Divided Mask

Chapter 5 - Confrontation pt 2

Silence as they left the school. The air felt heavy.
"Okay Wren. I think you should go with dad. I'll see you two when I get home." Roxanne got in her vehicle

At first it was quiet the radio humming in the background.
"Wren."
I'm the reason your drinking.
"What? No where could you pick that up from?"
Drunk words are sober thoughts. I'm sorry I'll try harder I promise. If it keeps you here. I promise. Her hands started shaking. She sighed, she was extremely tired.
He had pulled over. His head on the steering wheel.
Do you want me to get out? Actually I will walk. The car is making me feel worse.
She quickly get her bag and closed the door. She began to walk the car hadn't moved yet.
She had a weird feeling tingling in her stomach. She continued to speed walk down the street, trying to outrun her worries.
She slowed slightly. The car pulled up again.
"Wren hun get in the car."
She would have to get over her fear of the car eventually. Cautiously she got back in. A honking horn urged her in faster.
"Listen, I'm not sure where you got the idea that you were the cause of my drinking that's not true. But that not my concern." Mark sighed, "I'm sorry for how I've been reacting to you recently."
She pulled out her phone and used text to speech. "I deserved it." The robotic voice said.
"When did you become such a pessimist?"
"When I had to doesn't matter." The voice said, it sounded as flat as the statement felt. Her shoulders raised up.
"We'll talk more when we get home so you can just write."

They pulled into the driveway, Roxanne wasn't home yet. That was strange she had left first. Wren snapped out her thoughts. Her dad had already opened the front door.

"How are you feeling? Are you sore? Why didn't you say anything? Did Roxanne know something I didn't?" Her dad practically spilled out.

Tired. I've been sore for weeks I can deal with it now. Like Mr. Rutherford said, and what I wrote. She was threatening me. Well kind of, I told Roxanne the first few verbal things. I just thought I could handle it.

Wren wiped at her eyes. Although she wasn't crying, she could feel that  she was fighting the inevitable. She lowered the mask so it was easier to wipe her tears if they came.
"Wren, I'm sorry I didn't notice it, before."

I was doing my best to hide it.
His eyes scanned the page, he sighed. "Clearly, that doesn't excuse me not noticing sooner. I'm glad to see your face." He stood up and left her by herself.

As if everything that had been weighing on her hit now. Tears spilled out. Why had he cut the conversation short? She furiously wiped at her eyes. She hated this feeling, control was what she needed.

Then she awoke. Shock filled her. What was that? A dream. So she hadn't gotten help. She felt disappointed.

She made sure to wear a hoodie just in case.

"Morning Wren," Roxanne chirped from the kitchen. Wren nodded in response.

A weight that she thought was gone, was now stronger than before. She felt like shit. It felt crushing but she felt a bit safer knowing she didn't give it away.

She took the long way to her school. Showing up twenty minutes late to Mrs Bard's class. Mrs Bard had that same twisted smile on her face.
"Detention, I'll see you later Ms Wren."
Even though it happened every day something about her words today made it worse. She wouldn't crack though, she left the classroom knowing her 'lessons' would fill her in.
She was feeling very down all of a sudden. Just unhappy. The bell rang and Wren walked back into Mrs Bard's class.
"It's not your time yet." Mrs Bard said flatly.
Wren scribbled a request down and turned to walk away.
"I can do that." Wren nodded. Hopefully this would bring some feeling back into her.

Most of her classes felt dull. Mr Rutherford had held a test. Which didn't add to her lack of excitement

Wren had be doubting every one of her answers, she recognized the questions, they related to the techniques they had been practicing. She scribbled in random answers and pushed the test away from her.
"I'll start marking these tonight kids, have a good night." Mr Rutherford told them as they left the class.

This was her last destination, specialization class. She didn't see the point in this class, especially if her specialization happened to be misfortune.
"Wren," someone poked her.
What
"I wanted to train later today, your my only worthy opponent." Marcus smiled.
I have to see Mrs Bard after class for coming in late, if you okay with waiting
"Oh no problem. She really seems to pick on you a lot." Marcus continued to whisper.
"Is there something more important than understanding you specialization you two?" Their teacher called toward the two.
"No I was just asking if Wren had her specialization yet." Marcus told the teacher, that teacher could be a grouch when he wanted. He was usually tolerable.

She wondered if this was all in her head.
Mr Rutherford poked his head in the door, "can I borrow Wren for a minute?"
"Yes that's no problem." The teacher told him. Wren got up from her seat, she was slightly worried although at least it wouldn't be about Mrs Bard. Like she had thought.
"I wanted to talk about your test. It was not like your usual results."
Oh, must have just done bad.
"You've never done so poorly on one of my tests before. I'm just concerned I could tell you were a little off this morning. I decided since this is a small, and quite meaningless test I would omit it."
Really? Thank you Mr Rutherford.
"Don't make this a habit though, if your next one continues this trend I'm going to be asking you more questions okay?"
She nodded, grateful that he was being generous.

Her torture session had ended, and she went to the gym to find Marcus. She knew she couldn't keep her hoodie on during this fight.
She took it off hoping he wouldn't notice.
"Hey Wren!" Marcus waved once she was in sight. She waved in response. She trusted him enough not to tell anybody.
Ready to lose?
"No I'm winning this time Wren, I've been working on speed." He grabbed his sword. She loaded her gauntlets.

They stood in opposite corners.
"Ready?" Marcus double checked, she nodded. She attacked first. Launching a smoke bullet down. It covered the area they were fighting.
"What no!" She shot her rubber bullets at him first. Changing her direction and landing a few punches on him. His the protection of his sword had hit her chest. It took her momentum away, she let out a heavy breath. She knew she didn't have much gas in the tank to fight know. Mrs Bard hadn't taken it easy on her, not that she wanted her to go east anyways. She deserved everything coming to her way.

Completely forgetting she was fighting, Marcus's sword knocked her completely off balance. With a loud thud she landed on the ground.
"Now I know I didn't just surprise you."
She reached for her note pad.
Sorry I got distracted. You can call this a win if you'd like.
"It's not a fair win. I swear I saw the lights turn off and you were thinking." Marcus said helping Wren off the ground. She rolled her eyes, she was sure stubborn it had been a while since he won, and now he would not take the win.
"Just be glad we were going easy. I probably would have won regardless." His smile fell as he noticed something, "Wren what the hell is going on? Why is your back red? You didn't hit the ground that hard right?"
No I didn't hit the ground that hard. Shit you weren't supposed to see this. Keep it a secret. You can't tell anyone okay.
She was hoping he would forget it. He looked conflicted, "will you tell me if it gets too bad?"
I can
"Will you?"
I don't know. I've survived so far.
"I can't make a promise if I don't know no one else knows."
She exhaled sharply, this was her fault if she had just said she was busy.
Fine. Marcus if it gets too bad I will tell you first.
"Thank you." He looked relieved. She couldn't tell why.
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AN:
Someone knows :P
Will Marcus keep his promise?
----> I tried to make the dream seem real and unreliable as well.... Hopefully it was clear that it wouldn't be that easy to escape >:o