broken home - j.f✔️

sixteen.

She had made it to lunch, by some miracle, but was extremely grouchy. Teachers seemed to be talking louder, the locker slams were louder; it was either that or her ears were becoming extremely sensitive. But when lunch had arrived, it had gotten worse. The pain was behind her eyes now, so moving them around hurt. She pulled the hood of her hoodie up to stop the harsh lights hitting her.

"Hey, El, is everything okay?" She heard, she lifted her hood brim up to see Clay, a concerned look on his face. "You don't look so good."

"Very charming, Jensen." She retorted, quickly apologising after. "I'm sorry, I just have a horrible headache, I think I might just go home." She sat down at the lunch table with him and put her head onto it, groaning in pain.

"Do you want me to drive you?" Tony asked.

"I can drive her, I need to go home and grab my gym clothes, anyway." Clay reasoned. She stood up and followed him, keeping her head down and watching the directions of his Doc Martens. She ended up inside of his car, closing her eyes to relieve the pain.

"I know you've probably had a million questions about it; but what was happening in the picture?" He questioned. She didn't even open her eyes, her answer was ready to go. Groaning loudly after a sharp turn, she had answered his question.

"I was originally meant to go around town with Zach, getting me familiar with Evergreen, but I ended up going with Justin. He took me to the docks, and I freaked out and had a panic attack, those pictures were him comforting me." She explained. The memory of the pictures had appeared in her head, seeing the same picture on every single locker. Of his hands on her knees, and them hugging. And her head on his shoulder.

"Why did you freak out at the docks? If you don't mind me asking." Clay asked softly, listening to Elizabeth's directions to her house.

"My mom died when I was young, at sea, I was with my family at a boat party when it happened." She mentioned. "And this fear of open water developed from that trauma. I didn't tell Justin about my mom, I just told him I had a fear of open water."

"Holy fuck, I'm so sorry that happened."

"It's one of the reasons we moved to the US, my dad was so destroyed by it, that we needed a fresh start. And his work moved him from NY to here." She explained. "I haven't really gotten over it, I've stayed away from pool parties and beach days. I've had a lot of time to think about it, being home alone and all."

Clay reached over, embracing Elizabeth tightly, before letting her go. "Text me if you have any problems, I'm always here."

"Thank you, Clay."

She had gotten into her house, her throat aching for a drink. A bottled water seemed to help her throat and head. As she thought back to last night's events, she recalled crying an awful lot. Her headache was probably due to dehydration. Cursing her self management issues, she'd trudged over to the couch and kicked her shoes off, looking for the remote.

Zach: Where are you?

Home.

Zach: Why?

My head is hurting and school was making it worse.

Zach: I can bring you some things to help that, after school.

I am very worried about that response, but I will take just about anything.

Zach: Bet, see you.