A Stranger To Him

Fifty-eight, Remembering the past

Caine slowly brings me inside the mansion again, still whispering sweet nothings to make me calm, but it isn't working. I'm still shaking out of panic, and tears still roll down my face. I breathe shakily as I continue to realize I was almost dead back there.

I almost had a car accident again.

"Caine is that you? How's Mia? Did you find her?" I softly hear a voice yell from another room. I feel Caine's eyes roam over me, and I can only imagine how much sympathy his eyes hold right now. His hand moves up to right above my waist as he brings me to the living room.

"Yeah, I'm right here. We kind of have a slight issue with Mia here." He says, bringing me inside the living room. All the eyes in the room roam over me, holding shock, confusion, and sympathy. Emily rushes to me, helping Caine put me on the big sofa.

"I was almost dead," I whisper, the actual realization kicking in right now. What the hell was I thinking when I got in that car? I know I couldn't drive because of the memories, why would I get into a fucking car?

"What?" Everyone hisses shockingly, except for Caine, who saw all of it happen with his own eyes. Emily sits down beside me, horror visible in her eyes. She wraps her arms around me and pulls me into a tight hug as I let the tears I tried to hold back roll down my face.

"I was almost dead, Em," I whisper again with a shaky voice. Emily puts her head above mine, whispering over and over again that everything is going to be okay. No one else dares to open their mouths, but they continue to watch me. Sympathy is shown in their eyes as they look at me crying.

"Do you want to tell us what happened? Or maybe, you just want to tell Caine and Emily?" Cameron suggests, taking place on an empty chair. He gives me a questioning look and the time to answer his question.

I know I need to tell them. Besides the fact that I owe it to Emily and Caine, I also know I need to get this off my chest. I have avoided talking about this for almost two years now, but I don't think I've done such a good job at recovering mentally from the accident.

Yeah, sure, physically, everything is fine, but mentally, nothing is.

Emily has told me over and over again that she would be there for me if I ever wanted to talk about anything. I never listened to her advice to tell someone about it. She told me that if I didn't want to tell her, I could always visit a psychologist to talk about it. I resented the idea of talking about the accident because I thought talking about it wouldn't let me forget all of it.

But maybe, there's no way to forget the accident. Maybe, I will never be able to put this in the back of my mind. Maybe, Emily was right after all. I need to talk about this to have peace with what happened and to give it a place, and I haven't done any of it in the last two years.

Maybe, this is the solution.

"No, it's fine. I'll tell you everything but under one condition. Everything said in this room in the next couple of minutes, stays in this room. I don't want my parents or my brothers to know anything about this, alright?" I say, sitting up straight as I give everyone a strict look. They all nod in agreement, and I sigh deeply as I try to figure out where to start."

"About two years ago, three months after I turned sixteen, I went to a party. I don't remember who even hosted the party, but I went to the party that night. Things hadn't been going too well in the friend group I was in. The girls I was friends with started to gossip and spread lies behind my back for no reason." I say, remembering the five girls I used to be friends with. Gabriella, Jessie, Paula, Myra, and Phoebe.

"We used to be a friend group of six, but they started acting like they were a friend group of five. I couldn't remember any of this after the accident, but Emily filled me in. We were best friends already, and she said I told her all of this." I continue, playing with my hands because I'm starting to get nervous.