The Teacher's Pet | Slowburn MJ FanFic

• | Chapter Seventy-Six | •

{ Appreciate you all ❤️  || ⚠️ TW: SI ⚠️ }

| Thursday . . .

The okay days had come and gone, and they didn't come back. With the dreaded therapy session right around the corner, Riley was losing the war with her mind as it taunted her with frequent, recurring nightmares. It kept her up at all hours of the night, and it only worsened her psyche. Weeds of doubt, insecurity and depression were beginning to wallow her up, and she was finding it difficult to fight her way out.

She groggily lay curled in a ball on the shower floor, her battered mind constantly replaying the things she endured under Javen's iron fist. The cold water pelted her slightly shivering body, and her wet hair was splayed over her face as she stared at nothing in particular.

Every passing day, she grew mentally and emotionally exhausted from trying to pretend that everything was okay, and now she could no longer even muster the tiniest smile. It suddenly felt like the weeds of emotions nested in her chest and were depriving her lungs of air, and she found herself struggling to breathe for a few scary seconds.

She held her chest as she squeezed her eyes shut and took jagged, deep breaths, trying her best to overpower the loud taunts of Javen's haunting voice in her head while reminding herself to breathe. The tightness in her chest slowly faded, but the emotions continued to linger.

As much as she loved staying with Michael, she felt like it contributed to nothing but being a burden since she arrived here, and it deeply bothered her. She didn't come to stay with him to add to his stress, but that's what she felt like she was doing. A tear that could have easily been mistaken for a water droplet fell from her eye.

After a moment or two, she slowly sat up from the floor and turned the water off before shuffling into the bedroom without glancing toward the mirror. She was too ashamed to even look at herself because the person staring back wouldn't be the same vibrant girl from before, not since Javen came into her life like a wrecking ball.

She dried off and got dressed into a pair of pajama pants and a tank top. She walked over to the nightstand where her phone sat and reached for it. A picture she had taken with Michael one morning lit up on her screensaver, and her bottom lip quivered as she stared at his handsome face.

She ran her fingers over the smooth glass as if she could feel his striking features beneath them. His warm brown eyes and contagious smile failed to appease her this time. Her eyes watered, and she sighed deeply as she placed the phone back down.

"You deserve so much better than me." She spoke softly to herself. The weed of insecurity grew stronger.

She slipped on a pair of sneakers and left the bedroom to head downstairs. She grabbed a pen from the end table and a car wash flyer that was left lying around. Sitting down on the floor and placing the front of the paper against the glass center table, she wrote as neatly as she could across the back of it and almost stopped writing as she contemplated if she wanted to go through with what her mind was begging her to do.

"It's becoming too much. Everyone will be better off without me anyway." She convinced herself, though hearing the words out loud cut her much deeper than she anticipated.

Quickly, she wrote out her distressed thoughts, then left the note at the edge of the table so Michael could find it once he returned. She slowly stood up and turned her attention to the opened blinds of the window, watching as the trees and plants rippled frantically in the harsh wind due to the upcoming storm. With a disheartened exhale, she silently left the living room.