A KNACK ON DRAMA

"Oh by the way... Aren't you forgetting something???"

Aunt Sarah suddenly asked Abby as she presented her open palm in front of Abby's face

"We all have to contribute.."

She added while waiting for Abby to hand her what she wanted.

"Remind me how we are all contributing again???"

Abby, on the other hand, could not help but leave a sarcastic remark as she handed to her stepmom her hard-earned money.

"You. Are. So. UNGRATEFUL!"

Aunt Sarah said that word by word to rebuke Abby's comment.

"And how am I ungrateful?! I worked six hours a day at Santa Land. I do holiday singing grams every nigh---"

"Quit bragging at my face?!!!"

Aunt Sarah refuted her and shouted at her face but unlike before, it was not able to shut Abby up.

It seemed that Abby could not be stopped anymore and she retorted right away. Probably having enough of the other party's attitude, the young girl decided to finally make her stand.

"I'M NOT BRAGGING! I- I- I just would like to keep some of my tip money since you won't give me any of the money my dad left me..."

Abby said in a flat tone although the contempt on her face was so obvious. On normal occasions, Abby would not usually argue with her Aunt Sarah.

However, on that particular night, she felt different.

Maybe because there was this part of her that was thinking that since that would be the last night that she would be going to face that abusive stepmom of hers, then she might as well make good use of it.

She badly wanted to shout at her Aunt Sarah's face and tell her that she was being too much, once and for all.

Truth be told, Abby already had a lot of bottled up emotions deep inside her and it was as though those pent up emotions were coursing in her veins right at that very moment, threatening to burst her apart from the inside.

Her emotions were so overwhelming to the point that she was already starting to tear up. Yet at the last moment, Abby decided to remain silent.

After her last sentence, she just entered a staring contest with her Aunt Sarah. For she knew that whatever she would say next would only be pointless.

Her words would only fell on deaf ears and that was what precisely happened.

Aunt Sarah did not seem to be bothered at all nor at least affected even just a bit by Abby's sudden outburst. If any, the other party even believed that it was her who had the moral high ground and Abby was actually the one acting out of the board.

"Your dad gave it to me to use as I see fit until you turned 18 and I don't see fit otherwise."

Aunt Sarah reasoned to Abby while raising one of her upturned eyebrows.

"Why???"

Abby asked so as she could finally understand why they had been doing all those shit to her on her entire life. Her voice was breaking a little as they reached that point.

Yet it seemed that Aunt Sarah suddenly got offended by her questioning.

"How dare you?! Your father left me a widow!"

"HE LEFT YOU EVERYTHING!"

"Shut your mouth! You know anything can happen before you officially turned eighteen."

Aunt Sarah hastily ended the conversation with those powerful words as though it was meant to be some sort of threat.

After saying her piece, Aunt Sarah left the room which left Abby on the living room again, all by herself

Alone...

Meanwhile, Abby felt another round of headache on top of her heavy heart upon seeing the heap of letters that she was tasked to address for that night.

Others might find it as a piece of cake, but not her. With her dyslexia, anything that involved letters would really be a tough task.

Her stepfamily knew nothing about her condition.

Maybe part of it was because Abby was good at hiding it, to the point that they just simply took her as an idiot who had a very low reading capacity.

Or maybe they just simply did not care.

WHATEVER

"HAAAAYYYY... Well then, I guess this would just be another long night again, just like the others.

She said as she started to work on the things that needed to be done.

Abby was already used to pulling all-nighters.

In fact, it was not new to her.

Since all she had to do was to try her best to address each of the cards, she started from there.

Besides, that was the one that needed her careful attention and effort the most so it was indeed better to work that out first

After all, the rest of the chores was child play for her anyway and she could finish them in no time.

Abby did not give that much thought on what her Aunt Sarah had told her before she left. Her stepmother was always like that anyway.

She had a knack on making almost everything into a melodrama of her own and would always leave the scene with a dramatic exit.

"Hmm.. what could be these letters for??? WAIT! Are they secretly planning to throw a surprise party tomorrow for my birthday???"

Abby smiled upon that thought but she quickly contradicted it.

"No! NO! NO... That's impossible... They can't be as thoughtful as that. Well, at least not to me. I have known them for years already...TSSS.."

And with that, Abby got back to work and busied herself again; trying her best to get the right address for each card by manually comparing how the text on her list and on the cards itself looked like.

Of course, she also made it sure that the stamps were not pasted upside down.

"Here, make sure to have this snack while you work.."

Too caught up with what she was doing, Abby failed to notice that Aunt Sarah came back to check on her. It was only when she heard the other party's voice did she finally noticed her presence.

Aunt Sarah left right after as she put a bowl of cookies as well as a glass of warm milk at the table beside Abby.

"Thanks."

Abby mumbled under her breath although deep inside her, she was already flabbergasted.

She felt like dreaming.

WAIT...

Was it indeed a dream???

Abby tried pinching herself and the pain that assaulted her afterward told her that everything that was happening right before her was indeed part of reality.

"What was with Aunt Sarah today? One moment, she was acting like her usual annoying self then a minute later she was being kind like that???! Was that some new kind of drunken stupor???"

Abby talked to herself as she took a bite off her cookie.