Almost

~ T W E N T Y - F I V E ~

Flashback

"She hasn't been doing any of her work at all and no matter how many warnings and detentions we give her she just doesn't listen." My principal complains to John.

"Oh dear, really? I didn't know that this was happening." John says with false concern. "Why didn't you tell me, sweetheart? "

I almost gag at how fake he was acting. "I don't know."

"If she keeps this up then she won't have any hope of a good future." My principles says and I have to stop myself from rolling my eyes.

It's funny how principles or teachers, in general, pretend to be concerned for your well being when in reality they really don't give a toss about it.

"I understand. We'll have a very serious talk about it won't we Avery? Won't. We?" John says and when I don't reply he grabs my arm under the table and digs his nails into my flesh.

"Yes." I force out holding in a groan.

"Alright. I hope this gets sorted soon." My principal clasps her hand together standing up signaling the end of this meeting.

John and I stand up too. We say our goodbyes and exit the school getting into John's old car.

As soon as the car comes to a stop outside the house I don't waste a second coming out of the car and into the house. Delaying what was about to happen was better than just doing nothing.

I know I called this on myself but I honestly just came to a point of not caring.

"Now where do you think you're going?" John grumbles from downstairs.

"I... In my room." I say holding onto the handle of the door.

"Come here." He says.

"N-no thank y-you," I say and breathing starts to come heavier.

"Don't make me come up there," John says glaring at me.

I'm stuck between listening to what he says or ignoring him and going into my room. I fumble with the door handle wanting nothing more than to go in and hide. So I do.

"GET BACK HERE!" John roars and I push the door closed.

He starts banging and pushing against the door and I struggle to keep it closed. Suddenly the door is pushed hard and I'm thrown to the floor. Looking behind me I see John but he looks blurry as I have tears clouding my vision.

"Come here!" John yells as he gets into my room. I shake my head and begin trying to crawl under my bed, anything to get away from him. He wouldn't be able to get me from under there so I'd be fine, well for a while anyway.

I'm almost fully under the bed when he grabs one of my legs and starts pulling me out from under the bed.

"Let me go!" I shout moving my leg about trying to shake him off. I try to hold onto something but there's nothing.

"You should've listened to me!"

End of flashback

"Let me go!" I yell thrashing around wildly trying to pry John off me.

"Shhh, Avery you're fine!" Someone says and it makes me even more terrified.

"John, I'm sorry! Let me go! Please!" I cough out through tears. Trying to get John to let me go.

"Avery! It's me, Sheila. It was just a bad dream, shhhhh." And I'm held in someone's arms. I try getting away from John but he just held even tighter.

"Get the inhaler!" someone shouts and a few seconds later something is placed over my mouth and nose and I gasp for air.

"It's ok, honey. It was just a nightmare, you're safe with me now. It's OK. You guys can go I'll take it from here." Someone soothes and my breathing gets back to normal and I open my tightly shut eyes.

My eyes focus on the surroundings and I realize that John was nowhere to be seen. I sit up abruptly looking around sure that he was hiding somewhere.

"It's ok he's not here." Turning towards the voice I see Sheila and then I remember where I was, letting out a shaky sigh of relief.

"I thought he was..." I say out of breath.

"It's alright darling, you're safe here. He won't be able to touch you at all." Sheila says and she pulls me towards her.

She wraps her arms around me and strokes my hair. I tense up at first but soon relax into her touch.

"You know that day when you came home with those cigarettes I wasn't angry. Nor will I ever be," she says.

"Really?" I asked unsure if she was actually telling the truth or not.

I feel her shake her head. "I wasn't. I was scared actually."

My brows knit as I wonder why she was scared. It didn't make sense. "Why would you be scared?"

"I was scared because it reminded me of me. When I was younger." She says quietly.

"It.. Did?"

"Yes. I know the details of why you came here and what it caused. On some levels, I related to it too." She says still stroking my hair.

"Could I ask how?" I ask curiously. She could've hardly went through the same things as me. I mean, look where she was now. Surely her life must've been the complete polar opposite of mine.

"When I was around thirteen my parents started arguing all the time. I thought it was only those small silly fights that would end in a second and everything would be completely fine afterward. As though nothing happened. But by the time I reached fifteen I realized that it wasn't one of those types of arguments."

"They would fight every single day and it would last until late at night. They'd curse at each other and throw things at each other, it was terrible. Some days they tried bringing me into it by making me choose sides but I couldn't because I loved them both equally. It got so bad that they completely neglected me. I had to do everything by myself and it felt like I was alone even though my parents would be there making a racket, 24/7."

"I then started making bad decisions, I'm sure you could guess what they were, and I couldn't stop. No, not that I couldn't stop, I didn't want to stop. I would do anything to avoid going home, which meant I followed the wrong crowd and copied what they did in the hopes that I could delay returning home."

As I listened to her tell her story I realized that I had completely misjudged her. I always thought she came from a happy, well off family. Now I'm listening to her, I can see how totally inaccurate I was.

"They kept trying to get me to choose who my favorite was, or getting me to pick sides in such a way that it'd be like they had won or proven that they were better than the other if I did. My aunt, on my mother's side, hated it, so she took me in. Because of her, I was able to get to where I am now and feel and get better and leave old habits behind."
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Again I'm posting in the a.m. I literally have bags under my eyes but you know that's what happens when you can't sleep. Anyways I hope you guys liked this chapter and I for one feel very bad for Avery and what she's going through. Those nightmares are nightmares. Literally. I will be posting the next chapter tomorrow even though its not Friday, I would post with this one but I haven't rechecked it yet but I will and you shall have it very soon.
Slater broooooooooooooos.

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