I Fake That Smile

Chapter Five

Chapter 5

Later that night when Melissa got home I could hear them talking about me while I laid in my bed. Melissa had gotten home kind of late and had sent me to bed so she could have a chat with Logan, I’m pretty sure Melissa didn’t realize that I would definitely be listening in on this conversation. You don’t just send your younger sister to bed and then have a chat with your roommate, there is something fishy about that idea.

So here I was, head against the door so I could hear what they were saying about me. At first they just talked about what Logan and I had done all day, which Logan said and I quote “we did fucking nothing” which is completely true, after supper we had gone our separate ways, Logan watched a basketball game on TV and I sat in my room and watched Netflix on Melissa’s laptop.

And then their conversation went like this:

Melissa: I don’t want you hanging around Bella so often.

And then Logan said: It’s kind of hard to do that when we live in the same house.

Melissa: I know, but at least try. I know what you’re like and Bella can’t handle that, she’s really damaged after what happened with our parents and Aaron.

Melissa knows fucking nothing about me, thank you very much.

Logan: You can’t control her like that, Melissa. She’s almost eighteen she can decide whether or not she wants to talk to me or not.

And then I heard his footsteps down the hallway. His bedroom door slammed shut and then Melissa was coming down the hallway and she was coming to my room. I panicked before turning and quickly but quietly leaping towards my bed, I jumped in, wrapped the blanket around me and closed my eyes pretending to sleep.

“I know you heard that, Bella,” Melissa said but I refused to look at her. “And he’s right, I shouldn’t be controlling you like that.”

When I didn’t answer she left, closing the door behind her.

I was glad she did so she wouldn’t hear me cry myself to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning overtired, I grabbed a coffee as I headed out the door. I wore my brother’s favorite t-shirt cause it reminded me of the good times we had before everything went to shit. My brother is taller than I am so his shirt came down to my mid-thigh so you couldn’t really see the shorts I was wearing underneath; it basically looked like I had no pants on.

When I arrived at school I hurried to my PE class, all the change rooms were taken up when I got there and if I waited any longer I was going to be late and I could not afford that. Arianna and her friends (one of them was Nikki) were standing off to the side all fixing their hair into ponytails. They turned and looked at me when they saw me watching them and I quickly turned away and headed for a corner to change in.

If I stood off to the side maybe no one would notice me, or the scars that covered my body. I pulled my shorts off quickly and pulled my gym shorts on but it wasn’t really that I was worried about it was the top half of me, where I had taken several beatings. I pulled my shirt off trying to hide my imperfections but it was too hard, Arianna had spotted them.

“What happened to you stomach and shoulders?” she asked. I was glad I didn’t have my back to her because it was far worse.

I thought of an excuse quickly. “I fell into a glass table when I was younger,” I lied flawlessly. They all seemed to buy it given the pity I could see in their eyes.

“What about your shoulder?” Nikki stepped forward to get a closer look at it.

“I spilt hot water on myself,” I told her. She seemed to buy that too and looked at me as if they were wondering how I was still living, I honestly had no idea.