•[I belong to you]• [English]

Chapter 17

- Little girl -

Audrey just woke up, it's Thursday, only one more day to go and then she can take a break from the horrors that school makes her experience every day, not so much the teachers or the subjects, but her classmates. It's been since the first one that they've picked on her and she still hasn't figured out why, not that her bullies have ever stopped to explain the philosophy of life that led them to torment her.

The girl arrives at her high school site trying to go unnoticed among the other students to join her friends in the cordoned off area.

"Good morning guys"

"hey Audrey"

"Hiii babe"

Audrey sits down as always next to Destiny who surrounds her with her right arm holding her close

"minus one"
Nathan refers to the days until freedom

"yeah"

"come on sis you'll come out on top as always"
Her big sister encourages her with a candid smile, Audrey can't help but feel reassured and gains some optimism.

* Driin drinn *

"well dear ladies it's time to come in"
Nathan announces with a stately manner

"All that's left for us to do is walk towards our doom my young comrades"
The wolf continues

"You guys... You guys are so weird haha"
The three of them join in a light laugh and then split up.

Audrey is at the door of the classroom the professor hasn't arrived yet, her classmates are already messing around but among the various speeches there is a sentence that invaded her mind and went through her like a bullet

"do we want to talk about Abbott?"

"the misfit ahah"

"she should kill herself"

This last one is the phrase that makes the girl's skin crawl, of all the nastiness she had endured since middle school she had never heard such a phrase, despite all the horrors she had endured no bully had ever crossed that line, no one had ever crossed that very thin line that could have dropped her into the abyss. Audrey unexpectedly doesn't shed tears, doesn't despair, doesn't run away and doesn't even start screaming. This, however, only on the outside, because inside she is really dying, that sentence that has pierced her soul has created a gash in the little self-esteem that she had managed to maintain all this time, is destroying her slowly, piece by piece.

The girl enters the classroom as if she hadn't heard anything, she sits at her desk, takes the necessary books and notebooks, all with the utmost calm and with an expressionless face, the professor enters shushing the class that had continued to make noise, the lesson begins but Audrey even though she is sitting in her seat it is as if she weren't there, she is absent, her mind is not now in that world that seems to her to have nothing to offer, she is just immersed in her little inner world from which as if she were in a coma she would not want to leave.

The hours of class alternate one after the other, the teachers have strangely decided not to involve Audrey in the explanations as it usually happens, so the girl could stay in her world quietly without worrying about her surroundings and her classmates that seeing her completely absent have even lost the will to bother her.

The last hour of class has just ended, Audrey is the first to leave the classroom, she had to leave her little fantasy world since she has to pay attention to where she goes, she keeps staring at her shoes so she doesn't have to look up. She doesn't want to see anyone or hear anyone, not even her best friends whom she greets with a faint movement of her hand and then walks home with her face still expressionless and with a few tears that she has decided on her own to gush from her eyes.

The girl enters the house, her mother is in the kitchen preparing her lunch, while her father is at work

"welcome back"
Her mother greets her with a smile

"..."
No response

"Audrey what happened?"
The woman immediately realizes that something is wrong.

At that point Audrey can't hold back any longer, a valley of tears starts to flow from her eyes, which turn red after a few minutes, her hands followed by the rest of her body start to tremble like leaves, her breathing becomes labored due to the strong stress that her mind has faced up to that moment, her mother tries to calm her down in every way but Audrey doesn't mention any improvement or achievement of a little calm. The woman finds herself in difficulty, it never happened to her to see her daughter in this state, her fright and inexperience have played a bad trick on her, making her perform an action that could cause her daughter's total collapse.

* Slap *

A resounding slap comes down on Audrey's cheek which turns bright red due to the force of the impact, her head is turned slightly to the left and her hair has gone in front of her face covering it completely

"A... Au... Audrey... Oh my god, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry"
Her mother fall to the ground with tears in her eyes, realizing the serious mistake she just made

"please forgive me... I didn't mean it"
She tries to take her daughter's hand but the Audrey violently runs away from the door without saying a word.

She starts to run aimlessly, alternating one step after the other mentally going over everything that happened since the morning until now, her eyes start to burn and her vision becomes blurry, tears start to fall violently again, streaming down her face, the cheek where she got the slap still hurts a lot. The only thing she can think of in all the chaos in her head is to go to Destiny hoping that at least she can make her feel good, if not even her big sister can perform such a miracle Audrey really doesn't know who to rely on anymore.

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Audrey's panic attack is drawn from my own experience.

I hope you are well, mental health is very important, never forget that ☺️❤️
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