Dedicated to ArushiUpmanyu
Song for chapter seven: Sweeter Place by Selena Gomez ft. Kid Cudi
|Skyler|
That night I tossed and turned in my bed. My mind replayed my moms death over and over again until I grew restless and just about insane.
The truck smashing into her, her mutilated body underneath the white cloth. How she didn't wake up when I called her over and over again. I knew she was gone forever, but a large part of me didn't believe it. It had all happened so fast.
I laid on my back, the duvet pressed up to my chin.
You can just let it all out now.
But no tears came. I laid there, a gaping hole in my heart that grew larger and larger every second. A never ending emptiness lingered throughout my whole body. And yet, no tears came. I was numb.
And somehow that was worse than sobbing my eyes out like I'd been doing for so long.
Restless, I swung the covers over my legs and got off the bed. If I wasn't going to sleep then I could make myself useful and do some homework or study. At least that way, I wasn't left alone with my toxic thoughts.
I switched the light in the room back on and sat down in my desk. The chemistry lab report was supposed to be done with Aden, so I would leave that. A small smile spread across my face from the thought of Aden, even though I didn't even know him at all that well.
Instead, I took out my math homework that I'd procrastinated on all afternoon and started on that. Math was after all, something I needed for university.
Maybe I would fall asleep doing this. That wouldn't be so bad...
I'd tackled all the math homework within two hours, before I passed out, my head and body drooped over onto my desk.
The alarm I'd set penetrated through my dreamless sleep just a couple hours later. Groggily, I got up from the desk, grimacing at the pain that shot up my neck from having slept in a weird position. I shut off the blaring noise and padded to the bathroom across the hall, eyes still half shut.
Immediately, I splashed my face with cold water from the tap, hoping that it'd help. It did, but I still looked like a zombie from the lack of sleep.
Grimacing at my reflection, I slapped on some foundation and concealer under the eyes to cover up the dark circles. I swiped some mascara over my lashes and left the washroom, satisfied with the way I looked.
I headed into the kitchen, the smell of waffles drifting up my nose. A smile spread over my lips as I walked in, but it immediately disappeared when I saw a dark haired woman rather than my mother's signature blonde hair. I stopped short at the doorway, reality slamming into me at 100 miles an hour.
I'm an idiot, of course it's not mom. She's dead, and there's nothing I can do to change that.
Aunt Claire turned around from the stove, sliding a waffle onto the plate. She was already dressed in a pencil skirt and a white dress shirt, her hair tied up into a tight knot on top of her head.
"Good morning," she beamed at me when she noticed my presence.
"You made breakfast today?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowing. It wasn't that I was unhappy about it, but today was the only day she'd ever not been in a hurry to leave the house. For the whole month and a half that I'd been here, she had never made breakfast. I wasn't even aware we had a waffle maker.
"I thought I'd treat us to something special," Aunt Claire grinned ecstatically as she set the plates down onto the table.
"Well, who can pass on waffles," I shrugged, sitting down and adding Nutella to my waffle. We ate in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, exchanging minor details about school and Aunt Claire's work.
"How come your bedroom light was turned on at 2 in the morning?" Aunt Claire asked me. I looked up at her, but instead of seeing a confused expression, I saw an expression that my mom used to give me when she knew I was up to something no good.
But it's not mom. And it will never be her again.
God, what I'd give to have her look at me like that again.
"I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep," I lied.
Aunt Claire raised a skeptical eyebrow, "Except it stayed on until half an hour ago."
"I fell back asleep with it still turned on," I said quickly. At least that wasn't a complete lie.
Aunt Claire sighed, pushing her empty plate aside, "I think you should go back and see Doctor Miranda." Immediately, I shot up from my seat to put my plate into the sink without giving her an answer, but she pressed on. "Skyler, you know she'll be able to help you."
I spun around to face her. "I can help myself just fine. I'm dealing with it myself," I stated firmly, my voice raising an octave higher than usual.
"How? By staying up until ungodly hours of the night?" Aunt Claire frowned at me.
I took a deep breath, not wanting to snap at her. She just thought she knew what was best for me, but I was sure only I knew that. A little voice in my head echoed that at least I had Aunt Claire and I wasn't in foster care or something worse.
"Look, last night was just a one off," I lied, "and it doesn't happen much at all. I'll be fine, I'm handling this myself."
The last thing I needed was to be stuck inside a stuffy room, recalling my mom's death and telling a random woman how it made me feel to be alone.
It sucked, that was what.
But I didn't want anyone to know that. I didn't want anyone to know how weak I was. They would just take advantage of it.
Aunt Claire opened her mouth, and shut it again, nodding with a heavy sigh that escaped her lips, "Have a good day at school, I'll be off now or I'll be running late."
I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that she would let it go. Aunt Claire approached me, planting a small kiss on my cheek before grabbing her briefcase and heading out the door.
Sighing, I hurried back to my room. I rummaged through my drawers until I my hands wrapped around the bottle of Zoloft pills again. I took two in my hands and threw them into the trash can next to my bed.
_____________________
I wrapped my hair tie around my hair, tying it into a high ponytail as Mr. Woods explained the instructions of the game to us — which I ignored like everyone else. It was a normal soccer game, except half of us had never actually played before.
Half, including me.
We all gathered around in the soccer field, most of us half asleep or looking everywhere but at Mr. Woods.
As far as I was concerned, I was just going to kick the ball towards the other team's net.
It was the second week of school and I had successfully avoided all sports that I sucked at, until today anyway.
I glanced at Aden, who was staring at the teacher with a bored expression. Now, I was slightly concerned. He was on the soccer team after all, and not only that, Austin was also in this class. Why had I never noticed him before?
But it would be totally fine, I had a plan. I was going to "play defence" and kick the ball whenever it came.
"Alright, I'm gonna pick the team captains, and they will pick their teams," Mr. Woods shouted at all of us. "Aden and Austin, you're the team captains, since you both sort of know what the hell ya'll are doing."
They both simultaneously stepped up next to the teacher. I stared at the ground, avoiding eye contact with both of them. Why couldn't Mr. Woods just number us off or something? I internally groaned.
"I'll pick first," Austin said. I glanced up to see Aden nodding in agreement. Austin made direct eye contact with me, a large smirk spreading across his face. "I'll take Skyler."
I didn't miss the scowl that Aden shot at Austin.
They both took their turns until everyone in the class had been chosen, and both teams separated into different sides of the field. The game began when Mr. Woods threw the hall into the field, which I was pretty sure that's not how an actual game began.
I stayed by the net, fidgeting awkwardly in my gym strip as I watched the game play out in the middle of the field. Or dare I say, lack of a game. Most people stood around, or just followed the ball with no intentions of actually trying to intercept it. I was right though, it was mostly just the soccer boys who were putting any effort into this class.
Aden and Austin had it out for each other, and another guy, who I was pretty sure was named Ryan ran with them, occasionally helping Aden.
Aden and Austin were head to head on each other. In one swift move, Aden swerved past Austin, sticking his foot out and tripping Austin over in the process. He collapsed onto the grass with a thud, his glower burning into Aden's back.
Aden ran towards me —towards the goal— and my eyes widened. I glanced back at the girl standing guard at the goal, and she looked just as afraid as I was, her eyes frantic.
"Go! You're defence do something!" she ushered me.
"What the hell am I supposed to do?" I panicked. "I'm literally going to get pummelled over," I muttered under my breath as I jogged a few steps forward to meet with Aden.
He continued running towards me, his confident smile growing into a smirk as he came closer and closer. He gave the ball a hard kick that would have soared next to me, aiming for the goal.
Oh, my god the girl behind me is gonna eat it! Without thinking, I ran to intercept the ball and much to my embarrassment, my face made direct contact with it.
"Oof!" my back slammed onto the ground, my head smacking the grass. Thankfully, it was grass and not cement. My ears rang momentarily, and I blinked. Other than that, everything else felt fine. Leave it to the only three functional brain cells I had to tell me to run in front of a ball.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," I heard Aden say next to me. I turned to face him as he slid his hand underneath my back and helped me sit up. "Are you okay? No, sorry that's a stupid question, you're not."
"I'm fine," I groaned, rubbing my face, only to immediately pull my hand away when a throbbing pain resulted from the contact.
Mr. Woods appeared in front of me out of nowhere, bending down to inspect what I suspected was my face.
"It would be a good idea to get some ice on that," he gestured to my cheek with his finger. No kidding.
"I'll take her!" someone shouted. I looked up to see Austin on the about a meter away from where I was sitting.
"No, it's fine, I got her," Aden countered, his hand that still rested on my back growing tense, "it's my fault anyway." Mr. Woods nodded while Austin shot a glare at Aden. I was in no shape to even bother to tell Austin that it was fine.
Aden bent over to help me up, but I slapped his hand away, "I can get up myself."
True to my word, I stood up and began walking back towards the school, Aden hot on my trail. He fell into step with me in just a few moments, his legs being way longer than mine.
He stayed close to me, "Can you walk?" I only nodded in response.
"I really am sorry, you weren't supposed to jump in front like that," Aden said quickly.
"It's fine," I said again.
He smirked, "You really are clumsy."
I'm really not. I shot him a look, but didn't have the energy to remind him that he contributed to my throbbing face. We walked in silence until we entered the school, and I was grateful that the hallway was empty since it was the middle of classes.
"I'll show you to the nurse's office. I assume you don't know where that is," Aden said as we strolled down the hall. I nodded in agreement, realizing that I actually had no clue where it was.
I followed Aden to a hallway that I'd never been in and we stopped in front of an elevator. My jaw dropped slightly as he pressed the button and the doors slid open.
I couldn't help but feel shocked. My old school didn't have an elevator, but I heard of schools that did, only students weren't allowed to use them. It was reserved for teachers, and students who couldn't walk up the stairs.
Aden shut the door behind us and pressed a button to the third floor. His eyes, clouded with guilt shot between my pulsing face and my eyes.
"Aden, I'm fine rea—" I started, but was interrupted when the elevator shook, nearly throwing me off balance. Our wide eyes met each other when we realized simultaneously that the elevator had stopped moving. Within the next second, the lights flickered off, leaving us in complete darkness.
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Hey guys! Hope you liked this chapter! Above is a picture of Skyler.
Please do vote, comment and share if you liked this chapter! It really means a lot to me!
~SweetnessInTheSalt