She's Their Princess, I'm the Disposable One

My parents' car grew smaller and smaller in the distance.

I ran and tried to catch up. The icy wind rushed into my chest, making my windpipe burn with pain. I wanted to cry, but I instinctively held back my tears.

My dad, Keenan Starr, and my mom, Faith Hudson, hated seeing me cry the most.

"Are you seriously feeling sorry for yourself now? It's all because of you that Maddie is in this condition. What right do you have to cry?"

My sister, Amanda Starr, stuck her head out of the car window and made faces at me.

She always said, "Just wait. Sooner or later, I'll make you disappear."

This time, it seemed like they were really going to abandon me.

Cars sped past me like arrows shot from a bow.

One driver cursed, "What the hell? You nearly gave me a heart attack! What kind of idiot stands in the middle of the road?"

I quickly backed into a corner while helplessly clutching the shabby gray rabbit plushie.

I'd been very surprised that my parents had brought me along this New Year. Normally, Amanda and her dog, Beanie, took up the entire back seat. There was never any room for me.

But this time, I had gotten into the car too. I ended up squeezing myself beside the door and trying my best to make myself even smaller.

Beanie stepped on my legs and scraped my face with its sharp claws. I was allergic to dog fur, and the air conditioning in the car was blasting.

I shrank back in discomfort, but Amanda grabbed me by the hair.

She snarled, "What are you hiding from? Do you think Beanie is dirty?"

Beanie whimpered twice. With someone backing it up, it became even more aggressive. It bit at my sleeves and collar. Then, it kept going until it tore my padded jacket. The cheap, blackened cotton stuffing spilled out.

Amanda clapped and laughed. "Haha! Well done, Beanie! You're my good boy!"

I instinctively looked to my parents for help.

Mom had her head down, and she was staring intently at her phone.

She was frowning as she recorded a voice message. "Please think it over, Sandra. She's very well-behaved."

I froze for a moment. When I met Mom's icy gaze, an inexplicable sense of panic rose inside me.

One corner of Amanda's lips lifted up into a smirk. She rolled down the window and casually threw her plushie outside.

She cried, "Mom, Dad, my rabbit fell out!"

Mom immediately told Dad to stop the car.

He said, "I may get fined for stopping on the highway. It's dangerous to get out with this much traffic."

As Dad didn't comply, Amanda cried even harder. "So, you don't care about me..."

"Of course, we do, sweetheart. How could we not care about you? Pull over, Keenan! Stop in the emergency lane and let Addie go pick it up. She's small and nimble."

Under Mom's orders, I was forced out of the car.

But after picking up the plushie and turning around, all I saw was the car's exhaust fumes. My nose had already broken out in large patches of red hives from my allergy, and the itching was unbearable.

After years of suffering one allergic reaction after another, I had learned to endure it. But after being blasted by the air conditioning, my skin felt strangely hot. With the freezing wind hitting my face now, my ears started ringing.

The strange mix of heat and cold left me weak and unsteady on my feet.

I was so tired and in so much pain. The scars on my wrist from where Amanda had cut me with a knife seemed to have split open again. The bruises on my back from where Mom had beaten me with a mop handle still ached faintly.

Mom had once said, "Our family has only ever had one little princess, and that's Maddie. Because of you, she developed depression! We could've been a happy family of three. From now on, you'll wait on Maddie. The fact that we haven't thrown you away is already merciful enough of us."

Other times, she would say many hurtful things.

"Did Maddie say she doesn't want this piece of meat? Since when is it your turn to eat it?"

"This blanket belongs to Beanie. Who said you could use it?"

The scoldings and the grievances I'd endured all these years flashed through my mind frame by frame, like scenes from a movie.

Honk!

There came the piercing blare of a horn.

I turned around. An out-of-control truck slammed into several cars before swerving unsteadily straight toward me.

At that moment, I suddenly wondered, "If I died, would Amanda's illness get better? Would everyone be happy?"

Just as Mom and Dad had said, I should never have been born.

I closed my eyes, and a single tear slid down my cheek.