iMotivate | ✓

e l e v e n

" I'll be okay, I'll be alright, I know..." Ghost by Alan Walker ft. Au/Ra

"Hello? Mom, I'm home!"

Petra was surprised when they came upon a house that she never knew would belong to a popular boy... normally the popular boys she knew in books and movies lived in a big bungalow or just a big house in general. But Max's house was a normal cozy-looking home.

If she could admit so, her house, a semi-detached bungalow, was a whole lot bigger than his.

A woman in her late thirties suddenly approached them. She had the same strawberry blonde hair as Max and also the same grey eyes only her eyes seemed to be a little darker than Max's.

"Oh, Max... you brought a friend! Hello, nice to meet you," she paused to pull Petra into a hug. "What's your name, dear?"

Petra swallowed as she stared down at the ground and awkwardly fidgetted with her sleeves.

"I-I'm... Petra."

"Oh, sweety... you're so shy! Don't be, you know."

Petra slowly looked up and glanced at Max to see him smiling at her before she turned to his mother and gave a small nod.

"That's better... also, why don't you give me a little smile?"

Petra gave the tiniest smile she could muster.

"Hmm... you have a very pretty face, and a pretty name. You should smile more, darling," his mother commented. "Anyway, Max, I'm going out for a while to meet up with Ms. Dorothy. You both can help yourselves with some chocolate chip cookies I baked just now so they're still fresh from the oven."

She gave Max a kiss on the cheek and another hug for Petra before grabbing her purse and car keys from a table and walked out of the door.

"You can seat on the sofa. I'll go and grab a few things." Max said after a moment and he walked away into the kitchen while Petra hesitantly sat on the sofa.

Thoughts were running in her head like crazy. Was Max Anderson really not a bully after all?

He appeared again with a plate full of cookies and a glass of milk before setting it down on the coffee table in front of her.

"I know you must've not been eating normally again, so please, eat." then he walked away again, this time heading up the stairs.

Petra looked at the plate of cookies and the glass of milk suspiciously.

Could he add something into the milk? For the cookies she thought it would be safe to eat them but the milk...

Suddenly she felt a throbbing pain at her ankle, reminding her of the kick from Addie. Cookies and milk forgotten, she brought her right leg up and rolled up  her pants a little to find a large bruise. Of course, her legs were filled up with scars and bruises all from the bullies. But it still hurts to see a new one each time she got bullied. She let a tear slip from her eye as she traced the bruise with her finger.

"I really hope that Addie get what she deserves after all of that."

Petra jumped when Max suddenly appeared in front of her with a sling bag slung on his shoulder and a bottle of some kind of liquid in his hand. He sat down beside her and handed her the bottle.

"It's oil... so you can rub it on your bruise... or bruises."

Petra slowly took it, muttering a thanks, and uncapped the bottle, taking a sniff from it.

"It's not acid or anything, Petra. I swear."

She slowly poured some onto her palm and started applying them to her ankle then to the bruises on her calf. At first she thought of covering her leg, but since he already saw the bruises, she just let it be.

"So... can I ask how this happened? The bullying?"

Petra stopped in her tracks and then she stood up straight and took a deep breath.

"I'm not sure if I should really believe you o-on this matter... y-you could b-be working with Ad-Addie for all I know," she told him.

He only looked at her for a while then sighed.

"I swear, if I betray your trust, you can tell Laika Hunter what I've done. I know I should've act up or something earlier but I—"

"I used to be best friends with Addie."

"What?" he asked in shock.

"We were friends since before high school, we would spend time with each other as if there's nothing that could separate us... but then during the first year of high school, A-Addie changed," at that she bursted into tears. " Suddenly she avoided me and talked bad a-about me to her new friends a-and, you know... the rumours and a-all that. She messaged me things I-I couldn't even imagine she would say to m-me... I became a nobody. That's how all the bullies started."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"You shouldn't be, and I wouldn't even know if you're believing what I'm saying right now... but I swear, I'm not seeking any attention and... and I-I d-didn't even slept with a-any g-guys a-at school." she cried even harder as she continuously wiped at her eyes with her sleeves. Max rushed to grab some tissues before giving it to her. He let her cry silently until she eventually cooled down before speaking up.

"I believe you, Petra, because of this."

Then he pulled out Petra's sketchbook from his sling bag.

......

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