Finding Beauty

[17] - Chapter Seventeen

I woke up the next day to sound of footsteps and mumbled voices in the hallway. Assuming that it was my mom and dad, I sat up in my bed and glanced at the clock. And a beat later, my alarm rang on cue. I yawned, stretched, and pulled myself out of my bed. Walking over to my alarm clock, I shut it off and just when I was about to go to my closet to find something to wear, I heard a loud crash behind me.

Turning around with sudden fear crawling through my veins, I didn’t see anything. But I knew something was there: my insecurity ghost. “What do you want?” I whispered with my voice thick of fear.

“I want you to give up,” My insecurity ghost replied to me. “You’re never going to find out—

“No, I won’t give up!” I shouted at her. “I’ll keep fighting until I defeat you!” Before she could even respond to me, my door swung open and my mother appeared. Her hair was in a tight bun and she was carrying a bunch of paperwork and files.

“McKenzie, why are you shouting so early in the morning?” My mom asked me.

“I—

“You know what, never mind. Just hush up, Dad and I have—

“Work to do, I know,” I sighed suddenly getting upset. “You and Dad always work.”

“Precisely, so will you keep the noise down?” My mom pleaded with annoyance in her eyes.

Suddenly, I couldn’t take it. “Did you guys already go on a business trip? Why are you guys working so much?”

“To keep this house and to provide for you dear, you should already know this,” My mom snapped as she rolled her eyes. “Now if you excuse me, I need to finish filling out this paperwork.”

And with that, she closed the door and departed. Sighing, I ran my fingers through my bed hair and proceeding to get dressed ignoring the saddening feeling in my stomach.

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As soon as I pulled up to school and parked in the driveway, my phone beeped. Taking it out, I noticed that it was a text from Stef:

Hey girly, long time no see. How’s everything? Xx Things are fine over here, I made a lot of new friends and there’s a lot of cute boys but I still need my McKenzie <3.

I smiled at this and replied feeling a bit better after my talk with my mother:

Hey darl, everything’s okay so far. Kale and I have been okay, but I don’t c him much sometimes and Dean is my friend now. Love you Stefanie <33.

As soon as I hit send, I felt kind of bad for not telling her about my insecurity ghost. I had to tell someone about this but who will believe me? Sighing, I ignored this feeling and hopped out of the car.

Locking the door behind me and placing my keys into my bag, I walked inside of the school building along with a huge crowd. Once I was inside, I crossed over to my locker and pulled out my materials for Chemistry.

As I did so, I suddenly thought about yesterday. It seemed like Dean and Kale weren’t going to be friends for a while and for some strange reason, I felt like I should know why they were so upset with each other.

But before I could even process it further, someone kissed my cheek and I turned around to see Kale who was smiling at me. I smiled back and tossed him a hug. “Hey, are you and Dean okay?” I wondered.

“Yeah,” Kale said as he released me. “Dean and I got into an argument, but it’s settled now.”

“That’s good,” I responded with a relief. “Will he sit with us at lunch?”