To Capture a Heart ✔️

Chapter 5

It was the end of the day and I was walking home, I couldn't stop reliving the past few hours. I never thought Christina was the type of girl to go for Ferris- Oh, who am I kidding, every girl goes for him. And every girl has a better chance at getting with him then me.

And then it hit me, why does Christina, popular Christina, need help with boys? She has had so many boyfriends... Oh. Because she wants her relationship with Ferris to last. Because she wants a life with him, to live the rest of her life by his side. With him. Her and him. Oh, how I wish I was Christina.

By the time I had finished fantasising about Christina's amazing figure and alluring beauty, I was walking up the street to my house.

Dad was picking up Louis. Suddenly my mind forgot about Ferris and Christina and focused on what lay ahead of me. I had to face my dad, who was already at home with Louis, I had to put up with his rants and bad temper for the rest of the day. Poor Louis, imagine how he's feeling! I wanted to walk faster just to help Louis... But at he same time, I wanted to walk a lot slower, just so that I didn't have to put up with dad. That left me in the middle. Walking at the pace I'm walking at now.

After a couple of minutes I was outside my house. My hand shook as I inserted the key into the hole. Why are you so scared? You've got nothing to be scared of. Yeah, it's not like my abusive beast of a father is inside that house ready to break through the delicate walls that took me 16 years to build! I'll be fine. The door slid open as I walked inside, taking my shoes off at the doorway. I looked around, sensing a sign of discomfort. Louis wasn't there. He's probably upstairs. Dad wasn't here either. Maybe he went out, but would he leave Louis here by himself?

"Dad?" No reply.

"Louis?" I heard a bang upstairs, a small one, but it was loud enough for me to hear.

"Louis?!" I shouted, a little louder. I dropped my bag on the floor, running up the stairs into Louis's room. He stood there, a look of shock on his face.

"What happened?" I asked, scanning the room and panting at the same time.

Louis laughed a big laugh.

"I tripped over my book and fell." Oh.

My breath escalated.

"Really? I just thought that... Where's dad?" I panted, looking at the state of Louis's room.

"He... he told me to tell you that he's gone to visit mum." What?! Visit mum? Since when did dad want to visit mum? For the past week that mum had moved out, dad never talked about her, and if he did he was swearing and saying some really horrible things. So why the change of heart now? Maybe he went to... no that's too dumb. As I come back to reality, I refocused on the muck in Louis's room. Why was he so messy?

"Clean your room!" I shouted back at him as I walked to my own room. My sketchbook was sleeping on my desk. It looked so peaceful. I wish I was that peaceful... the front door opened and slammed shut. He was back. Crap! My bag! I left my bag downstairs, probably in the way of my dad. Oh crap. I ran downstairs, picking my bag up from the bottom. I looked at dad, who was standing opposite me, looking down on my innocent face.

"Why was your bag here?" He asked, his face getting sterner and sterner by the second.

I didn't hesitate to answer.

"I heard a loud noise upstairs and went to check what it was." I gulped. Was it a good enough excuse?

"Why didn't you take your bag with you?" Nope. Not a good enough excuse. Nothing ever is. I think I'm going to die now. Goodbye. But surprisingly, he kept his cool.

"Pick it up." He says before walking away. My hand shook as as I picked up the bag and ran back upstairs.

That was scary. I know I shouldn't even be the slightest bit afraid of leaving my bag on the floor, but with a temper like my dad's, you can never be too careful. I stormed into my room, throwing my bag onto my plain bed. My eyes flickered to the sketch pad and I slowly forced my feet to walk towards it. As I reached out towards it, my hands shook as my small, but slender fingers gripped the black spine. What is wrong with me? Why couldn't I pick up this stupid book? It's just a book. Just a stupid, memory filled book that's reminding me of my devil of a mum that left just a week ago. I shuddered at the memory of her.
This is nothing new to me. I'm used to people walking out of my life. From my older brother, to the only friend I ever had.  Oh, how I missed them both...

I blinked several times, bringing myself back to reality. I realized that my knuckles were turning white from the pressure of the spine on my sketch pad. I quickly released the pad from my grip, letting it roam free. I was a burden, stopping everyone from living. That's probably why everyone left. That's probably why everyone walked out of my life and didn't even think about looking back and seeing if I was alright. Without warning, my phone started buzzing from the small pocket in my bag. I stumbled to get it out, reading the name on the screen. Not again. I declined, silencing my phone and throwing it against the soft headboard, watching it bounce onto my bed.

It was my mum. I had been ignoring her calls all week since she left, I know she's desperate to speak to me, to see how I'm doing. But I won't let her get to me or Louis. I know it's selfish, but she's ruined the perfect family we were all building to create ever since my brother left. We had family therapy, all sorts of help... And we were getting there, getting to the point where we could fit in with everybody, all the kids at college, all the neighbours, the whole world. Yeah, mum and dad were still constantly bickering, but I wasn't going to let my family be the one that was falling apart. But she just walks out of the front door, leaving everything and everyone behind. Without even looking back. But I'm not going to stand with that. I'm going to bring this family back to what we used to be.

With or without mum.

Whatever it takes.

A/N: I know it's been a while!

I've been super busy with other books and life in general so I've never had time to focus on this book. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and get ready for the next one.

This book is not a slow burn and I've already written 34 chapters.

In the next chapter, we find out about Kaylee's brother because I can't keep the tension up for the whole book lol.

See you next time!

-H 🤍