched and her fingertips nearly touched the ceiling while she regained her conscious.

One she remembered last night and the tears that followed, her bed suddenly became ten times comfier than what it felt a few minutes ago. She pushed her face up with the palms of her hands as a pathetic way of waking herself up to prepare for the day ahead of her which she was not looking forward to one bit.

All she could think about was her boyfriend- well, now ex boyfriend; Felix Huxley.

It was a mutual agreement between the two; it just wasn't working anymore. The once bright scorching spark of romance and happiness had burned out into small chunks of ashes scattered over the remains of their fading relationship.

The fact they ended on good terms really made it sting that little bit more, and seeing his face today definitely wouldn't help.

She sat upright in her bed with her baby blue blanket draped around her shoulders while she sipped her leftover coffee from the morning before, a bitter taste lingering in her mouth on the tip of her tongue.

As much as she didn't want the day to start, it already had.

Time for Tuesday.

———

Carla walked through the gates with her head down and her hood up covering half of her vision, she was not in the mood to see, interact or even breathe if she was not required to.

She felt numerous eyes following her every move, she rolled her own in annoyance as to why everyone was so bothered. Probably because she didn't get stopped at the gate and checked for contraband like she usually does every day, she just couldn't be bothered to deal with the hassle, her services were stopped for now until she got past this harsh heartbreak.

The latina heard footsteps coming in her direction, she pivoted and turned the other way but before she could take a step, a firm grip on her shoulder swung her back around and she was greeted by the better twin of the Huxleys, Theodore.

"Carla! How are you?" Theodore Huxley was 'the better twin' and one of the most positive people to every bless Kindergarten Academy, his optimism radiated off of him and anyone within a twelve mile radius would feel a surge of excitement.
He beamed upwards towards his friend, completely oblivious to what happened the night prior involving her and his twin brother.

Carla chuckled silently, of course Felix didn't tell him anything. "Has Felix seriously not told you anything of what happened last night?"

"No...?" The boy scowled in confusion and tried to think of when his brother last spoke to him.

The latina scoffed and rolled her eyes once more, "Typical Felix.." She crossed her arms and walked away into the school building.

///

The day felt endless, Carla felt as if she was a small bird trapped in an infinite birdcage and all she could do was fly around and wait for her release; which she had no faith would come soon.

She dragged herself over to the lunch table and forced herself to take a bite of her depressing packed lunch she had made.

The whole group looked at her, then to each other, and then to her again. All of them were waiting for one of them to speak up and ask what happened.

"Uhm.. Carla? How are you feeling? You look.." Penny started and before she could finish the drama queen of the group interrupted her.

"Like someone hit you with a bus." Kid grimaced

"Thanks Kid, that's just what i need at the moment." Carla smiled cynically at him and took an aggressive bite of her sandwich, which was just two slices of crusty bread and the tiniest bit of butter coating the middle.

"What's up? We're all worried for you." Lily reached out and held Carla's hand and caressed it with her thumb.

"Me and Felix ended things last night." Carla shrugged and did a pitiful smile towards the group whilst watching their faces contort.

"That stupid little bastard! If he knows what's good for him he'll-" Billy started to go on a tangent before realising something, "That's why Cindy's looked so happy today." He shot a piercing look towards Cindy Cyprus: The most stuck up girl in the whole school.

Cindy was like a real-life version of Barbie, except if Barbie was a complete two-faced snob who couldn't keep her mouth shut or her hands to herself. Rumour has it, Cindy has had in on with every guy in the grade and more. She was also known for being a boyfriend stealer, and she had just proved that.

"I heard that Cindy was flirting with Buggs the other day in Calculas?" Lily widened her eyes in confusion and utter disbelief.

"I saw Cindy feeling up Jerome at one of his parties a couple weeks ago!" Teddy gasped at the mere thought of that scenario.

"Nugget knows that the mean Cindy and the weird Alice have been conversing a lot recently, but Nuggets friends did not hear that from Nugget." Nugget looked around and whispered his gossip to the group, causing multiple gasps and complete shock around the table.

And Carla just sat there, seeing how easily a girl can destroy a relationship and move on to another boy as if nothing happened.

"Hey.. wasn't Cindy and Felix one of the hookups that happened at Jerome's party?" Lily turned towards Carla.

The colour drained from the Latinas face as the memories flooded back. She wanted to throw up on the spot there. No wonder Felix was so apologetic and wouldn't give a reason.

That stupid little-

"What's up with Monty?" Billy turned around and faced the group once more, interrupting the gossip session they were having.

Carla's gaze wandered from Cindy over to Monty, who was sat at the end of the Smart Kid's table with his ruby red cheeks resting in the palms of his pale hands as he stared directly into the table, nothing going through his mind.

"Well, i'm assuming after finding out Cindy hooked up with Felix at the party he dumped her." Penny said sadly, looking at her older brother and how upset he looked.

Carla's eyebrows furrowed. They were business rivals and hated each other guts but seeing how distraught he was she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of sympathy for the guy. After all, she was going through the same thing.

For the rest of lunch Carla just sat in silence, longing for the despair to be over or, even better, for it to swallow her whole. How was she ever meant to overcome this? The guy she introduced her parents to, the guy she had her first kiss with, the guy she even took to her brothers wedding. That was all gone. There's no more of their relationship and that's just how it's going to be. She can't wave a magic wand and make everything perfect.

If only she could.

///

The walk home from school was a relief and a burden at the same time: The latina was glad to be rid of Felix, but being away from her friends would leave her alone with her thoughts.

She dragged her red converse sneakers Felix had once got her as a birthday present along the jagged gravelled concrete. Anything and everything reminded her of him; from certain boys to even small things like the colour navy blue. Carla couldn't shake the feeling of Felix Huxley off of her and it was slowly killing her.

By the time she got home her brothers were already ready for bed, thankfully her father got home from work earlier which saved Carla a lot of hassle.

She ran straight upstairs to her room, chucking her back beside her cluttered white vanity before flinging herself onto the comfort of her bed.

All Carla did that night was stare up at the ceiling and wonder why. Why her? Why her relationship? Did she do something wrong? She knew she didn't; 99% of her knew she didn't, but there was that 1% of her that was skeptical and that was eating away at her, or at least what was left.

Eventually, between the agonising thoughts and her tiredness she fell asleep. The pain ended for that time and was just waiting for her to wake up to pounce back on her like a lion.

Heartbreak is cruel, but girls are the cruelest.

Cindy Cyprus would get what's coming to her, it was only a matter of time.

But for now all Carla wanted to do was sleep it off.

———

hellooo! first chapter out FINALLY
have i had this in my drafts for 2 weeks? maybeeeee
how are you all? i hope you're good and i really really hope you liked this
chapter 2 coming soon👀