Ｔ＠ＧＧＥＤ ~ Ｒ． Ｂ． | ＴＨＡＮＫＳＧＩＶＩＮＧ

PROLOGUE 1.

Fawn Marie Roth was a weird cat. Everyone knew that. Only her friends really knew why.

Fawn was diagnosed with Autism at the ripe age of six. That was just the start of things. She was placed in extra learning classes. Not because she was behind the average learning level of kids her age, but because she was above it.

She kept straight A's, made it into the state division choir by the time she was ten in fifth grade. She didn't have any friends, though. She was extremely talkative. She was also very confrontational, making it known when she was happy or unhappy in a situation. She always wore a pair of headphones, earbuds, or earmuffs too keep things from getting too loud.

She didn't care she was so lonely. She had her parents, and her cute little dog— a golden retriever named Rory. Things looked up, even into highschool when she met new girl Jessica Wright. Her boyfriend— Bobby— and their friends. She had a friend group. A weird, dysfunctional one, but a friend group nonetheless. They stuck together through thick and thin.

Even when Fawn's parents got a divorce. Fawn was in ninth grade. She thought her parents were happy together. But, it was for the best. So she didn't complain. She never complained. Not ever. Not until it built up and she exploded. There was an argument in the friend group, a brief period where they didn't smile or hug in the hallways at school.

It tore Fawn apart inside. But, she thought she learned that she should never speak up about things, so she didn't. Not that she had anyone to listen to her anyways. She was suddenly very quiet. Everybody was thrown off balance then.

During that period, Fawn met Ryan. He was a boy in the grade above them. Tall, handsome, sweet. Like the people she knew as her friends, he understood she didn't work like a typical person. He was patient. It took four months, into Fawn's 16th birthday, when they finally, officially, began their relationship.

Fawn lived with her mother, but frequently stayed with Ryan or Ryan would stay with her. Her mom loved Ryan, Ryan's roommate loved Fawn. The friend group also began talking again.

Things went back to normal. Fawn was finally happy. Finally coherent and getting help to manage her diagnosis and her life as a whole.

But, of course, shit hit the fan. Fawn was in bed the day after her 18th birthday. She was asleep when she was awoken by glass breaking and a heart shattering scream from downstairs. More screaming, swearing, glass breaking. She was terrified, frozen in fear as she didn't know what to do, or expect. She picked up her phone and dialed the first number she remembered. Her best friend— Gabby.

"Girl, it's 12:30 in the morning, what the hell are you doing?" Gabby yawned into her end of the phone.

"I think there's someone in my house..." Fawn shakily whispered, more like breathed, into her microphone.

"What!?" Gabby was now awake, taken off guard. She heard another voice mumble in the background. Probably Evan— Gabby's boyfriend.

"I heard glass break. And- and- my mom— my mom screamed and everyone's still screaming-"

"Stay there. Call 911, I'm calling Ryan and I'll be on my way. Evan, too," Gabby reassured her. Then, she hung up without a word. But, Fawn didn't listen. It's Fawn in an emergency, she never listens.

So, she swung her legs over her bed, and quietly tip-toed to the bathroom. She grabbed something heavy, her wireless hair straightener— for whacking purposes.

She ran downstairs, completely forgetting her headphones and holding her chrome pink straightener like a baseball bat.

She reached the bottom of the stairs, racing to the front entry way to the house. Glass littered the floor, the nearby window shattered. Her mom and dad screamed wildly, her dad stumbling around like a drunk man, throwing beer bottles, anything he can get his hands on, really. Fawn slipped on her house shoes so she didn't step on glass.

But, when her eyes locked with her crazed father, the confidence turned to anger. His screams reached her ears and everything got extremely overwhelming, but that didn't stop her. Suddenly her pajama shirt was too tight. It was Ryan's, so it definitely wasn't. But that didn't stop her. Her dad hadn't spoken to them in two years, yet here he was acting a fool in a house that didn't belong to him. She didn't have her glasses or her contacts, so her vision was a bit blurry as she glared at him.

"Get the fuck off of my mom!" is the only thing Fawn remembers screaming out. She still held her flat iron as her mom tried to push her away from the scene. But, Fawn trudged forward, and with a loud clang missed her dad and got her flat iron stuck in a new hole in the dry wall. Oops.

She never dared hit her parents. Ever, even now, but it seemed like she didn't have a choice. Her flat iron was stuck in the wall as her dad directed his drunken throwing things at her. Fawn was so preoccupied that she let him throw those bottles at her.

She didn't feel it when a bottle slammed into her back, smashing to billions of tiny pieces of glass, stuck in her back. Her mom let out a scream as— like an instinct— Fawn fell to the ground. With another crash, she tasted a metallicy taste, like blood.

She remembered nothing after that. Ryan, Evan, and Gabby showed up with the cops not long later. Ryan said he recieved a call from Evan, who he rarely really spoke too. He was out of breath, and from the sounds of it, driving.

He said that all he could really make out was that something was wrong and it had to do with Fawn. He didn't understand what really happened, but he knew it was bad as he saw the cops outside just as he pulled into her long driveway. He saw broken glass and Evan and Gabby pull up next to him. The three of them jumped out of their respective vehicles and ran for the front door.

There, the sheriff— Sheriff Eric Newman— tried to hold them back as they tried to push through the front door. Gabby snuck in through the window, fending off everyone else as she cried over her best friend.

Ryan said that when the EMTs arrived and put Fawn on the stretcher, she was dead silent. For a minute, he thought she was dead. He threw a fit because they wouldn't let him in the ambulance with her, so he drove himself and called Scott to tell him why he wouldn't be home.

Fawn never saw her parents after that. She was eighteen, after all. She couldn't go back to that house without seeing, remembering that night. Without seeing the window her mom never replaced, just tarped over, or the hole in the wall covered by an empty picture frame.

She was diagnosed with PTSD after that night. She lived with Ryan and his roommate Scott. And, the friend group was still there. They swore they'd stay.