ʷʰⁱᵗᵉ ᵗᵉᵉᵗʰ ᵗᵉᵉⁿˢ ᴶᴶ ᴹᴬʸᴮᴬᴺᴷ

six

evie and jj were in a comfortable silence on top of the twinkie while pope was underneath, studying for his scholarship. they both laid flat on there backs, their fingers or knees occasionally touching while they looked at the blue sky above.

" evie ? " jj asked, very quietly breaking the silence between the two as the girl hummed in reply.

" what was it like... before your mom died ? " he asked softly and studied the girls reaction. he only knew rumours and bits of what john b had mentioned but other than that him and evie never spoke of the subject. her features didn't change, her eyebrows furrowed lightly but other than that, she seemed okay.

" i don't know, she wasn't really my mom anymore " evie replied, leaning against her elbows as she turned her head to the side to look at jj.

flashed back - 3 years ago

evelyn rocked on her bed, with her knees to her chest back and forth, back and forth. her hands were pressed against her ears in an attempt to cancel out helena's screams.

she could hear mateo, crying in his room and slowly got out of her bed, picking up her noise cancelling headphones and made her way across the hallway, and passed her mum's room and tried not to look inside.

her arms were strapped to the sides of the bed, along with her ankles. she thrashed around with blood curdling screams. the restraints dug into her wrists leaving red marks.
helena was diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was young. she took her meds and kept it at bay, but began to spiral.

she would scream all night long about wanting it to end, wanting the pain to be over. helena tried multipls times to take her own life.

" mateo " evie spoke softly, reaching out for the sobbing six year old. she knew mateo was terrified of helena, and so she wrapped her arms around him and put her noise cancelling headphones on his ear and rocked him to bed.

the tears fell from her face as another scream broke through the air, followed by a loud bang but at this one ledger rushed out of his room.
this was the third time helena tried to take her life.

the fourteen year old watched as her dad called 991 in a panic, with trembling hands.

it was a mystery how, but helena managed to pull out her feeding tube, oxygen tube and iv.

-
the next morning

evie trudged into first period here usual blue eyes, a dull grey.

" your late " grumbled mr sanchez, the spanish proffesor as evie sat down next to john b who was to busy passing notes with jj to notice her presence.
since ledger was busy with helena in the hospital evie had to get a train to the other side of the cut, drop of mateo before walking to her school.

" hey, eves " he whispered, his face going beet red when the teachers peircing gaze landed on him.
john b didn't need to ask, but instead watched as evie lay her head down on the table. he put his hand in hers to remind him that he was here, and so she squeezed it to say thank you.

john b was the only one who knew about helena. evie and mateo often spent the night at the chateau when things got bad. he was the only thing that kept her going.

" stay at mine tonight? " he asked with a small smile, and the girl turned her head and nodded before he showed her his notebook so she could catch up.

-

" why didn't you talk to me ? " he mumbled, wanting to understand why the girl kept all of this to herself. he watched as she breathed deeply. the entire time she spoke, they never once held eye contact.