"Possibly one of the best books I have ever read."
"This is the best book I've read on Wattpad. I'm not lying."
"This was the most beautifully written book I have ever encountered"
A teenage girl finds herself facing relentless bullying ending up in...
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Whatever Chase had written in his report, she figured she owed him one. She was still escorted everywhere by Macie, but it seemed the reins had been loosened.
Bathroom visits now included locked-door privacy, albeit time restricted, and she was allowed to eat her meals with the 'general community'.
Unfortunately her hopes of finding a kindred soul in this 'general community' – someone who would give her the inside gossip, show her the secret tunnels, and sneak her into Dr. Levi's office to search through and destroy her files – were short-lived.
Florence's table of lunch companions included an elderly woman, Penelope, with lollipop-pink lipstick – which wasn't just on her lips.
Her lunch was entirely liquid and her only words were to tell Florence there was a butterfly hatching out of her ear.
Next to her was a guy with bleached blonde hair who looked promising they'd passed each other in the halls, so she knew he was from her floor.
But all hopes of them being friends immediately disappeared when he tried to hit on her with possibly the worst pick-up line in the existence of pick-up lines.
Her final lunch buddy was a slender girl, Vera, who was younger than her, fifteen at most. She found it hardest to look at her because for some reason she felt like she was looking into Chase's mirror again.
Something or someone had yanked out all of the hair from one side of her scalp, leaving weeping flesh exposed. When she took a few, very measured mouthfuls of food, Florence could see similar wounds up and down her arms, as if the skin had literally been scraped off. She had an awful feeling Vera's injuries were self-inflicted. No wonder Chase had been so angry to see her cuts, he must have to deal with Vera on other days.
The thought made her want to weep.
Chase's arrival was nerve-wracking. It was hard to make sense of everything that had happened in the early-morning hours with him. She didn't know if he would be happy to see her tonight or not.
Mostly she just wanted to see his face.
When he finally opened her door, she'd been waiting so long she'd almost accepted he wasn't coming. But then her eyes met his and something inside her relaxed. She couldn't be sure, but she thought maybe something in him did too.
He held out a coat draped over his arm. "So you don't get cold."
She beamed. "Where are we going?"
"To the park."
"At night?" she took the coat and slipped it on. She could tell it was his.
