Staying Afloat

Chapter 14

!TW- ED CONTENT IN THIS CHAPTER!

"I swear, I'm just not feeling well. I had a headache today, so it was probably from that." I pleaded to Benny in the car. My coach had called him to come get me after August had ignored the call.

"Cece, you fainted. You haven't been acting like yourself lately. What's really been going on?"

"I don't know, I'm just stressed about school. My classes are getting harder and I'm not used to it and I haven't been sleeping well. I'm sure I'll be fine, it's just part of being a teenager." 

"If you say so..." Benny was clearly skeptical, but he seemed to buy my answer and we drove in silence. I leaned my head back on the car seat and closed my eyes, trying to make the pounding in my head go away.

---

"August, you seriously won't give me my phone back? Mom's gone and she wouldn't know!" Since my mom was out of town for the week, August was in charge, meaning he had full ability to give me my phone back. Of course he had to be difficult about it.

"Frankly, I don't think you deserve to have a phone. You can't even be nice to people in real life, so obviously you're gonna be a bitch over the internet." He turned away from me.

"Seriously? This is about Riley? How come you believe her over your own sister? Dick." I muttered the last part under my breath and turned to walk away when he grabbed my wrist tightly and harshly spun me toward him.

"You keep her name out of your mouth before I beat it out of you, got it?" The rage in eyes was terrifying, like I had never seen before. I was so scared that I couldn't speak so I just silently nodded and quickly went upstairs after he released me. I knocked on Benny's door, hoping he might grant me a favor.

"Hey Benny, can I borrow your phone for a few minutes?"

"Ugh, why?" He groaned

 "I just want to talk to Payton and make sure he's not mad at me. He probably thinks I'm ignoring him, I haven't gotten to talk to him since Friday." He rolled his eyes, but passed me his phone.

"Five minutes."

"Thank you so much!" I gave him a big hug and ran to my room to call Payton. He didn't answer, which makes sense because it was an unknown number.

"Hey Payton, it's Cece. I'm really sorry if it seems like I've been ignoring you, my mom took my phone because of my bad grade. I'm sorry for getting mad at you on Thursday, I was stressed and I took it out on you and it was wrong and I'm sorry. I miss you a lot and I just wanted to talk to you, so Benny let me borrow his phone. I'll see you on Monday. Bye." I went back to Benny's room to give him his phone back.

"Will you let me know if he calls back?" I asked, and he nodded back. I went back to my room, where I remained for most of the weekend.

---

I managed to get through the weekend without eating, and I lost the remaining five pounds that I needed. It felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. As a reward, I made myself some peanut butter toast for breakfast before hopping on my bike and going to school. The November air sent shivers up my spine, but it wasn't too far of a ride. The sun was just beginning to rise, and the view was breathtaking.

In History class, I nervously waited for Payton to come in the room, anticipating what I might say to him.

"Hey, did you get my message?" He asked as he came in.

"No, sorry." I replied, mentally cursing Benny.

"Well, I miss you too, and I'm sorry for pushing you about your test." He smiled at me

"It's okay, it was my fault. I'm glad we're normal. I need normal." I leaned up to kiss his cheek.

The rest of the day went by smoothly, and after practice, Riley seemed both disappointed and jealous that I was successful at losing weight.

"Well, you still look fat, so clearly ten pounds wasn't enough." I glanced down at my body and tried to stop myself from judging it.

"I did what you asked me to."

"You're right. Your spot on the team is safe... for now. Well, have fun getting home." She smirked and brushed past me, checking me with her shoulder as she did. I scoffed and went to gather my things from the locker room. I threw my raincoat and backpack on and went out to the bike rack, only to discover my tires were completely deflated. I ran my fingers across them, finding that they had been slashed.

I tried my best not to panic, but the odds were against me. I didn't have my phone, and it would take me 40 minutes to walk home. The sun had already set and it was getting dark out, not to mention it was barely 40 degrees and windy. The school building had locked behind me. A few tears slipped out, but I managed to calm myself before I descended into a full panic attack. I decided that the best thing would be to just start walking before it got any darker or colder.

I zipped up my jacket and headed around the school past the front parking lot. I was almost to the main road when I heard someone calling my name.

"Cece! What are you doing out here?" I whipped my head around to see Dylan walking toward me from his car.

"Oh, cheer practice just ended so I was heading home."

"Are you walking home? That's not safe, it's dark out."

"Well, usually I bike, but someone slashed my tires today." I shivered slightly as a gust of wind blew past.

"Seriously? That's awful. Here, I can drive you home." He started walking back to his car.

"Oh, you don't have to do that-"

"It's not a big deal, plus I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you. Your brothers would kill me."

"Okay. Thank you." I climbed into the passenger seat and buckled up as Dylan started driving.

"Why didn't you just call August or Benny?" He asked me.

"My mom took my phone..." I blushed

"The goody two shoes got her phone taken? What did you do? Read too many books?" He chuckled.

"No, actually I got a bad grade and she got mad."

"Oh no! What did you get? A B?" He mocked, laughing

"Dylan, I'm serious. I got a D."

"Oh." He stopped laughing and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Sorry."

"It's fine, you didn't know." After a few more minutes, we reached my house.

"Thanks for the ride."

"No problem. Tell Benny I say 'hey'" I nodded and hopped out of his car, walking inside. I dumped my backpack on the ground.

"Hey, was that Dylan's car?" Benny asked as he came into the kitchen.

"Yea, he gave me a ride." I grabbed an apple from the fridge.

"Why?"

"Well, my bike tires got slashed." I looked up to see his eyes widen. "I was going to walk home, but I ran into Dylan."

"You were gonna walk? That's way too far in the dark, it's not safe."

"Well, what else was I supposed to do? It's not like I could call you. Besides, it all worked out fine. I got home."

"Okay, August needs to give you your phone back. Something bad could've happened." Benny said, and I scoffed.

"Yea, like August would care. He cares about his bitch girlfriend and that's it." I huffed

"Cece, that's not true and you know it. You know he-"

"No, Benny. It is true, and you are choosing not to see it." Before he could respond, I grabbed my backpack and walked up to my room, slamming the door behind me.

•••A/N•••
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