"There is strength in showing one's weakness"
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One second. Just one second and everything changed.
Skyler is sent into a lonely downward spiral when her mom dies tragically. With the only support s...
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Song for chapter twenty two: Vulnerable by Selena Gomez
|Skyler|
"Aden..."
He looked up at me and for the first time I couldn't tell if he was angry, sad or confused. Somehow, he'd combed his hair already, and he looked as though he'd woken up a while ago.
"Is this true?" he asked me, his jaw clenched and an eyebrow raised as he waved the newspaper in his hands.
My throat grew tight with each breath that I took to calm myself down. That was the truth, wasn't it? My mom was gone, and I'd have to go on forever without her, as I'd always known. Saying it was completely different. I focused my gaze on the floor, not wanting to meet Aden's eyes as forced my head down in a slow nod.
"Y-yes," I choked out, finally glancing up at him through my blurry vision that had been distorted by unshed tears. "My mom, she's dead...." I placed my head in my hands, muffling a sob that escaped from my throat. It made it that much more real now that I'd said it out loud for the first time to someone who wasn't Doctor Miranda.
I knew this day would come. The day that I would have to tell Aden what happened to my mom, and why I lived with my Aunt. I just didn't think it would be so soon, or that it would be like this. I didn't want to know what Aden thought of me now. Some pathetic girl with no parents who was forced to attend therapy. I willed myself to wipe away my tears, but my stiff hands stayed put.
I was about to let it out all in front of Aden, and for some reason, I didn't want to stop myself.
I'm so stupid, why didn't I just put the newspaper away.
I looked up, baffled to see a pained expression on Aden's face as well. He stood up from the floor, letting the newspaper tumble back down next to the bottle of discarded pills.
Suddenly, all the emotions I'd suppressed last night by drowning myself in a bottle of vodka came rushing back.
He looked sad for me, but not surprised.
"And... I watched it happen," I finished just as the tears began rolling down my cheeks. I took a small step back, stunned as he walked towards me. "What—" I stopped short when he wrapped his arms around me, my shoulders relaxed immediately from the contact and I buried my head into his chest, wetting his shirt from my tears.
I pressed my hand onto his chest, in a weak attempt to push him away but he only wrapped his arms around me tighter.
"You shouldn't do that. I- I couldn't save her. S-she looked horrible," I gave up trying to shove him away when I began to sob uncontrollably.
The memory flashed through my brain just as it'd happened yesterday with Doctor Miranda and many nights before. The truck swerving into my driveway way too fast before it smashed into my mom and her car. How I called to her, but I was too late. It was an image that would forever be ingrained into my mind.
