𝙼𝚊𝚏𝚒𝚊 𝙿𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜 ✓

Chapter 22: Isabella's P.O.V

Jason left, and not long after Callum and Alexis too. The boys insisted I stayed in bed for a little bit longer to rest. I was bored, to say the least.

"I can hear you Leo." I said out loud. I heard him sigh and he opened the door.

"Hey." Leo said and he say down opposite me. "How's your wound?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm fine. How's your leg?"

"It hurts a bit from when I tripped. Mason had a go at me for running with my bad leg as well." He chuckled quietly to himself.

We were silent for a bit. It wasn't awkward. It was like.... just like we knew nothing needed to be said.

"I'm sorry."

"Apologise one more time and I'll kick you in the gut." I threatened, jokingly.

"I'm serious Izzy, I'm sorry." Leo looked at me in the eye. I realised he really meant it.

"Please, stop. It makes me feel worse. You've apologised more than enough times. I don't love you any less than I did before." I reached forward and held his hands.

"Thank you." Leo whispered, his eyes filling with tears. "Can I hug you?"

I was kind of shocked. He asked if he could hug me. I nodded slowly and he pulled me in for hug. I tensed a little bit, but less than I would have before.

"Thank you for asking." I said gratefully.

"I just wanted you to feel comfortable, and okay."

"Thank you."

He paused for a moment.

"I think we should stop saying thank you to each other."

I burst out laughing and Leo joined in. "Way to ruin the moment brother."

The next day.
I walked slowly downstairs leaning on the hand rail. Stairs were still difficult for me, I couldn't wait for it to be fully healed.

I sat down in my seat and sighed.

"You okay?" Felix asked as he came in.

"Oh, yeah. Just a lot of effort to get down the stairs." I admitted.

"Same." He agreed. "Can we talk?"

"If you're going to ask about it, I'm not going to answer." I said firmly.

"Bella..."

"No." I got up again and got myself an apple. "I've got homework to do for tomorrow, I'll be upstairs." I told him as I walked away.

"You're not going to school tomorrow." Felix replied.

I turned in my heels. "What?!"

"Bella, you can't go to school. You've been shot, and you still need to recover. Not only that, you flinch every time someone touches you. What's school going to be like if you're like that?"

I stared at him.
"How dare you." I whispered before leaving Felix alone in the kitchen.

———
Felix was right. But he didn't need to say it like that. I can't help it.

I leant my head against the wall by my window sill and turned to look out the window.

A kid rode past on his scooter. A couple with a pram walked past, talking happily. A teenage girl, around my age ran past with a dog. A small kid ran past the gates to our driveway and then stopped. He put his hands on the bars and looked through.

So many people walked past our house everyday. Some stop and look at our ridiculously sized house. Some ignore it. Some raise their eyebrows. But no one knows what happens behind the gates. No one knows what someone else is going through.

Everyone is the main character of their own story. There are 7 billion stories around the world. All different. No two are the same. No one can truly know what someone else's story is.

People walk past my house. They see the gates. They see the guards. They'll think we're living the best life with everything we could ever want.

But like I said, no one can truly know someone else's story. Not even my family.

They may think they know what I'm going through. But they are the main character of their story. I won't know what they are going through. Unless they let me in. And vice versa.

But I can't let them in. I can't let them read the chapters of my life that I don't want to ever remember. It's painful.

When they ask about it, I open my mouth to answer, and it feels like I'm going to scream or cry. Like every time someone brings it up, I'm going to break down.

I need time to get my head together.

After lunch.
I don't talk to anyone during lunch. If the boys noticed a change in my behaviour, they didn't say anything about it.

When I finished, I headed into the lounge and lay on the sofa. I sighed shut my eyes for a second.

"Hey Izzy? Wanna watch some Shadowhunters?" Joe asked as he walked into the room and sat down.
I shrugged and then nodded.

"What episode are we on?" He asked. I could tell he was subtly trying to get me to talk. It's wasn't very subtle.

I held up 8 fingers. He sighed and switched it on. We watched it in silence. Normally, we are talking throughout, pausing and rewinding. But we just sat and watched.

When we had watched a few episodes, Joseph suddenly switched off the TV and faced me.

"Isabelle, are you okay? You're not talking."
I nodded.

"Izzy, you can talk to me." His voice softened
I shook my head. And then sighed when I saw his face fall. I picked up the notepad on the coffee table and a pen. I wrote it all down.

I can't talk to you. I'm really struggling Joe. Every time someone brings it up, I try to answer, I really do. But I feel like I'll cry and I won't stop if I try ti answer. It all keeps coming back to me. Every night in hospital I had nightmares about it. But you guys didn't know, I didn't want to worry you. Every thing isn't right at the moment. I need time to get back to myself. I keep flinching. I can't talk to anyone without wanting to cry. I'm sorry.

I gave the paper to Joseph. He read it slowly and then looked back up at me and smiled.

"What you went through, it was awful. You didn't deserve it."

He took my hand.

"Take all the time you need, little sister."

~~~

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- K