The Polaroid's on the Wall

Chapter 25: Shoulder to cry on

'Yeah well that's where he'll be heading if he doesn't clean up his act,'

My anger got worse and worse the more they talked about me indirectly.

'He has!'

'Tonight proves you wrong!'

'Keep your voice down! Amber is sleeping!'

'You said he was a good kid! Now you can see that-'

I yelled, 'SHUT UP!'

Both my parents did so.

'It doesn't even matter whether I'm a good kid or not dad because either way you're still going to hate me. I had changed but you still insisted I hadn't and here you are caring more about you being right than actually helping me! You didn't even try and help when you knew what was going on!' I was so so disappointed in myself I felt horrible. Just...feeling like I did last year just.....it makes me feel ill.

'I care!' Dad growled, 'But I think you're childish, aggressive, inappropriate behaviour needs to be properly disciplined-'

'Are you even listening to me?' I couldn't believe what I was hearing, 'I don't do it for fun dad, I do it because-'

'Don't you dare-'

'THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOU!' I clenched my fists, furious he kept making this about himself again, like I would tell mom about Genevieve like this, 'This is about me,'

Feeling the tears well in my eyes, I refused to cry in front of him so ran up the stairs and went to my room, locking the door just in case. I exhaled, being caught off guard when there was a knock at my window.

I turned around to see Chris balancing on my roof.

Quickly, I ran over to opened the window and let him in.

'What happened?' He looked concerned, holding my shoulder gently, 'Are you ok?'

I sniffed, 'No...' I started crying but tried to wipe away the tears as they fell, 'No, I'm fine, I'm fine I swear,'

Chris shook his head, 'It's ok-'

'I'm fine,' I repeated, breathing uneasily, 'I'm ok,'

'TJ,' Chris said louder, 'It's ok to not be ok,'

More tears fell, '...ok,' my voice cracked as I sobbed.

He wrapped his arms around me so I could cry into his shoulder as we sunk onto the floor. This wouldn't be the first time we'd done this, but that just made me cry more. Chris smelled so good, his unique musk of grass, warmth and strawberries was comforting. But it just reminded me. His curls tickled my neck and sent a pleasant chill through me, another familiar sensation. When will I let it go?

His hands rubbed my back, reinstating his previous unanswered question, 'What happened?'

I wiped my eyes as I calmed down, 'I-I just got overwhelmed and I...I couldn't do anything e-else,' my vision blurred again, 'My parents were so mad...s-So am I,'

Chris ran a hand through my hair, 'Don't be mad at yourself. You've been doing so well you can't let one slip up ruin everything,'

'I already have,' I wept, 'I feel terrible,'

'You're not the same person. Ok?,' he cupped my face, 'Look at me,'

I gazed at him.

'You're an incredible person, do not say otherwise,' he assured me, 'don't let what anyone else thinks or says put you down. You're the best,' he kissed my cheek, 'Did you do the other thing?'