Loving Ashlynn (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 22 - Swift Kick, No Costumes & Secret Letters (Samson POV)

A/N: NOT Thoroughly EDITED.

Chapter 22 - Swift Kick, No Costumes & Secret Letters (Samson POV)

"She just cast me aside mom," I rustled as we drove to the grocery store together. I had done what they - both mom and dad - said and given faith time. The outcome? It had been nearly two weeks since Fatima even so much as said a word to me. I stopped seeking her out, spending time with her one on one downstairs or in her room, everything, no jokes, no smiles and honestly, it was killing me for some unknown reason. Probably because Fatima looked worse than a lost individual, now she looked void, her eyes were empty and untrusting.

I thought for sure when I heard Amy saying they made bracelets together that I would be getting Fatima back, but she seemed to retreat further than even mom and dad could find her. It's like we were living with a ghost and she was spiraling, she must have stopped eating healthy because her cheekbones were once again much too sharp, the clothes she wore fit too loosely. "Do you think - maybe she thinks I betrayed her trust - told everyone what she told me?" I glance out of the window, the green landscape - the color of Fatima's eyes in some places - mocking me.

Frustrated I glance over at mom, her eyes drawn, her hands on the wheel, "She's having a hard time, I'm not sure but I think because Dmitri often left her, she's keeping us away-"

Appalled and hating this Dmitri guy more and more, "that we're going to abandon her too?" I squeaked out. Mom nodded, "I just think - Samson - I don't want to see you hurt, but if you want to offer Faith your friendship, you have to be patient because she's in a tunnel right now. She - I wish I knew what was bothering her now myself, hug it away like I did when you guys were younger," my eyes flash over to the side of my mother's face. She was going to say something else but changed her sentence last minute I could tell.

Mom knew something, but she wasn't telling.

A bit ticked knowing that she wouldn't tell me, I jerked back against my seat, wondering if Fatima knew that she was doing to me, what she didn't want to be done to her?

.

.

.

Hidden behind a shelf, reading more of the journal articles about Stockholm syndrome and how many doctors treated it like a case of P.T.S.D, I hear Devin and Taylor speaking although at first I wasn't sure it was me they were speaking of.

"He said he saw me as his little sister," Taylor whispered, but I could still hear her. A soft scoff, "well at this Halloween party all you have to do is just show him that you're no body's little sister," Devin crooned. Rolling my eyes, I wondered if I had to have a talk with Brennan, again. Deciding against pulling more people into this I knew the opportunity to swat this away would present itself later down the week. I hoped.I had already spoken with my brother; I knew now that anything Devin and Taylor were planning were just on them.

Taking my books, not wanting to hear more of this scheme to get Samson, I stalked out of the library and into my first-period class, my mind not on Fatima, but on myself. My thoughts were playing back how I felt two weeks ago when I was hanging out with Fatima, the openness I had felt. I had thought that I would never feel that way again - happy - the way I was when Silas was alive and then I met Fatima and I had to wonder if maybe I was the reason I wasn't feeling that way? I was the reason I felt loneliness deep inside.