Some Little Princesses

The corner.

The corner was supposed to be for children, but she refused to leave it. It was her refuge as she sat wedged between a cold wall and an even colder window that stared out over the city. Her parents and brother had been arguing for well over an hour now. She was ignoring them though. It wasn't as if they would listen to her if she tried to talk to them. It was simply better to not even bother. That way she wouldn't have to face the disappointment of a rebuke. Her chin came forward to rest on the apex of her knees that she hugged to her chest. More and more than ever she was coming to realize that she didn't belong in this place. She would have liked to say that she belonged with Andrea, Kellan, Keaton, and even Wesley, but she couldn't say that.

She still didn't belong anywhere.

But maybe it was better to be in a place that you didn't belong but where people actually liked you rather than in a place where it was clear you didn't belong and weren't even really wanted. It seemed the lesser of the two evils. "Izzy! Izzy! Pay attention to your mother when she's talking to you!" Her father snapped drawing her attention away from the world outside.

"I'm nineteen," she said.

The three people who stood across the room stared at her in shock. They looked so beautiful and almost otherworldly standing surrounded by luxury and wealth. She could see a picture sitting on the mantleplace. It was a family picture of them from a year before. She had fit into that world. She had never belonged, but she could see where she had fit into that world. Now, now those clothes itched and tugged at her skin. They pinned her waist in too tight and tried to steal the breath from her lungs and the blood from her veins. She wanted to rip the clothes off and simply stand there before them naked and unashmed. She was tired of pretending.

"I'm nineteen you know. I have been for several months now. You, none of you, have any right," she pointed out in a calm unconcerned voice.

Lewis strode across the room and slapped her across the face. Her neck strained from the force as her face spun to stare at the wall. She was breathing heavily, blinking as she simply stared at it. "Don't you ever speak to us like that again!" he snapped. She didn't cringe this time though. She didn't know when it had happened, but she wasn't afraid of him anymore. He had lost that power over her.

"Go fuck yourself," she whispered in reply standing up. "I'm tired. I'm tired of all of it. I'm done pretending. I'm done pretending that I don't care what the fuck you all think. I'm done pretending that I'm exactly what everyone wants me to be. I am going to walk out of that door and you're not going to stop me."

And for a few silent, stunned moments they didn't either. That was until her mother yelled again. "Andrea get your ass back here you stupid whore!" Izzy turned and looked back at her mother shocked knowing that she wasn't the only one. Her mother's face paled for a moment as she stared at her daughter in shock.

Her father grasped his wife's arm and whispered quickly in her ear before turning a cold and calculating eye on his daugheter. "Get out of her Izolde and if you ever come back, we'll have you arrested for trespassing."

She stood silent considering before she nodded. Her hand was steady as she opened the door and left, allowing it to slam shut behind her. She didn't take the main elevators but moved to the service ones instead. She needed the privacy.

The doors slid shut cutting her off from the world that had reared her. She pressed a button and slowly moved until her back was pressed against the wall. She squeezed her eyes shut tight and bit the inside of her lip hard as tears pressed at the corner of her eyes. As much as she had wanted to leave...she had never wanted that...no...never that.