THE GIRL AFTER

C H A P T E R 6

"It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend."

William Blake

    It had been a week since that day between Percy and I. An entire week of being grounded for a complete lie. A week of being looked at as the disappointment my parents saw me as.

    Everytime I would walk downstairs, I was looked at with anger and disappointment. It hurt. I was the golden child. I was the one who got the good grades, who didn't go out and party every night like my brother, I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, and I certainly did not have sex or force myself on anyone but that didn't matter to them. I was exactly who Cameron wanted me to be.

Percy was the only person I could really talk to about it. He didn't know what Cameron did, but he understood I needed someone to talk to about how he betrayed me and hurt me. Before everything, I would have told Willow but she had started to distance herself and she always seemed to yell at me.

    Bentley hadn't talked to me since my parents told him about what Cameron said. Every time he saw me, he would fixate me with a glare, making tears fill my eyes. Bentley was my best friend, even more so than Willow, so to see him look at me like that hurt worse than my parents.

It hurt worse when I had to see my entire family laughing and loving Cameron as a son while I, the person who was actually part of the family, was thrown to the side like a piece of garbage.

    Cameron was making my life a living hell. The only time I could've escaped it was a night when I was all alone, but just being alone in my room where it happened brought back too many memories. I still wasn't able to sleep in my bed. I was still on the floor so I woke every morning with a sore back.

    The bruises still littered my skin, reminders of how strong he was and how he could really hurt me again if he wanted to. They marked almost every inch of my skin; my arms, legs, stomach, and thighs. I had to wear long pants and long sleeves to keep them hidden. I had to sit out at practice because I couldn't play without someone hitting one of the bruises.

    Showering was torture. The moment I would step into the shower, I could see the blood going down the drain the morning after. I had to close my eyes every second I was in that shower.

    The worst part of everything though was not being able to trust anyone anymore. I felt like the people I had known and trusted my entire life were strangers and my brain was screaming "Stranger danger!" the moment I saw anyone.

    My parents, the people I had always tried to make proud and I knew I could trust, were people I didn't even want to make eye contact with. My brother, the only person who really knew me, hated me and would purposely avoid me. My best friend, the shoulder I could always cry on, only yelled at me and degraded me for not being the girl I was before.

    I stared at myself in the mirror, not recognizing the girl staring back at me. My once light and voluminous blonde hair was dull and lifeless. My skin that had once been spot free and bright was full of blemishes. I took a deep breath and grabbed the scissors.

    With one movement, I chopped off my hair. I watched as the blonde hair fell onto the counter, a way of showing I couldn't go back. With a couple more motions, it was cut to the length I wanted it. I only cut it to my shoulders, but it went to that from my waist.

    A few hours later, I was staring back at someone entirely different. My once waist-length blonde hair was black and to my shoulders. For the first time, I was wearing makeup, just mascara and lip gloss but it was a big change for me. I was going to change myself. A new person wouldn't have the same memories as the old Athena. The new Athena was starting over.

    Walking into the kitchen, I ignored the looks I was receiving from both my family and Cameron. If I was starting over, I had to remind myself that what had been said was gone. 

    "What the hell did you do to your hair?" Bentley was the first person to speak up. When we were younger, Bentley used to play with hair, saying that he never wanted me to change it because it reminded him of a Disney princess. That was when he started calling me Princess Athena.

    "I just wanted a change." I had made up my mind earlier that the new Athena wasn't going to be some push-over little girl anymore.

    "What the hell is wrong with you? You cut your own hair? We have rules about this, Athena. I knew you being friends with Willow was a bad idea. And after what Cameron told us? What is going on with you? You're a different person." My mom's eyes were wide and her mouth agape.

    "That's the whole point, mother. I wanted a change. What's so wrong with that? Maybe it's because I finally did something I wanted to do instead of just following your orders? Guess what mother, I'm not a little girl! I don't have to do everything you tell me to!" All the anger that was building up exploded out of me. I didn't mean to snap at her, but she didn't understand what I was going through.

    "Athena Quinn, you do not talk to your mother that way." My father's voice was stern, but I could stop the word vomit that streamed from my lips.

    "I'm sorry that I said what everyone wanted to say. You boss everyone around, Gina, and I'm finally saying it! You tell everyone what to do, all the time! But when I finally do something for me, like joining the soccer team or changing my appearance, you go ballistic! I'm so tired of it all!"

    It was silent. Nobody dared to move or make a single sound for the fear I would yell at them. I had never really yelled at my parents before and even when Bentley and I fought, he was the one yelling. 

    "Go to your room."

   

Maybe if they had known what was about to happen, they wouldn't have sent me. Maybe I wouldn't have listened because what happened broke me even more.