Better Off

24

When I finally make it home, I'm not in the mood to do anything but lay in my bed and sob my already swollen-from-crying eyes out. I grab all the groceries in one trip, dropping them onto the kitchen counter roughly. The plastic bag handles dig into my skin and leave red marks on my flesh, but I ignore the pain. It's nothing compared to the ache I feel in my heart, anyway.

I get a glance of my reflection in the hallway mirror, and I nearly gasp aloud. My hair is a mess. My eyes are red and puffy. Mascara streams down my cheeks like inky black waterfalls. I look nearly as terrible as I feel.

I'm hurting worse than I have ever hurt before in my life. So you can imagine how I feel when I turn to the living room, only to find Saige sitting with my mother and father, all three of them staring at me expectantly. Saige has this smug, self-satisfied look on her face as she smirks at me, like she's been waiting for this moment. My father looks like he's about to break everything around him in a burst of anger. My mother looks shocked, like someone has just told her something she absolutely cannot believe.

"Mia!" my dad barks, practically foaming at the mouth. "Get in here! Now!"

I walk into the room cautiously, already so emotionally damaged it probably won't matter what they say to me. If I'm already broken, there's nothing they can do to tear me apart further. I move in a daze, hardly paying attention the to sight in front of me. I should care that Saige is in my house. I should care that she's no doubt told my parents something horrid about me in an attempt to ruin my life.

But that's the problem. I don't care. About anything in this moment. At all.

How could Saige ruin my life, when I have done just that all on my own?

"I don't want to believe it," my mother whispers, holding a hand to her mouth as she gapes at me. She stares at me as if she doesn't recognize me. As if I am not the girl she has seen every single day for the past 18 years.

I should feel something at that thought.

I don't.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way, Mrs. McHenry," Saige says in a mock-apologetic tone. She keeps her face painted with sympathy, as if she truly feels bad for my mother. "I just thought it was about time you knew."

"Knew what?" I ask in a bland tone, wondering what she could possibly be up to now. Hasn't she done enough damage already? Why is she even here? Can't I just go up to my room and be miserable in peace?

"That you've been going out with Thorne Baxter," Saige says simply, her smirk widening as shock registers on my features. Forget what I said about not being able to break further. This is probably one of the worst things that could happen right now. Saige has perfect timing. If there were any way for her to know what just happened between Thorne and I, I would think she had planned this.

At the mention of Thorne, something loose inside of me breaks free. It's like all of the feelings I have suffered through tonight suddenly rise to the surface, begging me to pay them attention. To let them out.