After Her Wild Dawn

"Come on, Joanna, say something!"

The sting of Silvia's pinch snapped me back to reality. Her freshly manicured nails dug into my arm, leaving a visible mark.

Biting back the urge to retaliate, I managed a weak smile. "Sure. After all your misfires, you're bound to hit the jackpot."

Silvia seemed puzzled by my lack of urgency, unlike before, when I would be all over the place, desperate to bring her home.

"Joanna, you're a med student. Don't those red spots on him look like some nasty bug?"

Silvia hung back, wary of getting too close.

I chuckled to myself. It seemed Silvia was not as clueless as I thought. In our previous life, she would not listen to me and had to touch it herself. Now that I was on board with her decision, she suddenly got cold feet!

I put on my best sincere face and answered, "It's probably just an allergy. I mean, snagging the title of 'young madam' trumps a little infection any day, right?"

"Hey Joanna, can you lend me a hand here? I can't lift him on my own."

Silvia, her worries seemingly washed away by my reassurance, grabbed my arm, her nails digging in painfully. I jerked away from her grip.

"Joanna, what's the matter?" She could tell I was repulsed, her voice laced with confusion.

I managed a strained smile.

"It's nothing. I just remembered I've got a night shift waiting for me. You handle him, okay? You don't want anyone stealing the spotlight from your leading role, do you?"

With that, I was ready to bolt, but then I added over my shoulder, "Things are crazy at work, so I'll be crashing at the hospital dorm for a bit."

The last thing I wanted was to live with a guy who had syphilis. Better to find an excuse to move out.

However, before I could make my escape, Silvia caught up and clung to me.

"Who's going to cook and clean if you're gone? Don't be so selfish. What's more important–making money or your little sister?"

I froze, almost forgetting that for over 10 years, I had been taking care of Silvia like she was a helpless giant baby. She could not do a thing around the house, not even cook, and I footed the bill for everything.

After our parents died, our grandparents would not take us in because they could not afford to. So there we were, just the two of us, living in the shabby old house our parents left behind. I was three years older, so I had to juggle taking care of Silvia while still going to school.

Our lives had been funded by the savings left by our parents, but by the time college rolled around, that money had dried up. I was grinding through my senior year, while Silvia had just scraped her way into a local college. Juggling jobs and classes, I was drowning in coursework. Silvia? She was too busy keeping up with the Joneses, piling up a mountain of debt with online loans.

I understood. Silvia had always been starved for affection, and I had been her safety net, never once snapping at her. Still, I never thought I would end up nurturing a snake in the grass.

Watching her act like the world owed her something, I lost it. I swatted her hand away and snapped, "You're pushing thirty. Do you really expect me to wait on you forever? Who do you think wiped your debt clean? Who's been footing the bill for your cushy life? What's on your plate, what's on your back?"