Her Escape

Chapter 18

Lucky Guess

"People who wade into discomfort and vulnerability and tell the truth about their stories, are the real badasses." Brené Brown

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Lexie P.O.V

8,760 hours. 365 days. 12 months.

Another year gone.

For many people, birthdays represent happiness – a celebration, if you will. But not for me. For me, my birthday always signified one thing: abandonment.

I don't remember much about my mom other than her light brown hair and the floral perfume she always wore, but one thing that's always stuck with me throughout the years is how every year for my birthday she'd bake this chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and sprinkles.

It wasn't anything fancy, but it was the day I looked forward to all year. Until one day on my fifth birthday I found her on the kitchen floor, passed out. At the time I thought she was just having another one of her episodes, but when she didn't wake up that night, I knew this wasn't just like all the other times.

This time she was gone, and never coming back.

As the years went by, I started looking forward to my birthday less and less. It wasn't until I was a freshman in college that I really started celebrating it again . My roommate at the time insisted we go bar hopping to test out our new fake IDs.

That was the first time in a long time that I didn't hate the day. I mean, it's hard to hate anything when you've had countless shots of tequila.

Staring out the window as the small flurries of snow fell, I couldn't believe another year had gone by. Granted, this year looked a lot different, and I never thought I'd end up where I am today, but I can't say I hate how things turned out.

It seemed like the shit show that was my life had finally calmed down for once.

And yet, I felt like more than ever before, this was all temporary. Like something was looming in the background.

Most days, I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to smile or cry when I woke up. Smile because I finally managed to get out of there, or cry because despite being free I felt more trapped than ever. Trapped in this big fat lie I had concocted, and as the days went on, the harder it became to distinguish between the truth and the lie.

"You coming, Lexie?" Darius's deep voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Huh?" I shifted my gaze away from the darkness outside and towards where he, Scarlett, and Chase were standing by the stairs. "Where?"

I didn't bother telling anyone else today was my birthday. As far as they were concerned, my birthday wasn't until February 28 – a date I pulled out of my ass to write on my new ID.

"There's a new bar that just opened up. You should come with us." He replied, putting on his coat. It was then I noticed that while I had been too busy staring out the window waiting for the last person to leave so I could lock up, they had all changed out of their gym clothes. "It'll be fun."

"Yes!" Scarlett's eyes brightened as she came to stand in front of me and clasped my hand in hers. From the corner of my eye, I saw Chase scowl as he lazily leaned against the staircase. "Please come, Lexie."

I flashed them a small smile as I switched the Open sign to Closed. "Bars aren't really my thing."

"You got a hot date or something?" Darius smirked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. At the same time, Chase extended his arm out and slapped him upside the head. I bit back a laugh at the gesture.