Foreign |l.r.h au|

1.6

"Hey, Ashton brought a friend, can she come in?" My mom asks. Luke looks at me and I quickly nod my head, pulling my blankets closer to my chest, I watch as Ashton's curls come into view.

A petite girl follows behind him. Her body dressed in a large, orange tee shirt with a pair of blue jeans and black converse. She has her blonde hair done up in a high ponytail with curls dangling from the ends.

"Hi!" she smiles brightly towards me, before walking over and giving me a hug. This girl is very out there. I look to Ashton and he's chuckling and as is Luke. Finally, she releases me from her embrace.

"Guys, this is Kelcie." Ashton introduces. Her dark blue eyes brighten up by Ashton's voice and I watch her as she turns and smiles at him.

"I'm sorry, I love meeting people," Kelcie says, her eye reverting down towards the carpet. Typically I would find people like her annoying, but her optimism was exactly what I needed.

The house has been rather quiet since Alex has been captured. Dad has barely spoken a word to me, while my mom has been incredibly distant. Mary, Archie's girlfriend, explained to me that it was because part of them doesn't know how to help. She also believes that with Alex being arrested, it makes it more real for them.

I do not think that any parent wants to be faced with the situation of their own child being raped, abused and damaged. Of course, things are a lot different than when I was thirteen, I'm eighteen now. Despite being gone for the majority of teenage years, my parents managed to treat me like an adult and grant me with the privacy I've damn well needed.

My shoulder is shaken which takes me out of thoughts. I look up to see Luke, his hand remaining on my clothed skin.

"I've missed ya," Ashton says, giving me a quick hug before returning beside Kelcie and guiding her to sit on the couch.

"How did you two meet?" Luke asks, looking at Ashton. I can see a blush rise to Kelcie's freckled cheeks as her gaze fixes on the curly-haired boy.

"She's an incredible piano player. I was walking through the music store and there she was just playing the piano, making it her bit-" Kelcie cuts him off when she sees Emery walk into the living room. 

Her chubby cheeks and arms are imprinted from the mattress she slept on. Emery rubs her eyes before coming up next to me and laying in my lap.

"That's awesome," Luke says. My mom comes back into the room with a plate of cookies. As she sets them on the table, we all thank you and she takes the exhausted child clinging to me off my lap, carrying her bridal style.

Luke reaches out and grabs two cookies before handing one to me. I give him a smile and feel the chocolate chips seep onto my hands. The warmth of the cookie soon engulfs my taste buds and I run my tongue across my lips.

"These are really good, thank you," Luke says to my mom and I soon nod in agreement. I feel something buzz next to me and see that it's Luke's phone. He nods at me like he wants me to answer and I shrug my shoulders, taking his phone into my hand.

His phone lock code was easy, considering it was just the year he was born. I unlock the screen and see that he had received a photo from Calum. I open the message and see that it was a screenshot of me when I was sixteen.

It was a picture Alex had forced me to take, I was only wearing a thong and small bra, that my breast practically spilled over. I can see the fresh bruises that lined my neck as a fake smile is plastered onto my face. There was a cross necklace hung around my neck a

My stomach drops when I read the caption, Good Christian Girl, Looking for A Good Time. It was from Craigslist. I try to read what Calum says, but tears begin to brim my eyes as I feel my stomach drop, the foods I have eaten starting to come up my throat.

I toss the phone down and throw the blanket off of me, my feet padding roughly against the floor all the way to the bathroom. My knees dropping to the front of the open toilet, as my body upchucks the foods I've devoured in the recent few hours. Vomit makes its way out of my nostrils, as the tears blur my vision. I feel as if I had swallowed fire, feeling it burn the back of my throat and my nose.

Someone is behind me, pulling my hair out of my face while drawing circles on my back. My breathing is unsteady as with every exhale, I vomit.

I know people are yelling, but I cannot hear them. Their voices muffled as my brain pound viciously against my skull, as if it's trying to jump out of my head.

I gag a little bit before I finally stop throwing up. I see Ashton is holding a wet wash cloth, handing it over to Kelcie, while she presses it against my saliva painted face.

Luke is the one holding my hair and before he lets go, he pulls one of my wrists back, untangling a hair tie from my left wrist, and wrapping my hair into a low ponytail. I lean my back against the bathtub and let out a deep breath through the cloth. I press my hands up to it, applying pressure and wiping my face. My eyes sting and my body feels sore.

"Are you alright?" Ashton looks concerned. I wasn't alright, not even remotely. I've had the nightmares, hell I've even been bought and used, and I felt like an object. And though, I was slowly, but surely, coming away from those feelings of being artificial, the photo itself was a verification that I was not a human to all the people I encountered while I was held under Alex's control.

As I asked everyone to dismiss themselves out of the bathroom, I began to wash my face and brush my teeth. As I did so, I could only wonder what Calum and Luke were discussing and why it involved me.

I wrote a chapter yay! Band camp is rapidly approaching, and it starts on Monday, yikes! which means senior year is about to be lit. Hope you all enjoyed, even though it's not that great.

-shannon xx