Breaking Hope (Finding Sky edit)

Chapter 23

Okay before we get started I just wanted to apologise for how long it took me to get these chapters up, I honestly thought I was putting them up as I went along, turned out I never actually pressed the publish button, so we're going to do it like this. Make some sort of event out of my stupidity.

7 chapters, 2 days, 20756 words in total (before editing, which will add more). Chapters left to go; Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22, Chapter 23, Chapter 24 - Part 1, Chapter 24 - Part 2 and Chapter 24 - Part 3. Enjoy! 

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I was up stupidly early the next morning, my body never properly settling down after the FBI interview that happened only a few hours previously. During the ripe hours of four and six, when I had to get up, my mind would not stop even though I wished it would. I couldn't stop running over the events that happened, leading up the shooting and even the events proceeding. Even though I did fall asleep sometimes, dreams provided no comfort for my restless mind. When I was awake, I was chewing on reality, but during my dreams my imagination had no limit. So it was a choice between two bitter answers; would I rather stay up and wrestle with my conscience, or fall asleep and see the overly realistic images of Oscar or myself getting shot? Of course, staying up won the bet. Not only that, my anxiety was getting increasingly worse when I saw the state of the cut on my face when I did eventually sit up. It had healed, and the swelling had gone down, but it was still slightly swollen and the scar looked puckered, so it was hard to disguise even with makeup – and I can guarantee you Zoella has not done a beauty book on how to cover up a giant scab on your face.

Despite the early start to my day, I didn't have time to prepare myself for the grilling I got with Lauren in the car. We had our routine, now. She would pick me up twenty minutes until the start of tutor, even though she was on time about one a week. Today was the only day that she was on time, and when I got in the car, she sat there gawping at me.

'What's happened to your face!' She exclaimed, still pointing at me. I tried the best I could with foundation, concealer, corrector and powder to make it hide and it worked slightly but it was still obvious as. Urh. I automatically put my hand up to cover the scab on my face.

'Nothing,'

'Clearly something, you cut open half your face.' She said, putting the car into first as she pulled off.

'I just... fell over.'

'Fell over onto what? Was anyone with you – that must have hurt.' She said, driving up the main road, beeping the horn at kids who ran across the road haphazardly.

'I was just with Oscar last night up in the woods by his house, and I just tripped over and fell against a tree – it was nothing, really.' I said as she pulled up into a vacant car spot around the front of the building, opening the door slightly too see where the white line was in comparison to the car. Deciding her parking was good enough, she cut the engine as I finished my sentence, but still sat in the car.

'Did Oscar do this to you?' She asked, monotone.

'What – No!'

'Are you sure?' She asked, a tad quieter.

'Yes, it's not something I would be likely to forget. Oscar had nothing to do with it, I just fell and cut my face.' I muttered, feeling bad I was lying. But would could I really say? Hey, Lauren, a gunman randomly started shooting at us, and I hit my face on a tree when I was running. No, she wouldn't even believe that.