love, a complicated thing indeed

True Love? I Think Not

love is complicated, her mother had once told her. Their love, however, wasn't complicated in the slightest. In fact, it seamed to be completely simplistic and reasonable. The perfect dose of normality they had both desperately needed and desired for so long. Their love was so perfect, so pure and new, so uniquely them that it was impossible to believe her mother's obvious excuse. Because Hailey knew the truth now, love could be perfectly simple, as long as you found the right person to love, and Hailey, despite never quite believing in them, was sure she had met her soulmate in Jay.

How did that all change so quickly? It started with a simple pair of red lines on a test and now, after only 6 months of dating, here they were, acting like perfect strangers despite their years of friendship and mutual love. Their love had been perfect, until Hailey had ruined it all. She knew she couldn't burden jay like this, couldn't force him to live a life he didn't want, even if it meant breaking both of their hearts and hiding this terrible secret from him.

Lying had always come easy to Hailey Upton. be it her traumatic past or fantastic acting skills, she has always excelled at keeping the truth from others, simply telling them any simple lie she could come up with. it was just one night, she had figured at first, just to get over jay. Little did she know what that one night would turn into.

If only she could've looked to the future and seen what all of this would become. If only she hadn't been so overcome with heartbreak that she missed the warning signs, or simply chose to ignore them. All she knew was she was here now, with HIM, and it was all her fault, she got herself into this situation, and despite the expectance of her new arrival, she wasn't going to do anything to save herself.

A loud, booming voice shocked her out of her train of thought as hailey snapped back into reality, silently obeying the orders screamed at her as she stood to grab a beer from the fridge. Hastily, she made her way towards the couch, handing the muscular figure the beverage before silently slipping back into to the corners of the room, attempting to be as quite as possible as she waited for him to inevitably fall asleep.

The quiet of the night silently filled the room, enhancing the echo of the footsteps gently pacing their way to the front door. This was it! Her big escape, the one plan she had been able to come up with that seemed even remotely possible in her fragile state.

Just as she reached the front door, however, a sharp pull of her arm sent her flying backwards, her terror only growing as her body collided ungracefully with his; the plan had gone wrong. He had heard her, and now.... Now he may as well have killed her. Pain ricochet through her body at an alarming rate as a punch to her stomach left her doubled over in agony, her limbs instinctively creating a barrier surrounding her stomach; she had to protect her child, no matter the cost.

At least the baby will be okay, was her final thought before another punch to the head sent her flying into the darkness once more. She could still feel the agony through her haze of adrenaline, the pain being all too much to bear as she threw up all over the floor, immediately realising her surroundings; she was at home, in her apartment, then again, it never really felt like home without jay anyway. Empty beer bottles littered the floor, reminding her cruelly of her childhood, the empty bottles, the pain that followed them... it had truly broken her, and yet, she survived. She survived it all.

She survived her ex-boyfriends' death, she survived 18 years of abuse, she survived the years of unending trauma that followed, and yet, such a simple petty thing as heartbreak, was the thing that was finally breaking her. This realisation left her with one thought, what the hell is the point of hiding anymore?