Playing With My Heartstrings Read Free Page A

in my throat and all I could do to express the way I felt was cry as if I was a young, helpless child. Big, fat salty tears rolled down my face and my cries were the only sound I could hear in the whole of the forest. Cassie - I assumed - wrapped her bare, warm arms around my torso and cradled me as though I was a young, helpless child. Perhaps I'd gone back to being the messy, teddy bear-loving and surely emotional two year old Sadie for a moment, but I couldn't have cared less.
     
    "Sadie, we've got to go home now." Cassie's whisper was spoken so softly that I strained my ears to hear her, which made my head ache beyond what I thought was possible.
     
    Cassie grabbed my arms as I made my first (unsteady) attempt to get off the ground, which nearly made me lose what little balance I had left, but my little sister never let go of me. Not even for a second did she loosen her grip on my probably-sore and bruised hands. I'd have to pay her back sometime later.
     
    Further ahead, the light had just come back in view and I could now see Mum and Dad, whose faces made my blood run cold. Mum, despite being disguised in the shadows, was as emotionless and still as a stone-cold statue, whilst Dad was a completely changed man. Gone were any traces of humour or a care-free expression usually etched on his passionate, caring face; instead his forehead was lined with thousands of wrinkles which aged him way beyond his years.
     
    Without a doubt, I was in huge trouble and it wasn't the kind of trouble which could be sorted by simply apologizing and giving my parents a reluctant hug. The sinking feeling in my stomach told me that much. As if I was going to go home and suddenly pretend that this weekend - which had definitely claimed the title of The Worst Weekend Ever - never happened. I wouldn't allow Joel to forget it, either.
     
    Mum and Dad glanced at my panic-stricken face once, then turned away and began to walk ahead, with Cassie and I trawling behind them. Not once did anybody dare to mutter a word - or breathe, as the hooting of owls was all I focused my energies on - though I clearly wasn't in the mood for talking, anyway. Like what would I be able to say? My heart had virtually died because my life-long crush bizarrely dumped me overnight? As if anybody would be able to understand how I felt without losing their sanity - I already feared I'd lost the last of mine.
     
    By the time we reached our silver, Nissan 4x4 wannabe car, the silence had grown too much for me. How could I stand to be with those I loved dearly if they wouldn't even say a word to me?
     
    "Mum, Dad," I said, my voice a complete stranger to my ears, "I'm sorry for what I did out there. I-I wasn't thinking straight and..." For the millionth time in just one day, tears began spilling out of my painfully sore eyes and I turned my face away from everyone, ashamed to be letting my emotions get the better of me.
     
    Mum walked over and held me in a tight bear-hug, gently stroking my hair and murmuring that everything was going to be OK. Well, once one hits the soul-shattering rock bottom, nothing ever seems as though it'll be OK again.
     
    Rather embarrassingly, even Dad tried to join Mum and I's bear-hug, his arms awkwardly out-stretched in my direction. Despite being in my saddest-ever state, I couldn't help but quietly laugh when my usually strong, masculine and totally-never-emotional father hugged me, which seemed to express all of what he clearly felt. The tears, for now, wouldn't be giving me the break I so desperately craved to have.
     
    Our group finally disbanded after Mum almost jumped out of her skin when she heard a miniscule, yet loud owl hoot, whose shining golden eyes bored into mine. The owl jogged a memory of the night before when I saw a similar-looking one out on the top of a magnificently large tree shortly before I went to bed. Maybe it was the same one? I prayed so.
     
    Cassie, half-sleep and undeniably exhausted, rapidly leaped into the