TG: Abuse, Gaslighting, Manipulation
Sarah's POV:
"Lillian has been gone for a while," I mention to Kie as I realize that she wasn't back.
It was about 20 minutes after she was gone and she had told us that she would be right back.
"You're right, should we look for her?" Kie asks me while we both look around the crowded room. "Yeah, I saw Topper here maybe she met up with him or something?" I say to Kie. "Yeah maybe, let's look," Kie says.
We go around the room asking people if they've seen her. Not a lot of people knew us or her because the party was just outside the OBX, so we knew some people who went to the Kook academy for school but not all.
"Let's try to call her," I said to Kie and she nodded, taking her phone out. We tried to call but it ended up going straight to voicemail. "I'm getting worried," I said to Kie and she nodded, agreeing with me.
"Hate to say this but should we call Rafe," I said to her. "No way, let's just handle this without her possessive boyfriend," Kie said and I shrug. This wasn't ending well. I just had that bad feeling.
"Sarah!" Topper yelled at me making me turn around. Topper was my ex-boyfriend, we were on good terms, we both just agreed that it wasn't meant to be and stayed friends, but he was best friends with Lillian.
"Have you seen Lillian?" I ask him. "No? Why is she here?" he asks me looking around.
She always put a smile on his face, their friendship was so nice. He was almost like a big brother to her. I think that he probably knew her the best, along with me. He was very protective and caring towards her and was always her shoulder to cry on, along with me.
When the Daniel incident thing first happened it was the two of us there comforting her, guiding her through the many panic attacks. I understood their friendship, it just made sense.
"She's supposed to be here but we can't find her and I'm getting worried," I said, my voice broke in the middle of the sentence, I was getting pretty nervous.
Lillian is probably one of the people who means the most to me and not knowing where she was in a dangerous setting made me freak out. She has been my best friend since birth, she's been with me through it all. When my fling with John B started everyone was telling me to stop it as he was a pogue and I was messing around with the wrong people, Lillian was the one who supported me. She told me to follow my heart, my feelings. She showed me how to stop thinking about how others felt about it, she taught me to make decisions by myself. The best part was that when I made my decision, she supported it and stood by me as it went on. You don't meet a girl like her every day, it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
The night I found Lillian on her roof almost jumping was probably the worst night of my life, I can't imagine how it must have been for her.
I remember I was cycling through figure-eight, it was pretty late but I needed to clear my mind.
I passed by her house and heard some loud noises. I had keys to her house so I entered. Her parents had been on a quick business trip, it was just two days long so they left her alone for those two days with her little brother, trusting she would have someone over anyways.
I enter her house, I heard some yelling on the rooftop and noticed that someone was over. I knew who, and it pissed me off. Daniel. He was a real dick to her.
5 Months before the incident:
"Lillian, what's that on your arm?" I pointed at the bruise on Lillian's arm.
"Oh it's nothing, I tripped over." She said to me.
Here's the thing: I can always tell when Lillian is lying. She's pretty good at hiding things but I can see right through her. She's like an open book to me, and so am I to her.
I knew she was lying, but I let it go knowing that she wouldn't open up about it. I had already tried so many times. "Mhm," I hummed.
It went on like this for months, bruises, scratches showing up on her, me asking her about it, her denying everything. I knew something was up, and half of me knew what it was.
The night of the incident;
I went up the stairs to see what was going on. I saw Daniel, he was standing close to Lillian, on his way to make her trip over and fall down on the street.
"Fucking do it," he yelled. Do what?
"Daniel please stop, it's fine I'll make it up to you. I'm sorry, I'm so so so sorry but please stop." Lillian sobbed, terrified by him.
"Do it or I will," Daniel said to her. "Please, stop." Lillian yelled, sobbing.
"You know what Lillian? You're begging me to stop as if it's my fault? It's always my fault, isn't it? I am just doing you a favour, do you think anyone cares about you in this world? Sarah? Oh, she doesn't give a fuck about you I hear she talks shit about you with that bitch Kiara. They talk about how self-centered you are and how no one in the pogues gives a shit about you." He said and I froze dumbfounded by his lying, and by how she believed him.
"No, no she didn't" Lillian sobbed. "Topper? You know once he insulted you in front of me and I defended you, but I'm still the bad guy aren't I? So just do everyone a favor and jump, you don't want to be with me? Fine. Then you don't need to be with anyone." Daniel said to her.
Lillian shrugged and stepped further to the edge, looking down. "No!" I yelled. I ran to him and pushed him away from her, taking Lillian in my arms and hugging her.
"What? You can't find her?" Topper exclaimed to me, bringing me back to the present.
"No, and I don't know I have a bad feeling about this like earlier she was tense and she lied to me about how work went and I don't know I think something's up." I said to him, at this point, tears were falling down my cheeks.
"Shit. Um fuck what do we do? Did you search the whole house?" Topper said.
"Only downstairs but Mia said that no one can go upstairs." I said, trying to stop my crying.
"Sarah? Who the hell cares? You check and I'll call Rafe, he needs to know if she's missing." Topper yelled and I nodded.
I ran upstairs and checked every room. It was a pretty big house, I went through the bedrooms and interrupted many hookups which was disgusting. I got to the last room, it was at the end of the corridor.
Lillian's POV:
I heard someone knocking on the door. Fucking finally.
It had been about 40 minutes and my panic attack had stopped. I tried to wash my face and wipe off the mirror. I didn't want anyone to know about this, they would all just be overprotective and think that it has to do with Daniel.
Which it didn't, he had a restraining order and legally couldn't be around me, I wasn't going through that dark road again, I wasn't.
Before wiping off the mirror I took a picture of it, just to have it in case anything happens. Once I was done, you could still see some red but the phrase itself was unreadable.
I looked at myself in the mirror. My face was puffy and red from all the crying, I still had tears in my eyeballs. I thought back to that night.
I wondered if things wouldn't have happened like they did. Would I be here right now?
Something no one knows is that that night I tried to break up with Daniel, I wanted to put an end to what he was doing to me. He reacted obviously and said and did the things he did. I truly loved him, even though he didn't deserve it. Every Day that passes by I feel the part of him that is still haunting me disappear. But just when I'm convinced it's gone, a flashback comes and I'm brought back to all the pain.
I shook my head and brought myself to the present, to my great loving boyfriend. Rafe.
And just like that, the tears were gone.
That's what I had done to calm myself down from the panic attack, I thought about Rafe.
I looked down at my chest, the necklace around my neck. 'I promise to love you forever' engraved on it. Forever.
I had his love, that was enough to keep me safe. He was home. We were forever, never-ending.
"Is someone in here? Lillian?" Sarah screamed.
"Sarah?" I yelled. "Lillian, oh my gosh!" Sarah said unlocking the door. The door was a white wood door, the lock was the type that was controlled by outside, (those locks are stupid in my opinion).
She opened the door wide and fast and came in and hugged me. "What were you doing?" Sarah said. Shit they were looking for me.
"Oh, I think someone accidentally locked me in. Let's go party." I lied to Sarah.
"Wait, Lillian what's the matter you've been acting different," Sarah said.
"Nothing, just a little tired. Can we party now?" I said brushing her off.
"Lillian you can talk to me you know? I'm here for you." She said and I started to get nervous that I would let it slip out.
"I know Sar, but I don't have anything to tell you," I said and she looked at me with a knowing look. I took her hand and we walked downstairs together, we were met by Kie, who was looking very uncomfortable next to Topper and "Rafe?" I exclaimed.
I had no idea he was going to be there. "Lillian? What the fuck, where were you?" Rafe yells and runs to me amongst all the people.
Once he arrived at me he took my waist and kissed me passionately. Once he pulled away he hugged me tight to his chest and placed his hand over my head.
"I thought something happened I was so worried." Rafe said and I just kept hugging him. I didn't want to lie to him, but I would handle this situation by myself.
"Where were you Lil?" Kie and Topper said at the same time to me.
"I somehow got locked in the bathroom and there wasn't any service," I said to Kie, Topper, and Rafe.
I took a quick glance at Rafe and noticed the look on his face, he didn't buy my lying.
____________
A few hours passed and we were all partying together.
For the first hour, Rafe and Sarah were acting weird and were constantly trying to get information out of my mouth. Although I never gave in.
Kie and I danced together and Rafe walked towards me.
"Hi, darling" he said making me smile and Kie roll her eyes.
"Hi," I say to him while giving him a kiss. "I think I'm going to go, me and Max want to hang out a little, do you want to join us?" Rafe said to me, I remember earlier and how the guy who told me to go upstairs claimed to be Max.
"Yeah, um I was wondering, what does Max look like?" I ask him with a shrug, afraid of his answer.
The guy who had approached me earlier was blonde, muscular and pretty tall, he also had green eyes."Tall, brunette, brown eyes, why love?" Rafe answered and I let out a relieved sigh. He wasn't Max, phew.
"Just wondering, I'm going to stay here with the girls but see you tomorrow?" I said and he nodded, I could see a slight disappointment in his eyes that I wasn't joining him but I wanted to spend time with my girls.
"Okay, I love you," Rafe said. "I love you too," I said and kissed him.
"By the way you look heavenly my love," he whispered in my ear once we pulled apart.
Our lips soon re-connected in a long and intense kiss that probably made Kie uncomfortable.
He took my waist and brought me much closer to him. Making our bodies crash against one another. We continue to make out for a few minutes until we finally pull apart and say goodbye.
Oh, how I loved him. Being around him made me forget all my problems. And the fact that I literally have someone after me.
Notes from the author:
First of all, THANK YOU for 2k!!!! You guys are literally the best tysm.
I wanted to say that this story is just getting started, I have most of the plot planned but please understand that if these last chapters are a little boring it's all just to set the book up without rushing it!! So THANK YOU totally the ones who are still reading.
Another note is that the possessive Rafe that we all know and love will be in the book, once again just please have patience!!
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Thank you for reading!
Love you all so much! X