believe

17. parents

I wake up with my arms wrapped around Chloe's waist, and her head on my chest. Her arms are around me too.

"Morning baby." I mumble, smiling softly. She lifts her head up slowly and rolls off me.

I sit up and look at her. She buries her face into her pillow and shuts her eyes again. "Do you wanna come and get some breakfast, Chlo?" I offer. Chloe shakes her head.

When I go downstairs, Aubrey glares at me. Stacie looks over at the blonde and shakes her head in disapproval. "Bree, don't do anything stupid."

"I have every right to defend Chloe, you know it as well as I do. Anyway, where is she?" Aubrey demands, turning back to me. "She's still asleep, I asked if she wanted breakfast and she said no. I can't force her~"

"Oh, you can't force her now because she finally went over the edge?" Aubrey snaps.

Stacie stands up and grabs Aubrey's wrist. "Dude, not cool." The brunette hisses. Aubrey pouts and glances at me angrily.

I nod at them before heading into the kitchen and grabbing a Monster can. Stacie follows close behind and hugs me. "Uh, dude? I'm taken, you know." I joke. She laughs softly and grins.

"I'm well aware. I'm just sorry that my girlfriend is such a prick sometimes." Stacie mumbles.

I smile and nod in response. "Yeah, she really is. I shouldn't let Chloe get away with not eating, but I don't want to upset her again."

"I know. It's hard."

"I was just so mad when she yelled at me, I couldn't stay in the room."

"I get it."

"Do you? Because~"

"Beca, I went through it with you when you lost~"

"Stop!" I hiss as Aubrey walks in. "Only you know about that." I whisper. Stacie nods and looks over at Aubrey. "Got it."

I flip Aubrey off and she storms out, making me laugh at the reaction. "And you wonder why she hates you?" Stacie asks. I nod at her, trying to hold back my laughter. "Man, you two have a weird relationship." She smiles.

Stacie gets a message and tells me she has to go, so I head back upstairs to Chloe. I take her into the bathroom and grab the first aid kit. "You feeling alright, sweetie?"

Chloe nods slowly and doesn't look at me. "Okay. I need to take these old bandages off, okay? You need new ones, the blood soaked right through these."

She just stares blankly at the floor and nods or shakes her head in response to anything I say.

When I take the bandages off, I notice a particularly deep cut. "Oh, baby. This is gonna need steristrips." I mutter. I grab the box out of the first aid kit and open them up, carefully pinching the skin together and taping it with the strips.

I wrap up her arm again and put the kit away. She leaves the bathroom and goes back to bed, curling up into a ball and closing her eyes.

"Chlo? Are you alright?" I ask. She turns her head to look at me and smiles weakly. "Can we cuddle?" She asks. I nod and laugh. "Of course, baby. Come on, scoot over."

Chloe rolls over and wraps herself around me, her arms around my neck and her legs tangled with mine. My arms snake around her waist and my head rests ontop of hers. "Are you gonna eat anything, Chloe?"

"No. I'm not hungry."

"When actually was the last time you ate?"

"Yesterday before you went out with Jess and Ashley."

"That's not good enough, babe. Can you eat something for me?"

"Beca, I said I'm not hungry."

"Alright. Are you tired?"

"No. I just don't feel like doing anything."

"Babe, where has all this come from? Because you were better, at least we thought you were. And this has to have been a long time coming, because you would never be like this after a tiny argument."

"That doesn't matter."

"Is it because I went into hospital for so long?"

"Beca, I said it doesn't matter."

"It is, isn't it?"

"Beca~"

"Just tell me, please? We're engaged, we're supposed to be able to talk about this stuff."

"Well, you being in hospital didn't help! And it's because of my parents, okay?! They...don't want me dating you. So I definitely can't tell them I'm engaged to you, and there's no hope for them turning up at our wedding or wanting to meet our kids. Anyway, they yelled at me and now I'll never get to see my younger brother again. So I started to hurt myself and everytime I'm alone in here I sit and cry because of it. Are you happy now?"

"No, Chloe, I'm not happy at all." I whisper, biting my lip to stop the tears. "Your parents shouldn't ever treat you like that."

Chloe sits up and laughs sadly. "Well, state the obvious, Beca."

I sit up too and scoot closer to her. Out of nowhere, she pulls herself onto my lap, buries her head into my shoulder and wraps her arms around my neck. "I just want my parents to love me!" She cries, bawling into my t-shirt.

"They do, baby. They definitely do. They just don't like me, that's all." I assure her.

She lifts her head up and shakes it. "No, they always loved my brother more than me. I-I guess I'm used to it, but I doubted that they'd go as far as hating me because I like girls."