Steel My Soul ✓

09 | Fine

I N D I G O

My friends were talking about books. I didn't know which part of that sentence sounded out of line, but I knew I was comfortable with them. It took a few times of hanging around them to get used to their different energies. It was nice to include myself in a friend group finally. I'd always been suspicious of them. A lot of groups never lasted, and these girls were a group of three.

Adara was a bright, outgoing persona. She made sure I was taking part in the conversations that interested me. She did the same for her friends and I saw why everyone liked her.

Serenity kept more to herself than her two friends, but she had a sweetheart personality that made me want to smile every time she opened her mouth to say something. I knew the moment I hung out with them that she was the baby of the group. Her heart seemed so pure and full of goodness. She couldn't help but share it with us.

Dawn, on the other hand, seemed like a bitch at first. She was dry toward everyone in general, but damn, I fucking loved it. A lot of people would've run away from her or decided she wasn't nice enough to be friends with, but I saw right through the walls she built. We were alike in so many ways, yet so different.

Where I was quiet because I was hesitant about my blunt words, Dawn was quiet because she was silently planning someone's murder. She was super protective of her friends, though, especially Serenity.

I saw the way she looked at her when no one was looking, and I could've never decided if she cared for her as a little sister or something more. I didn't have the heart to bring it up - not when Serenity was caught up in a romance with Adara's cousin, Gabriel.

"Okay, but let's acknowledge the fact that Dawn even thought Atlas was a red flag at first-"

"She thinks everyone in real life is a red flag, too. I don't blame her," Serenity interrupted Adara to point out, and Dawn smirked at the confirmation.

"Alright, fine. Only because she's Dawn and despises every living thing on this earth," Adara rested her arms on the cafeteria table we sat at.

"I am starting to see that," I exclaimed, trying not to smile at the accuracy.

"Uh-huh. Also, don't let that distract you from the fact that the book is not about either of the boys-" Adara lifted a finger to get her point across.

"Atlas is a man, actually-" Dawn corrected.

"But about how Lily dealt with that kind of abuse," Adara finished her statement.

Abuse. 

Chancey's father was an abuser. He was never drunk or hooked up on drugs. He was just a man that needed mental help and didn't get it. Then he was diagnosed with leukaemia and died in the hospital for two minutes and thirty-seven seconds before his heart started again. 

Miraculously, he was healed. The moment he walked out of the hospital, he left his wife and two children. Chancey and his mother suffered from mental and physical abuse from this man, and every time I heard that word, I only ever thought of them. His little brother, Jamie, was lucky enough to have not dealt with that.

Now my eyes were seeking him out in the cafeteria. He was speaking with his friends. The moment he moved his eyes around, I focused on my own friends. Serenity was the first person I glanced at. She was already looking at me.