Finally Free

36

S O P H I A | till forever falls apart

9 days.

It's been 9 days of pure pain. 

I don't know what's happening on the other side of my door. I just know that it's all shit. Paige and Liam argue about me everyday, it's the same thing everytime. Paige would try to get me to leave my room and Liam would tell her it's no use. He's right, I want to stay here forever.

They would start screaming at each other, someone would slam a door and then I hear them apologize an hour later. 

I turned off my phone because I couldn't handle the constant messages from everyone. Maddie has been bringing my homework everyday, the teachers think I'm sick. Then they were off for Christmas break.

I guess in a way I am sick. I'm sick of living like this. I'm sick when I look at myself in the mirror. When I look in the mirror, I see the broken, disgusting slut I was.

On Day 10 I came out of the bathroom after crying so hard I threw up. That happens a lot.

"Carter, just go home." I hear Paige yell. The mention of his name makes a few more tears roll down my cheeks. I know he's been out there this whole time. It pains me knowing that he's spending all this energy on me, but I can't leave my room. Everything is different now.

I don't want to listen to anymore of the conversation. I open my laptop because I'm actually able to ignore the messages on there. That's when I got a notification from an odd address. Fearing the worst I open it.

It reads:

Break up with Carter or else your secrets go onto Instagram.

Xoxo

It doesn't take a genius to figure out who sent that. My only question is why? Why is Eloise doing this to me? Does she want Carter? I don't know what happened to them but why did she bring me into it?

All those questions take over my mind as vomit threatens to come up again from the tears.

People can't know. I can't take that risk. It kills me, but I know what I have to do.

The next day it took all of my strength to get out of my bed. The house had been silent all day. I don't know where Paige and Liam are but I didn't really care that much. For the first time in nearly two weeks I opened my door. The house was in pristine condition unless you count Paige's collection of shoes piling at the bottom of the stairs.

I get into my car, ignoring the pain rising in my chest. When I get to his house the feeling grows when I see him through the window, a content look on his face as he writes in a journal.

A flash of rage flows through me at what I have to do. I take my anger out on my steering wheel, hitting it with my fists repeatedly, tears flowing down my eyes for what feels like the millionth time.

I could turn around. I could ignore what Eloise said and go back home. No one has to get hurt.

But...

If everyone found out not only would my life be ruined but so would everyone else's. I could lose the last strings of support from my mother, I could lose Liam, Paige might even leave me.

I open my car door, savoring every last step to his door. I can only manage a soft knock. A second later it opens. My heart sinks when I see his face.

His eyes widen and then he smiles and draws me into the biggest hug. "Oh my God." He sounds so relieved, he's about to be crushed. "Come in, get out of the cold."