Nova Grace

09

Chapter 09|

"You don't play with fire
...unless you wanna get burned"

— Burned, Grace VanderWaal

𑁍Nova𑁍

I remember being around 8 years old the first time my mother laid a hand on me. I gave it right back

Of course the strength of an 8 year old is nothing compared to an adult's, but I remember feeling hella proud the moment her eyes widened, her hand going to her cheek

I felt bad afterwards, the sweet child that I was, until I discovered the weight of Alec's hand was worse than my mother's and that she had sent him to punish me

Alec was around at that time, even when Vera — our mother — had other boyfriends and slept around... he was always there

I remember thinking that maybe he was her brother or someone of sorts until I realized their affections were all about dry humping in the kitchen and obnoxiously loud moans whenever the door was closed

Shudders

I don't know why my mind wandered towards that time, seeing as there are more pressing matters waiting to be discussed

Why does my inner voice sound slightly sophisticated all of a sudden? I snort

"What's so funny?" Rune asks from beside me on the table 

"My inner voice" I say and he smiles at me

When Rafael and I got here, he told me to go rest in my room while he filled the others in. That was on Saturday and today is Monday. Yesterday was a full day of discussions

I stayed up in my room the whole time watching a Ted Bundy documentary while they discussed how to take down Allan. It took them the whole damn day to figure out something

I would've liked for my little meltdown to stay between us but beggars can't be choosers

I know he had to tell them so they could sort out the little 'Allan has pictures of me and will send them to bad bad people so they come and sex traffic me until I'm dead if we kill him' problem

Rune came into my room last night, laid beside me and held my hand until we fell asleep. It might've been a dream but I vaguely recall him telling me he's sorry, that he loves me and he won't let anything happen to me

Yeah it wasn't a dream

But now I'm more worried about today than what happened yesterday and the day before that because today Rune and I are starting school

I know, gross

Our schedules were emailed to us on Friday, we selected our electives yesterday. Rune went for some cooking class and I chose music class

Maybe I can find the love for singing and playing the piano again. The thought almost makes me snort at myself, as if that's gonna happen

As for clubs, Rune has basketball and I chose to join the swim and cheer teams to keep myself busy and away from the fam as long as I can before my drama causes them a full day of fighting and worrying like yesterday