sunsets // m.c [DISCONTINUED]

chapter 3

Reese lied on her bed, unable to close her eyes and put her mind to rest. It was like her brain was racing with thoughts all of a sudden, and she couldn't stop it. She constantly thought about what happened at the beach. Why did that Mitchel guy approach her? What motivated him to come up to her and talk to her? If she had to be honest, she was rather confused. Nobody who wasn't her family had spoken to her in quite a while that this was a shocker.

The young girl tossed and turned on her soft bedsheets, getting frustrated at being unable to sleep. All she wanted was a good night's rest since she hasn't had it in a while. She was almost tempted to text Mitchel again in hopes to keep her some sort of company while struggling. That wouldn't be weird, right?

She almost reached for her phone. Key word: almost. Reese stopped herself, realizing she didn't want to bother Mitchel. He could be busy doing something.

There were footsteps heard from outside her room, gradually getting louder until the person reached her door. Slowly, the door creaked open slightly causing a little bit of light to shine into the dark bedroom. Reese closed her eyes and tried to act like she was asleep just so whoever was at the door would leave her alone.

The floorboards softly squeaked as the person made their way over to Reese's bed. A slightly heavy exhale escaped Reese's lips to make it more believable that she was asleep. Her bed dipped softly, signaling that someone was seated on it by her legs. For a long moment, no words left the mouth of this person, leaving Reese to wonder. They let out a deep sigh as well as a soft chuckle, almost as if they thought what they were doing was stupid.

"I'm sorry, Reese," they said, their voice slightly low to be quiet. Reese knew whose voice it belonged to; her mother. She should have known since her mother came home pretty late. The young girl's heart dropped slightly at the sound of her mom's low, saddened voice. "I'm sorry it's like this for you, honey. You shouldn't have to go through any of this."

Her mother sighed. "Your father told me you went off to the beach again today. He said he tried stopping you again even though he knew there was no use."

Reese wanted to "wake up" and talk to her mom, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. It was as if she was being held down. A long moment of silence followed, her mother sniffling softly. There was nothing left being said.

Her mother got up slowly and planted a soft kiss on Reese's temple, caressing it right after, before heading out. Reese's eyes opened slowly, being greeted by nothing but darkness in her room. She began to think of how her mother sounded while talking, which seemed very heartbroken. It was as if she felt pity toward something. The brown haired girl's mother did this quite often after she came home from work, but each time surprised her like it was the first time.

While being deep in her thoughts, she reached for her phone on her nightstand. She didn't seem to realize what she was doing. A soft sigh left her lips as she opened up iMessage, then her text conversation with Mitchel. Her fingers tapped on the letters on her screen quickly. After staring at the message hesitantly, she hit send, thinking "oh well" to herself.

Reese
hey, i'm sorry to disturb you right now if you're busy or asleep. but are you busy tomorrow?

Immediately, she swiped up on the iMessage app and turned off her phone, deeply exhaling. She couldn't help but ask herself what she was doing, why she was doing this. She was worried that she might come off as needy without even knowing who the hell Mitchel really was.

Her phone lit up immediately, making her heart picked up its pace. She looked with hesitation, her palms beginning to sweat as she picked up her phone.

Mitchel
Mmmm, no. Got nothin planned. Why?

Reese
oh okay. i just wanted to ask. do you want to hang out somewhere or something?

"God, what the fuck am I doing?" Reese whispered to herself. "I don't know him." She facepalmed a little too harshly, but she didn't care. She felt a little disappointed in herself for deciding to do this. She felt ridiculous. She didn't understand why she was getting the sudden urge to put effort when dealing with someone since all anyone ever does is leave. A saddened laugh left her lips. The realization that her life was like this had just hit her quite hard.

A single tear fell from the corner of her eye, followed by another until her eyesight became blurry and she was forced to shut her eyes. She grabbed the pillow that was right next to her, tightly gripping it like it would solve everything going wrong. It started to hurt her hand, but she didn't care. She just wanted it all to stop in any way it could. The atmosphere began to feel a little warmer than how it was, her cheeks began to hurt at how tightly she was shutting her eyes, and beads of sweat began to form on her forehead.

Reese tried her hardest to calm down, to stop herself from crying so much. She did everything she could do to stop the tears, to loosen her grip on the poor pillow... but nothing was working. Her thoughts progressively got worse, her heart continued to pick up the pace, and she began to feel her body shake slightly. She knew exactly what was happening, but she didn't have enough energy to stop herself.

The pain in her chest grew slightly every second, causing her to let out a quiet squeak. It always happened whenever she would cry her eyes out, but it seemed to gradually get worse and worse each time it'd happen to her. Even though the pain was there, she chose to just ignore it. It's what she always did.

***

After a long hour later, Reese lied there without moving any muscles. Crying left her exhausted, but she didn't want to fall asleep, so she just stared at the ceiling for a while. Her mind was blank once again, the way it was earlier. She felt nothing inside, and her whole body was heavy. The feeling was far more intense than before, like she just didn't want to get out of bed for anything at all.

She just wanted to disappear, to leave and not come back. All she wanted was to finally be free from this hell of a life she was given. None of this was asked for, the miserableness that was brought onto her for so long. Reese wanted many things, but none of them were enough compared to the one thing she really wanted. And that was to be... happier. Not only with herself, but with the people in her life, and even just her life in general.

But with how things were, that felt far out of reach.

Her phone buzzed, slightly startling her. It hit her that she forgot to reply to Mitchel. She slowly reached for her phone and turned it on. Mitchel had texted her twice.

Mitchel
I'm down. Where tho?

Mitchel
We could plan this tomorrow since ur probably sleeping :)

She sighed, deciding to reply to the boy. She wasn't one to just leave someone hanging, even though she just did it for a little over an hour.

Reese
no no, sorry i was busy doing something. but we could go eat somewhere i guess. idk. not really good at planning stuff, honestly.

Mitchel
Oh don't worry ab it. We could do that, what u wanna eat?

Reese
hmm, as plain as it sounds, how about Burger King?

Mitchel
Yeah sure, sounds good. We meeting or should I come get ya?

Reese
meeting.

Mitchel
Aight, got it. Send me the address n I'll be there :)

Reese
okay. thank you.

Mitchel
What for?

Reese took a moment to reply, she sighed deeply and rubbed her face, feeling slightly tired. She realized what she had done, and that was confuse Mitchel. Great, she thought, now he's going to question me.

Reese
wanting to hang with me, i guess.

She repeatedly prayed inside her head that he wouldn't question anything, and that he would just drop it.

Mitchel
No problem. I'm always down for anything

And that was where the conversation ended. Reese turned off her phone and set it down again onto the night stand, laying completely on her back. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, feeling the familiar feeling of tiredness wash over her. The brown haired girl didn't want to give in, but before she knew it, she fell asleep.