SONDER

𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞

SEASON TWO, EPISODE TWELVE:
THANKSGIVING

TW: mentions of suicide and sexual assault

Thanksgiving.

A time where families gathered around and put all of the drama aside for one evening of delectable food and sweet desserts and bonding times. This was easily one of the best holidays for most people, one of the highly anticipated ones at that.

However, for Amaru he hated it. He already didn't enjoy this time since the weather was colder and it usually made him feel much lonelier than usual, and it amplified his depression a bunch, which is why he had went back to cutting himself a few days ago when the break had started.

Aniyah was unaware, and he wanted to keep it that way. She cared a lot, though. He noticed. She even had an app in her phone that kept track of how many days he hadn't self-harmed, and she was saving up a bunch of money to buy him gifts when he hit a big milestone.

She had hopes that if she showed him that he had someone in his corner that genuinely cared, he wouldn't have the urge to hurt himself. It worked for a while, and even now she was still his main source of happiness but no amount of happiness could take away the amount of sadness he housed in his heart during the cold month, the holidays specifically.

"You think this dress is cute?" Aniyah asks him, they were currently on FaceTime while they got ready for their respective family dinners.

"Mhm, you look good in whatever you wear."

"You lyin' to me?" She stops examining the dress and looks at the camera.

"Of course not, love."

"Okay." She tries pulling the dress down some. "You don't think I look slutty or anything, right? I wanna look modest so when I come over later I won't give off the wrong vibe."

"You look perfectly fine, stop overthinking. Plus, my mom already loves you, no matter what you have on I'm sure it won't change anything."

"Yeah, but like.." She sighed. "That's your mom, not all of your aunts and stuff. There's also gonna be lots of men around and I don't want to show too much."

"What?" He stops and looks at the camera. "You can wear whatever you want, you the star."

She laughs. She hadn't told him much about her childhood, just the basics. Father left. Mother was depressed and left shortly after. Brother left as soon as he graduated. Grandma raised her and Mekhi. Grandma kicked the bucket. Brother came back to raise her and Mekhi.

He had no idea that she was assaulted a bunch of times as a child which is why she didn't want to show too much skin around a bunch of grown men, she didn't really plan on telling him about it either. The last person she opened up to about that was Xavier, and that situation didn't play out well at all.

"Okay, I'll call you back a little later then. I think we're about to go."

"Go where?" He asks. "I know y'all aren't close to that much family."

"Our great-aunt is having dinner, so we're going over there. It should be fine. A few cousins around our age, so decent."

"Oh okay, I hope you have lots of fun. Text me whenever you get the chance, okay?"

"I will. See you later." She says before hanging up the phone. He slides his phone in his back pocket and stares at himself in the mirror.

He fixes the gold Jesus piece that graced his neck before fixing his sleeves as well, making sure that they were covering his fresh marks and his older ones as well.