Chasing Daylight

Chapter Thirty-Three

"I'd never walk Cornelia Street again"

-Taylor Swift

Trigger warning

Maria

Over the next week, I felt a lot better. Max and Mason practically walked on eggshells around me. I knew I had scared them on New Years. I knew I had displayed a lot more emotion and a lot more of the pain I have been feeling than I had before. New Years always seemed to do that to me. As classes started though, things were getting back to normal.

"How is it syllabus week and we all have homework?" Mason groaned. Max, Mason, Sophie, and I were all sitting in the living room working on homework while we waited for our Chinese food to arrive.

"Ugh tell me about it," Max sighed. "This is the lamest thing I've ever done on a Friday night."

"Probably the tamest thing too," Sophie smirked and I couldn't help but laugh. Once she got back to school, she had lost a lot of the sadness she had. She was pretty much back to her sassy and caring self. It was really great to have her back because being with men all the time was kind of lame.

"You're probably right," Mason chuckled jumping up when the doorbell rang. He paid for the food and then brought it over to the coffee table. We each took our containers and Max turned on some old movie and we sat on the couch. I curled against Mason as we ate. It was just nice being with all of my friends again. It was nice having Sophie back in the apartment and it was a lot easy to check on her when she was in town.

--

"What are your plans today babe?" Mason asked as we ate breakfast the next morning.

"I still have a lot of work to do and I wanted to clean, so I was kind of hoping you and Max could go out today," I said tracing my fingers over his hands.

"You don't want to hang out with me today?" Mason pouted kissing my jaw as I turned back to my breakfast.

"I just know how distracting you are," I said pinching his side causing him to give a little laugh.

"I know," he smiled. "We'll go out and run some errands and shit. I'm sure Max would be happy to get out for a while."

"Okay," I nodded.

After breakfast Max and Mason went out and I spent the morning editing a new book and then I spent the afternoon cleaning. Around five, I ordered a pizza to be a delivered because I had told the boys to come home for dinner then went back to vacuuming.

About ten minutes later the doorbell rang and I figured it was the pizza man, so I turned off the vacuum and made my way to the door. When I opened the door my stomach sank and I felt my blood run cold. Standing in front of me was Trent, my sister's boyfriend and I felt my heartbeat speeding up. My automatic response was to close the door in his face, but he stopped the door before it could close enough to lock it.

"I've been looking for you for months and you think I'm just going to let you close the door on me?" He asked pushing the door open and stepping inside.

"You need to leave," I said clenching and unclenching my fists. "I don't want you here. I don't want to talk to you."

"Well I want to talk to you," Trent replied. "I want to know why you left. Why haven't you tried to get in touch with anyone?"

"I left because of you asshole," I said taking a step back.

"What do you mean?" Trent asked.

"You know exactly what I mean," I spit. "You're the reason my sister fucking killed herself."

"She wanted it," Trent replied rolling her eyes. "I didn't do anything she didn't want. We were dating for God's sake."

I couldn't stop myself. It was like I acted without a single thought as my hand collided with his cheek.

"Oh, you want to get rough?" Trent chuckled and a second later he had me pushed up against the wall his arm against my neck. I started sputtering and coughing and I felt the fear take over. He started to kiss down my neck and his hands started to trail along my sides.

"Maria, if you wanted the same treatment Kailey got you should have just told me," he said giving me a wicked smile.

"Get off me," I said pushing against him. I could feel the tears filling my eyes. "I don't want this. Get off."

"Shut up," Trent laughed giving my face a slap. "You sound just like Kailey- whiney fucking bitch."