Remedy

The Invite

  "Sophie! Dylan is here!" I heard my dad yell from downstairs.
"Damn it!" I muttered to myself as I looked around my disorganised room.
Why did he have to be so early? I was so far from being ready.
"Er.. okay, I'll be down in a minute!" I yelled back as I scrambled to get everything I needed all the while finishing up getting ready for school.
I ran a brush through my hair with my right hand while I used the left to toss my text book into my backpack.
I ran across the room almost tripping over my tripod stand which I had left lying on the floor.
"Nice try buddy." I told it as I walked over it feeling proud of myself for avoiding what would have ultimately led to an injury.
I grabbed my camera and tossed it in my bag before reaching out to grab my phone off its charger and placing it in the pocket of my back pack.
I heard Dylans horn honk impatiently.
I groaned as I walked over to my window. I stuck my head out knowing that his navy blue Ford Ranger would be parked there.
"Will you take a chill pill?" I yelled out at him.
The brunette boy stuck his head out of the window of his vehicle and gave me one of his boyish smiles.
"You do know that no one says that anymore, right?"
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever! If you want to hurry this up, get up here and help me out."
I saw his lips move and I could tell he was muttering a complaint as he grumpily got out of his vehicle.
I turned back to my mess of a room trying to figure out what else I needed.
Shoes Sophie, you aren't wearing any shoes.
I looked down at my feet that were only covered in socks.
I let out a sigh and ran my hand through my hair in frustration.
I walked over to my closet and picked out a pair of ankle boots.
I hoped around on one foot as I tried to get the first one on.
I heard a knock at the door.
"Come-ah!" I yelled as I went falling to the ground landing face down with a thud.
The door quickly swung open and in no time I felt Dylan helping me up.
He chuckled. "Isn't it a bit too early for your accidents?"
I pushed back the hair that had gotten in my face. "It's never too early for gravity." I muttered.
Dylan chuckled. "Oh Sophie Lockwood, an enemy to gravity since 1999."
I rolled my eyes and playfully punched him. "Could you just grab those fliers for me." I told him as I gestured to my desk.
Dylan complied as I sat on my bed and put on my other boot.
"I can't believe you're organising the school dance." Dylan spoke as he examined one of the fliers.
"Someone has to do it." I replied as I got up and started searching for my scarf.
"Yeah but its never been your kind of thing, ya know?"
"Well now it is." I replied absent mindedly as I moved on to my sock drawer.
"Umm... so I'm guessing you already have er... a date?"
I barely registered what he was saying as I got on my knees to check under my bed.
"A date? Honestly, I don't think I'll even have time for one dance." I spoke in exasperation.
"Oh." Dylan spoke sounding disappointed.
"Arg! Where the hell did I put that stupid scarf!" I exclaimed.
"Er... Soph." Dylan called.
"What?" I snapped at him.
He looked taken aback by my tone.
He scratched the back of his head nervously.
"Your scarf is around your neck."
I looked down and surely the grey scarf was already wrapped loosely around my neck.
"Oh." I muttered suddenly feeling guilty for my sudden outbreak.
"I'm so sorry Dylan." I told him apologetically. "My mind is just all over the place today."
Dylan just gave me another of his cute boyish smiles. "No offence, Soph, but lately you're always distracted. It's a wonder how you even managed to put the right shoe on the right foot today."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "I am not distracted."
He chuckled. "Oh yeah? Then why does your room look like a torpedo just came around? You're usually the neatest person I know."
I looked around and frowned when I saw how messy my room actually was with clothes and books all over, pieces of paper appeared everywhere and basically nothing was where it was supposed to be.
I shrugged it off. "I'll clean it up. I've just been really busy."
"I don't count on it. You've been like this since-" Dylan stopped himself.
I knew what he wanted to say. Since the incident. Everyone had heard about how the Sheriff's daughter and sister had been kidnapped and tortured by a crazy stalker and that's all they knew. Of course they also knew that that was the day when the infamous Cullen family moved out of town because of a promotion Dr Carlisle had gotten. At least that's the story that was going around.
Everyone thought those were two separate stories that just coincidentally occurred on the same day. But if only they knew...
I blinked back the memory. The more I thought about it, the more it ate me up.
I still had nightmares about that day. About how I was so sure I was going to die at the hands of the psychopathic vampire; James. The memory of his blood red eyes and the cold hands that gripped my neck was still fresh and clear in my mind.
But that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was having someone I had fallen in love with just leave with another girl. I guess it's true what they say, the worst part of loving someone is the day you lose them.
And he didn't even say goodbye.
"Soph? You okay?" Dylan asked in concern bringing me out of my thoughts.
Great. I had once again reopened old wounds. I had been fighting so hard to not think about it. And now that I had, it took all my strength to not break down right there and then.
I forced a smile at Dylan. "Yeah I'm fine. I'll be down in a sec, I just have to do one more thing."
Dylan looked sceptical but he nodded and left the room anyway with the fliers in his hands.
I shouldered my backpack and walked to my bathroom.
I looked at my face in the mirror and took in a deep breath.
Be strong Sophie, you'll be fine. You can do this.
I frowned. Even I didn't believe that.
I needed a little... encouragement.
I opened the mirror and studied the different collections of pain killers.
My eyes finally landed on a little blue bottle labeled Sertraline.
I took out one pill and tossed it in my mouth.
My doctor had prescribed the anti depressants because she thought that I was still traumatised by the whole ordeal. Which I am. But she told me to only take them when I felt extremely sad and to call her when I did. What she didn't know is that I felt sad all the time and even if I called her, I knew that she couldn't possibly fix the problems that I had.
I smiled at my reflection in the mirror. "Much better."
I never expected the antidepressants to work at all but my psychiatrist insisted. So I continued taking them and three weeks later, I actually started feeling the change. It became easier to forget about James, Emmett and the Cullens. My smiles didn't feel all that fake and gradually even my laughs became stronger.
Therapy helped a lot too, Dr Sonya encouraged me to get more involved in school activities to take my mind off things and my dad even signed me up for a few self defense classes. At first, the only person I had learnt to hurt was myself but gradually I did learn a few moves.
I appreciated the efforts but they still couldn't completely take away the pain. How do you treat someone when you don't really know what's wrong with them?
Everyone just thought I was traumatised because of what happened with James.
There were a lot of facts that they didn't know; like James being a murderous vampire and how my aunt and I had died and suddenly came back to life. But most importantly they could never understand what happened between Emmett and I. A part of my heart was ripped out after what he did and no one could ever understand that.
I turned around to leave the room and jogged down the stairs. The scent of bacon filled the kitchen as I walked in.
"Morning, hun." Helen spoke from where she stood at the stove.
"Morning Helen." I replied. Helen had moved in with us about six months ago and honestly, it was the best decision she could have made. Things were going great, she made my father so happy and she just brought this new light to the house. I mean of course she could never replace my mother but I knew that was the last thing she wanted to do. She just wanted to be there for us.
My dad and Dylan sat at the island as they stuffed their mouths and talked about hockey.
"Morning dad." I spoke as I walked up to him and pecked his cheek.
"Hey kiddo." He replied absent mindedly as he continued his argument with Dylan about some hockey game.
I rolled my eyes and walked over to the coffee maker to pour myself a cup.
"Boys." Helen muttered with a roll of her own eyes.
"Tell me about it." I spoke as I sipped on the hot beverage.
I grabbed a piece of bacon from the pieces she had already fried and munched on it.
"Oh, before I forget. Something came to you in the mail from Italy." She spoke.
"Italy?" I furrowed my brows in confusion and strolled to the foyer where a pile of mail sat. I didn't have to sort it out.
I knew which one it was the minute I laid my eyes on the white thick envelop.
I picked it up and sure enough, an unfamiliar Italian adress was stamped on.
I opened the envelope. A bright purple booklet was what caught my eye first.
The University of Milan?
I picked out a folded piece of paper that stuck out of it.

Ms Sophie Lockwood,
We are happy to announce that you have been accepted to the University of Milan with a full scholarship...

I immediately stopped reading.
Was this some kind of joke?
I walked back to the kitchen.
"What's wrong kiddo?" My father asked noticing my perplexed expression.
I waved the piece of paper at him.
"I've been accepted to the University of Milan." I spoke uncertainly.
"That's great!" My dad exclaimed.
"I didn't apply to the University of Milan." I told him.
He knew very well which universities I had applied to and he knew that I had already chosen to go to the University of California.
My dad outstretched his hand and I handed him the piece of paper.
Dylan chuckled. "Leave it to you to get accepted to a University you didn't even apply to."
"Wow." My father spoke. "A full scholarship. They're covering everything, travel expenses, accommodation... wow, kiddo, someone must really like you over there. Look at this, they even want you to visit the campass."
"I've never even been to Italy, dad. Really, the only connection I have to Italy is..."
I trailed off, judging by the look on my dad's face, I could tell he had picked up on what I had wanted to say.
Italy is where my mother was killed by some animal. The event had been so sudden and unexpected and still left its mark on my father and I.
I cleared my throat. "Doesn't matter. I already know which university I'm going to." I spoke dismissively as I tossed the booklet in the trash can.
"We should get going." I told Dylan.
He downed the rest of his coffee before getting up.
I couldn't help but stare at the piece of paper my father still held. How did a University in Italy even get my name and my address?
It seemed too strange to be a mistake.
I couldn't shake off the feeling that something just wasn't right.