They arrived at Aiden's house and entered the living room. Isabella sat on the couch, exhausted.
"Do you want something to eat or drink?" Aiden asked.
Isabella shook her head. "No, I'm fine."
Aiden sighed and sat beside her, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. He was in deep thought before he spoke, "Hey, listen, I know you must be worried about your parents coming back, but know that you have nothing to worry about."
Isabella was scared about how her parents would react, coming back home and seeing their daughter after what happened.
They probably wouldn't see their daughter as a happy girl anymore, just a broken one. "Nothing to worry about? Aiden, you told them what happened, and I won't be ready to see them when they see me and judge me for not getting away from the relationship or—"
"Are you kidding?" He turned to face her directly. "Your parents would never do that. They might be upset at first, but that's not going to stop them from helping you."
Are you going to believe that?
Your parents will see you as a whore, not the innocent girl you used to be.
Why would your parents help you?
You're nothing.
"Stop!" Isabella shouted.
How dare they call her that? They knew what happened to her, they knew what she had to struggle with. They caused her to have thoughts of killing herself because they wanted her gone. She didn't understand why they wouldn't just leave her alone.
Why can't they just let me be?!
"Stop what?"
Isabella paused. Did she say that out loud?
Aiden just heard her random outburst. She didn't hold it in. She buried her face in her hands, embarrassed.
What are they doing to me? she thought.
"Are you okay?" Aiden asked, moving closer to her.
"No. I think I'm going crazy," she uttered, absentmindedly scratching the back of her hand with her fingernails.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm going crazy!" She stood up and paced in front of him.
"How are you going crazy?" Aiden stared at his friend, concerned.
"I'm—" She stopped pacing and faced him. "I'm just losing it. I hear things in my head, and they won't go away. They won't go away!"
Aiden was alarmed by this new information. He stood up and asked, "Hearing things how?"
"I don't know. They just show up from time to time and—"
"Time to time?" he interrupted, his brows furrowed. "Wait, how long has this been going on?"
Isabella was aware that he wasn't going to like her response.
"The day after you told me about your past," she murmured, hesitant as she took in Aiden's reaction—he was in shock.
"What? This has been going on for months? Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, his eyes wide and his mouth agape.
"I don't know. I thought they would go away, but the voices would always say hurtful things to make me feel bad about myself. They even told me to take those pills to kill myself, and I listened to them."
This problem had been going on for months and now Aiden was finding out that these voices convinced her to kill herself. He didn't know what to do.
"They did? Do you actually hear them talking to you?"
"Yes, and I can't get them out!" Isabella shouted. "All this shit is happening all at once and I can't take it!" she raved to no one in particular; she was talking to herself while breathing rapidly.
Aiden didn't know how she had handled this alone. He stepped towards her and held onto her shoulders, so she would look at him.
"Bella, calm down. You need to breathe. Breathe," he ordered before modeling the small breathing exercise for Isabella to copy.
Isabella slowly inhaled and exhaled a few times to lower her stress level. Once she had calmed down, she stared at Aiden, frowning.
"I'm going crazy right now."
"No, no, you're not. Stop saying that." He rubbed her upper arms to help her relax under his touch, and it worked as she didn't feel so uptight anymore.
"Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go to my room, and I want you to sleep. You're going to sleep in my bed because you need to rest. Okay?"
Isabella knew he wouldn't take no for an answer and she didn't feel like arguing, so she just nodded.
"Good, we'll talk about this more when you wake up." Aiden turned her around, facing the stairs, and gave her a slight push.
She trudged towards the stairs and went up to his bedroom. She entered his room and followed Aiden's order by taking his bed. She slipped off her shoes, whipped the blanket off, and got under the covers.
She adjusted herself as she tucked herself in and laid on her side.
She didn't know who could sleep at a time like this, especially after telling Aiden about the voices in her head. She finally had the courage to tell him after her accidental outburst.
She was embarrassed telling him the truth as she had experienced another difficult situation in her life. Things weren't going well for Isabella; she hated getting people involved in something she couldn't handle herself.
After a while, she closed her eyes and was out to sleep.
꧁ ༄ ꧂
Isabella fluttered her eyes open after a few hours of sleep. She rubbed her eyes to get rid of the drowsiness and looked out the window to see that it was dark outside.
She sat up and got off the bed, exiting the bedroom to find the hallway lights on. Some voices from downstairs grabbed her attention. She took a few steps towards the railing and saw Aiden and Nicole sitting on the couch, having a heated discussion.
"I don't know what to do about this. Bella is getting worse by the minute," Aiden said.
"If Bella is feeling like this, she needs to talk to someone, a professional. She needs to go to therapy after all the bad things that have happened."
Therapy? Isabella frowned.
"I don't think Bella wants to see someone. She would probably be embarrassed."
"Well, she doesn't have a choice," Nicole argued. "She needs to see someone besides us who can talk to her. You had the same problem before you started seeing David, but you gave him a chance anyway. Plus, now you're telling me she's hearing voices in her head?"
"I know, but—"
"But nothing! She might have schizophrenia. Don't you know how serious that is? What do you think her parents are going to do when they find out Bella has been hearing voices in her head for months?"
Aiden got off the couch and sighed. "I know how Bradley and Marybeth would feel about that. If Bella were to get a therapist, she wouldn't go because she's scared. But I agree with you. I know she needs help, and what she told me after I picked her up from the hospital and what she said earlier was the last straw. We can try to convince her, but I know it won't be easy for her to handle so much all at once."
Isabella took in the words that Aiden and Nicole said. She was afraid of what would happen if she went to see someone, especially if she had this condition she'd never even thought about.
She didn't know what she would do there. Would they help things get better, easier, or harder? When she pictured a therapist, she thought they found ways to make their patients feel even worse about themselves, but she'd never been to a therapist before, so how would she know?
Maybe she would get help out of this. That was all she wanted anyway. Everyone wanted her to get better no matter what it took, and this could be a solution.
Isabella felt awkward standing there by the railing and not down there with them. She made her way down the stairs, causing the stairs to creak, which attracted Aiden and Nicole's attention. The looks on their faces were uneasy as if they'd done something wrong.
"Oh, hi, Bella. How'd you sleep?" Nicole asked as Isabella joined them.
"Fine."
Nicole nodded with a small smile that didn't reach her eyes. Aiden had his head down, not meeting anyone's gaze.
"Um, I wanted to say . . . I heard what you guys were talking about, and I know I'm in a bad situation." She watched their reactions, noticing pity on their faces. "I don't know how it's going to go since I'm not used to telling someone else my problems, but . . . I'm willing to see a therapist."
The first reaction she got was from Nicole when she opened her mouth in shock, not expecting Isabella to agree with something like this so quickly.
Nicole stood up from the couch and walked to Isabella, saying, "Oh, Bella, this is good. This is really good. I'm sorry you heard this without us talking about it with you, but this is a good step you're taking. I think I know someone who would be great for you. She works alongside Aiden's therapist.
"I remember him mentioning her name when I met him for the first time. Maybe you can see how you feel about talking to her?" she suggested with hopeful eyes.
Isabella glanced at her friend and saw him watching her when his name was mentioned. He also had hopeful eyes, telling her he wanted her to go. Maybe it would work out if she went. She didn't know this woman, but Nicole seemed to think she would be a good fit to talk to.
She stared at Nicole and nodded. "Yeah, I'll meet with her whenever she's available."
"Oh, perfect! I'll go call her right now." Nicole smiled and left the living room to make the call.
Isabella hoped she'd made the right decision by doing this. She didn't want to regret telling a stranger about her problems and having everything go south in the end.
"Hey." Isabella's thoughts were interrupted by Aiden standing before her. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Yeah, I need to do something about this. I just hope she can help me."
Aiden nodded, releasing a contented smile. "I'm proud of you. If you want, I can go with you when you meet with her."
"Would you?" Isabella asked, her eyebrows raised.
"Of course I would. I don't mind going."
"Thank you." She felt a slight relief in her body.
Nicole returned to the living room, addressing Isabella. "I just talked to Kate, and she said she would take you in next week. She said you can come on Tuesday at one o'clock."
Isabella didn't know what to say; she only nodded her head. This was really happening. She was starting to take this new step, and she wanted it to go well.
"You're going to be all right. You have nothing to worry about," Nicole reassured. "Now, I'm going to get some sleep. Goodnight, kids," she said before walking towards the stairs.
The teenagers said 'goodnight' to Nicole in unison as she disappeared onto the second floor.
"I'm going to bed too." Aiden leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight," he whispered against her brow, then walked past her to the stairs, heading to his room.
Isabella took a deep breath and exhaled. This week was already going to be hard for her. Was she going to recover soon enough so she can feel whole again? Or was it going to take a long time?
Whatever the cost, she wanted to be the old Isabella again.
She wanted another nap to get rid of these thoughts. She turned her heel and walked up the stairs to Aiden's room. When she entered the bedroom, she found Aiden lying on the air mattress she was supposed to sleep on with a blanket covering him.
Was he really sleeping there? He wanted her to sleep in his bed? Now she felt terrible.
She stepped closer to Aiden and saw his eyes closed. He must've been exhausted after today's events; he deserved to rest just as much as she did. She walked to his bed, got under the covers, and made herself comfortable.
After turning a few times, she finally stopped on her side to sleep, but she looked at the floor where Aiden laid, his back facing her, breathing soundly as he slept.
Isabella was starting to realize strange things about Aiden; he seemed a little off when they were downstairs. He had dark bags under his eyes, and his skin started to lose color, which was not what she expected.
He just looked tired.
Isabella didn't want to think about what it could be as she didn't want to worry too much. But she couldn't think about anything else as she watched Aiden sleep during the night.