𝐖 𝐈 𝐍 𝐓 𝐄 𝐑

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟔

"What happened when you were younger, Thea?" I ask softly when she doesn't say anything.

She grips the water bottle, her jaw twitching. I've known Thea my whole life, I first met her when we were babies. Despite that, there are still things we don't know about each other.

"When I was younger." Thea starts again, taking in deep breaths. "I was about five, maybe six years old. I can't really remember."

She shakes her head, trying to gather all the courage she can to tell me. "My parents went out a lot, as did everyones. And I had a lot of different nannies over the years. A lot of them completely taking over the role of my being my mum."

I nod my head, we all had nannies growing up however, mine never became parental figures. They'd look after me, take me to and from school, feed me. But then my 'parents' would step back in.

"Well, anyway, I had this nanny once. She was young, like maybe seventeen, might've been sixteen. My parents liked her because she was so eager to look after me. She stayed at the house for a few weeks while my parents jetted off around Europe." Thea rolls her head to the side, closing her eyes as she retells her childhood.

"I think maybe she liked the lifestyle. Saw my parents and yours in the papers and wanted in because I started to notice shit go missing. It was little things at first like magazines my mum always had out but then it was stuff like my dad's watches and mum's handbags. They only realised stuff was going missing when it was far too late and they had a lot of stuff so a watch or bag was nothing to them." She takes a deep breath, regaining herself before continuing.

"And then she started taking my shit." Thea side-eyes me, letting out a dry laugh. My heart sinks, my stomach turning a bit because who the fuck would be interested in six-year-old girls' stuff?

"Yeah, I'm talking my dolls, my pointe shoes, little trinkets I had. At this point, I was fucking shit scared. Didn't even want to tell my mum in case she didn't believe me and besides, she wasn't really being my mum at the time. Me and you both know what our parents were up to when they went out."

It's no secret that our parents used drugs when they were younger but I really didn't expect Thea's parents to have neglected her this much. I couldn't even imagine going through this and then again with Serena\

"So, anyway, fast forward a couple days and I wake up in the middle of the night. She's standing at the bottom of my bed." She laughs but there's no humour in it. "I'm not even shitting you, she was standing there like a fucking sleep paralysis demon." Thea deeply sighs and takes a sip of water.

She doesn't continue the story and after a couple of minutes, I hear her evened out breaths. I carry her small figure in my arms and take notice of something when I gently tug the bottle from her hand. There are some faint scars lining her arms, so small that you'd only notice them if you were as close to her as I am now.