[A/N] Please note that there are trigger warnings in this chapter and the next, so PLEASE read with caution.
THE NUMBER YOU HAVE DIALED IS NOT AVAILABLE. PLEASE LEAVE A MES-
Sophia tightened her lips into a thin line as she pulled her phone away from her ear and pressed the red button on the screen. She took a deep breath and leaned forward in her seat, resting her elbow on the table as she raked a hand through her hair.
She wasn't sure what to make of it. Her dad was running extremely late and he wouldn't answer her calls. It would just go straight to voicemail without even ringing. The whole evening she's been trying to keep a small voice in the back of her mind at bay, but as the minutes and gradual hours ticked by, that voice was growing louder and louder.
He's not coming.
Sophia sighed as she rubbed her forehead, before pausing and glancing up at the ceiling before scoffing. She was a fool, she really was. Only an idiot would believe that someone could change after eighteen years. It was time she faced the facts. Her father wasn't coming, he never had any intention of coming. He had no interest in her whatsoever.
The thought hurt her deeply, but it was time she accepted it. Her father didn't love her. He never did and never will.
Sophia slowly felt her anger grow as she glared at the food she made. She suddenly felt sick: sick of the sight of the food she worked so hard to prepare, sick of the fact that she was so gullible, sick of her dad, and sick of her life.
Her face contorted in anger as she shoved herself away from the table, her chair screeching on the flooring as she did, and she marched up to her room.
She was sick of everything!
-
Sophia didn't sleep at all that night, she just lay in bed awake the entire while, tossing and turning as she thought of her life. Her pathetic life, to be specific.
She just couldn't believe herself. After all these years, you would think that she would've gotten the hint that her father never wanted her in his life. He had given her false hope tonight and she had blindly leapt at the chance, yet deep down she knew she was fooling herself.
Her father wasn't going to be there.
As the night wore on and exhaustion came over Sophia, she found the anger slowly evaporating from her body to be replaced by a strange feeling of numbness and acceptance. Her father didn't want her in his life, so why did she even bother any more. She was clearly a burden to him ... to everyone.
If her father didn't love her, how much more did the others not care?
Although her heart fought against it, claiming that Luke did care for her, Sophia refused to believe her heart anymore. She had allowed herself to feel hope at being able to bond with her father, but she finally learnt her lesson.
He didn't want to see her, he didn't want to talk to her, and he didn't want her.
The whole evening of him not pitching was probably his plan all along. Why would he care now all of a sudden anyway? She finally turned eighteen – legally able to fend for herself. This must be her dad's way of severing the ties with her. Ties that were invisible string to begin with.
Sophia sighed and turned on her side.
If her father didn't want her anymore, a man who is supposed to love her till death, then ... what was the point of her still living on this earth? Because clearly no-one wanted her on it anyway.
-
"Hey, Mindy," Luke greeted that Monday morning as he noticed the petite girl waiting in her usual spot for Sophia.
"Morning, Luke," she greeted and adjusted her glasses before peering at him. "How are you doing?"
She'd heard about the funeral from Sophia and didn't quite know what to say.
"I'm okay," he said with a small smile, his eyes tired from the long journey home yesterday. "Is Sophia here yet?"
As Mindy was about to respond, their ears perked up at the sound of a familiar rumble and they both turned, noticing Sophia's bike enter the school parking lot. They glanced at each other before walking towards the bike as they watched Sophia turn off the engine and swing her leg over to stand next to it.
"Hey, Soph," Luke called in greeting, but his smile faltered when she pulled off her helmet and he caught sight of her face.
She looked as though she hadn't slept in days, stress lines visible on her face, but that was not the worst. Her eyes looked completely lifeless. There was no focus, no glare, no ... nothing.
"Sophia?" Mindy asked hesitantly.
At the sound of her name, Sophia's eyes slowly flickered towards the two people that she had come to consider her friends. She felt her throat go dry, but she felt no emotion.
"Soph, you okay?" Luke asked.
Without a word, Sophia tucked her hand in her pocket and gripped the small object in her hand. She hesitated for a moment before pulling it out and walking up to Luke.
Luke frowned as he watched Sophia grip his hand, pulling it towards her and she placed something in his palm. He glanced at her for a moment before bringing his hand back to him and his eyes widened when he saw the necklace resting on his palm.
His eyes snapped to hers. "What's going on, Sophia? Don't you like it?" he asked, thoroughly confused.
Why was she giving it back to him?
"I won't be needing it where I'm going," she said and her voice sent chills down her friends' spines.
Her voice was completely emotionless, her face void of any expression.
Luke felt himself tense. "You're leaving?"
For the briefest moment Luke saw something flicker in her eyes, but it was gone before he could figure out what it was.
"Something like that," she muttered.
"Why?" Luke heard his voice crack slightly.
She couldn't be moving, could she? He didn't want her to move, he still hasn't had the chance to tell her ...
Sophia's shoulders squared for a moment at his question, but her expression remained blank. She looked down at her boots as she swallowed, her shoulders deflating.
"I'm tired, Luke." She looked back up at them and Mindy sucked in a sharp breath at the exhausted look that appeared on Sophia's face. "I'm tired of everything."
"What are you talking about, Sophia?" Luke frowned at her strange behaviour.
But Sophia didn't answer him as she slowly turned, giving them both one last look and a nod of her head.
"Goodbye," she said so softly, they almost didn't hear her before turning around completely and walking off to her bike.
Mindy's eyes widened and her hand lashed out to grip Luke's forearm. "Luke," she whispered, her eyes growing more panicked as she watched the bike take off down the road.
But Luke didn't respond, he was still too confused by what just happened, his hand gripping the necklace in his palm tightly.
"Luke!" Mindy yelled and shook his arm roughly to gain his attention.
"What?" Luke tore his gaze from the road and grew shocked at the petrified look on Mindy's face.
"Luke, you have to go after Sophia now!" she shouted urgently, the loudest she has ever spoken.
"Why?" Luke still wasn't catching on to what she was so anxious about.
"Because that look ... that look that Sophia had," Mindy hesitated for a moment and Luke gestured for her to continue.
Mindy tried to keep her emotions in check as flashbacks shot through her mind of her horrible past and what she had done to try and get away from it. She knew the look Sophia had all too well.
"It's the same look I had before I started cutting."
And that was when Luke finally understood. Without a second thought, he rushed to his own bike, not even bothering to put on his helmet, as he gunned the engine and flew out of the parking lot in the direction he last saw Sophia go.