𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐉𝐉 | 𝐉𝐉 𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤

13. love.

T H I R T E E N
love.

Once again, Otto did not cope well.

It was too substantial of an 'incident' for her to sweep it under the rug and pretend it didn't happen; like she did when Wes first slapped her.

She beared the physical signs of what happened, she couldn't escape it, if she didn't look in the mirror she still saw the bruises of where she hit the steep stairs. If she closed her eyes she felt the ache in her muscles.

She could not escape it.

If she wasn't in her current, predicament, she would just snort enough pills that up and down blurred into one.

But she couldn't.

Even though she really fucking wanted to.

She felt like all the emotions were going to swallow her whole, they felt like they were burning her from the inside out.

She felt so much and she didn't know what to do with it all.

It wasn't like she did when her dad told her he was dying, she could push that back, it wasn't happening right there and then.

But, this was happening right there and then.

Her mother had no clue of what happened the day prior, she was just curious as to why Otto hadn't gone to school.

She walked into a room with the blinds pulled shut, it was completely silent, Otto had the blankets pulled right up to her chin. She wasn't asleep, she just stared straight ahead as she lied on her side.

There was clearly something wrong.

"Is there a problem with Wes?" Laura asked, it was the most likely reason as to the state of her daughter.

Otto didn't respond, but as her mother got closer she saw her teenager's face. Her lip had scabbed up and the bags in her eyes were painted black and blue. Otto had scrubbed the blood from her nose off in the shower but at some point more leaked out and rolled down her cheek and a few drops landed on the mattress.

"Oh, Otto, we need to get you to a hospital."

Otto didn't shift her gaze, "I'm not going to a hospital. I'm fine." Her voice was monotonic.

Laura had no clue what to do, forcing Otto to go to the hospital wouldn't be good, but letting her stay im the state she was in also wasn't a good idea. She had never felt so utterly helpless, she always prided herself on being a good mother, she was loving and endlessly patient. She always made sure to go to all of her extracurricular acitivies and never cared about her grades, she just cared that she was happy.

And she was no longer happy.

There was no parenting book that covered "what to do if your daughter's psychopathic ex-boyfriend beats her whilst pregnant with another boy's baby and she is refusing any help."

Perhaps it was a little too niche.

Laura did what she thought was best and climbed into bed next to Otto and then she did what she had done when Otto was sick as a child.

As she lied next to her in the bed she reached out and ran her hands through Otto's hair, starting and the roots and running through to the ends.

It never failed to make her fall asleep.

And asleep she fell, it only took a few minutes of her mother's touch to send her into a deep slumber.

Once she was asleep Laura rolled over and looked up at the ceiling.