"mom, stop please." noelle tries to calm her down. "she has school tomorrow, she has to rest."

mom sighed at noelle's suggestion then started walking towards their room.

"just you wait 'til you get married and have children, maybe you'll know how it feels to be a mother like me." i hear her shut the door.

while no one was around, i rushed towards my room then locked the door crying and breaking down on my floor. i felt like i was betrayed by everybody.

"because hazel is dating the same sex as her, how are you not bothered by that?" i hear her voice on the other side of the wall. out of curiosity, i pushed myself up then listened to noelle and her's conversation. "she's risking herself into doing sinful things. you know, i'm really starting to think your sister is being possessed by the devil."

noelle scoffed. "what makes you think that hazel is being possessed by the devil?"

"a person being possessed by the devil wouldn't notice that they are actually being possessed. even if you bring it up to them, they would deny it." she responds. jesus christ, this is why i stopped believing in god in the first place.

even if i'm not as religious as i used to be, i'm pretty sure i'm not being "possessed" by "the devil". is she out of her mind?

"i saw her text messages to her friends, noelle. i saw them!" mom yells once more. "she keeps on telling her friends that i'm being a bad mother to her...and her friends would threaten me to "protect" her. like, what if i get murdered by her friends just because of her lies?"

noelle sighed then heard her push buttons, which i assume that they still had my phone. "mom, i read the texts. hazel told her friends that she doesn't see you as a bad person and that she doesn't want them to see you as one."

"still noelle, you don't get it. you never know if they believe your sister or not." she replied. "she's ruining our image. if everybody finds out about hazel's nonsense, we'll lose everything."

"so you're not letting hazel to attend therapy even though aunt is going to pay her expenses?"

"no, tell your sister to get her shit on her own."

as much as i wanted to cry because of how painful her words were, i could not let them out. i was this close into actually getting help until well...mom took the situation too harshly.

as i hear the door close on the other room, footsteps grew louder towards my room. a paper and a chocolate bar unexpectedly were slipped under my door.

when the shadow went away, i crawled my way towards it then took the paper and the chocolate bar from the floor.

when the shadow went away, i crawled my way towards it then took the paper and the chocolate bar from the floor

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