Path of reflections

She was thirteen years old, and although she was small, she was just developing, still tender, pear-shaped, she tried to emphasize her small, pear-shaped breasts with toilet paper in a push-up bra, which she bought for herself in a shopping mall without her parents' permission. Soon it was another birthday, and those futuristic earrings shining in diamond color, mostly reminiscent of the America of the eighties, captured all the attention, and the boys. His father acquired his own extensive education in a self-taught manner, and his emotions, combined with minor hysterics, were released and exploded when, at his birthday party - to which he invited almost all his girlfriends - he received the entire old Helikon series from the 60s and 70s while unwrapping presents from his father. all series editions.

"A very Happy Birthday, my dear girl!" - he modestly handed over the aesthetically wrapped cardboard box, also abundantly tied with colorful ribbons.

At first she guessed with radiant happiness and jumped up and down in the air with joy, how fantastic her daddy was, how much he loved her and bought her who knows what? And then later, when he tore the decorative wrapping paper with his hands in a truly barbaric manner and opened the box with great excitement and saw the probably antique books, he had the bitter feeling that: His father never trusted him enough to buy him something more valuable, like old, moth-eaten books! A budding teenage girl who wants to live life and party and shop all day long is not going to spend all day in her room reading poems and prose by long-dead dudes. Thank you very much, but you have plenty of other things to do.

"Uh... well... thank you very much..." he drew his mouth obliquely, since he wasn't actually expecting this gift.

"My treasure!" I know you don't like the gift, but I want you to be happy and satisfied, and even though you think the world is simple right now, just believe that the really important things are hidden deep in your heart, unnoticed! - The caring father tried hard to make his stubborn, teasing daughter understand that it will certainly happen many times that what we think is black and white is actually much more complex and complicated.

"Yes..." he answered. "Can I go back to my girlfriends?" - asked.

"Of course!" Go ahead! - the mother took the floor. After all, this day was about Zoe.

"Do you think I'm too hard on him?" he asked the father's wife thoughtfully.

"Well, that depends, my dear!" What exactly do you mean by rigor?

"Oh, don't be childish!" - the man scolded his wife a little. "I'm curious that our teenage daughter's behavior has been quite provocative and rebellious over the last couple of months, and I was very afraid that something bad might happen!" he admitted.

"It's a very consistent and decent thing from you, my life, but I think Zoé can take care of herself, don't you think?"

"Of course, of course, only... so the sex-related questions and others..." he began to ramble on.

"Don't worry honey!" He told me everything and knows exactly what the condom is for! - The wife's attitude to serious matters was quite relaxed and light-hearted, which made the husband's nerves gradually lose their control.

- I understand! So then this means that we should just sit back, because our little girl is a responsible, serious woman who will not act recklessly! - he muttered to himself, as if he had already upset himself thoroughly, and now secretly hoped that his wife would be lenient and comfort him.

"My dad!" You also know that our Zoe is almost a woman! We can't keep him locked up forever, can we?! - he tried to manipulate with reasonable arguments, but with little success.

In order to avoid family litigation, the woman did not even mention to her husband that she had bought the fashionable and stylish earrings that Zoé wanted so much.

Zoé invited her best girl friends over and couldn't wait to get her ears pierced and try on her super hot earrings while the girls discussed their current boyfriend affairs among themselves:

"Don't talk!" Have you actually seen Adam's tool? said one of them.

- Okay! I admit! I saw it, but only in the dark! the other admitted shyly.

"Then it's not valid, you know that very well!" You should have seen it in broad daylight! I say special experience! Anyway, I already did it! It hurt like hell at first, but then you get used to it! - declared a teenage girl who had grown breasts, who looked quite a few years older than her classmates, and was apparently very proud of it.

"You even had sex!" So what does the coton look like?

"What do you think he might look like?" It's made of rubber and stretches like a b***h! The boys put it on their tools so that the girls don't have children! Even I know that much!

"Girls!" Please! Tell me if you like my earrings? - Zoé asked everyone around one by one, because she actually took friendship very seriously, while most of her girlfriends seemed to be just having fun with it.

"Who the hell cares about those stupid, idiotic earrings of yours!" You can eat from me! the older-looking girl stated annoyed. "Would you rather tell us if you've had sex or not?"

"I think it's everyone's personal private matter!" Do not you think?! Zoé asked herself.

"Oh, carpenter!" Just look! Our little girlfriend has never had sex in her life, but she made herself small as if she had a date! You're pathetic, you know! he crossed both hands in front of him.

"You and Edina are a big root!" I thought we were friends, and then you hit me with such nonsense! What are you thinking?! he demanded this behavior.

"Well, I see, my little mother, that this party is dead!" I'll get out of here then, and you just lick your own wounds! �" with that she took a big bite of the cake, then opened the door and stormed off without saying hello in the company of the rest of her friends.

Zoé was left alone in her own room with its own entrance, feeling more miserable and vulnerable than ever before. He burst into tears because he thought that crying could have a beneficial effect, and at least later it would free him of most of his stress-producing, unnecessary mental energy. It was lucky that he and his mother were on the same wavelength so much that a gesture or a look was more than enough, and as if they were conspirators or accomplices, they silently nodded towards each other and did not need unnecessary words, which in most cases tend to explain everything and to confuse everyone.

His mother knocked three times on his door. From the time she was a little girl, they communicated with each other using secret signals.

"Honey!" I saw that your girlfriends left without saying hello! I just want to ask if everything is ok?! - he carefully opened the door a crack, and that was enough for him to see the make-up on Zoé's face, which had been washed away by the tears, and the eye paint, which now made him look like a wild, grotesque scarecrow.

"Please, mommy... now I want a little solitude around me..." he huffed, as if he had been rightly insulted to the point of blood.

"Honey!" I'm so sorry, and I'll be here at the door if you need anything... - answered the mother, a little frightened, who had perhaps never seen her always cheerful, determined and edgy daughter so sad in her life.

Seven o'clock in the evening came. He opened the door a crack again and saw Zoé sleeping next to his bed in a fetal position, curled up, her fists clenched tightly by her side. How defenseless, how exposed and vulnerable he seemed in this minute condensed into infinity. The mother carefully entered the room with a blanket in hand and gently covered her body without waking her. He thought it would be better to rest this kind of thing thoroughly, so that everything could be seen in a new light the next day.

The next day, Zoé felt fresh, liberated and energetic when she woke up early in the morning. After eating the usual chocolate cereal breakfast, he left for high school and vowed to himself that from now on he would only make friends with people who didn't want to trick him.

He deliberately avoided his girl friends all day long, and instead made friends with the "trackers" and the "cubes", whom the dog is generally not interested in. Later, he thought he managed to make friends with a boy whom everyone called just a hot guy, who wrote poems and behaved especially well with the others. When the bell rang for the last seventh class in the early afternoon, and everyone poured out of the school, leaning on the railing of the small concrete bridge in front of the school, you could clearly see your girl friends smoking cigarettes and apparently showing off to the whole world. He could feel their eyes on him, but he decided that he would not allow himself to be ruined under any circumstances.

However, the worst tragedy befell him at night. It was two o'clock in the morning, pitch black everywhere. He noticed that the small light in the toilet was on. Did the night shift father forget to turn it off while he was on his way to work? Curiosity turned, so she got up, put on a robe so she wouldn't get cold, and tiptoed out to the toilet, which was right next to the bedroom, so she wouldn't wake anyone up. That's when he noticed that his father was sitting peacefully on the toilet seat, like when he used to take a nap for an hour or two in the afternoon to make up for his late night.

"Dad!" It's me! Please get up! - he gently caressed his father, but he died like a sack of potatoes. "Something is wrong! It's not even half a joke!" - he thought and already woke up his mother because his father was not coming to his senses.

The woman tried to keep her cool and calm, but she still called the ambulance with a trembling voice, who were thirty-five minutes late. A small eternity. They couldn't save her father anyway, because the heart attacks attacked like silent killers and mercilessly kills everyone.

At the funeral, Zoé noticed that her former girlfriends were also there, they arrived without the old, older girl, and when the cremation took place, they mourned her and remarked consolingly that they were very sorry and that Zoé would always be their best friend, but Zoé already he didn't want to believe them.

In the following months, Zoé again and again took out the antique birthday volumes that she had received from her father for her birthday with great precision, and she chewed through a poem or a passage of prose so many times that it didn't take much, and after a day or two she could memorize it. he knew almost everything.

He felt a terrible sense of guilt and remorse, as he felt that he was primarily responsible for his father's death. If he hadn't wanted those damn earrings, if he hadn't wanted to grow up so damn fast, maybe his father would still be reading the sports paper or watching the water polo matches.

His mother always tried to convince him that there was nothing he could do about it: "My dear!" You also know very well that your father was very nervous about almost everything, and the gradual stress at work didn't do him any good either! You shouldn't be so hard on yourself! After a few years, you will see things differently.

After a few years, Zoé became a self-conscious, determined, slender, adult woman, and it was just after the graduation when the little ones of the still-living family gathered for a small celebration. He also made new friends, mainly among those with whom the "cool" majority did not want to be friends, and we can safely say that he found true love. When her mother found out about it, since she was an observant and curious woman in the world, she only asked if they had protected themselves and if they had followed certain precautions?

"Yes mommy!" Everything will be as fine as possible! - he answered, and he was ready to move into life as a full-fledged adult.