[ FINISHED - unedited ]
❝How do I... How do I stop them?"
"You want to stop them?" Rachel raised an eyebrow.
"Yes," I nodded.
She immediately broke out into a high-pitched laugh. "Oh Laura, you can't.❞
Every prestigious high school has this. A group...
Laura glanced at me, for only a second before looking away again. Standing up, she smoothed out her blazer. Taking a big breath, she closed her eyes slowly and opened them again. Her face was completely void of any emotion. Her green-ish blue-ish eyes looked so dark one could easily mistake them for a grey or black.
"My... my parents want to transfer me to a boarding school."
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POV - 3rd Person
Flashback
3 days ago, Tuesday
LAURAN STRATHEN FELT HOPELESS. As expected, anyone in her position would. Getting kicked out, cut off from any form of money you had before, and threatened to be disowned. However, Laura thought that stage would come later in the year. Maybe after she'd make her great getaway to the comfort of America, or even ditch that place and head on over to France.
Never did she think Mrs. and Mr. Strathen would threaten to disown her after only a few days, less than a week.
At first, Laura didn't care. In her mind, her parents were as much as her enemy as Tao. But Laura still loved them. And once there's even a sliver of love left for someone, no matter how toxic, it's incredibly easy for that person to get inside their head. It was incredibly easy for Mrs. Strathen to twist and phrase every word she muttered on their many phone calls to the point where Laura would be able to recite her statements indefinitely.
It's easy, manipulating people. Especially people that know exactly what you're capable of because then they fear you much more. It was too easy for Mrs. Strathen to get exactly what she wanted from Laura and more.
She got Laura's respect, her trust, and most importantly, full control. Laura hated feeling like a puppet. Which is why she'd always go to very far extents to make sure away from home, no one would be able to treat her like a pawn. Ever.
And there were only two people in the world that she felt hopeless again. Her very own parents.
It's hard to describe it. The feeling of betrayal by someone you loved but still so much attachment. Toxic relationships are hard and even harder to get out of because you'd let the other person toss you around like trash until you're actually believing you are.
And now Laura had given up. She'd given up on herself and any sort of future away from her parents. She was stuck in her Mother's iron cage and didn't care to make an attempt to escape anymore.
As Laura sat down in front of her parents at their mansion, the untouched cup of tea on the table in front of her, she knowingly signed away her life. An agreement that gave her a home to live in, money to use, and any sort of promising future.
Laura agreed to transfer to a boarding school, for rich kid "delinquents" that need to be "disciplined" behind the public eye. And then Laura would return to the mansion after finishing up a high school there and continuing off to a college of her parents choosing, finishing with a degree in business management where she'd probably be married off to another wealthy family.
