𝐄𝐂𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐘 || RAFE CAMERON

015

It was noon. Noon and Katherine was still fast asleep. So deep in her post-high slumber that Gianna would check on her every few minutes, just to see if she was breathing.

Quietly creeping into her room, examining her body while Gianna held her breath, then releasing it in relief as she saw the woman's chest rising and falling.

It wasn't an average, let alone normal, activity someone should have during the day, but if it meant having a sober mother in a few more hours for at least a few more days, Gianna would do it as many times necessary.

Knowing how, after the events of last night, Gianna probably wouldn't be leaving the house that day, other than the appointment with her therapist, she decided to order from her favorite sushi restaurant, while watching her favorite movie, and spend the day doing what she liked to do when she was alone.

Because, honestly, she wanted- needed a breather from her fabricated alter ego.

She had spent practically the entire week as "Gianna Gray, Kook Party Princess: known for getting hammered at parties and making out with boys she's never spoken to."

Known for having a perfect family and a peaceful household. For having the best friends and always surrounded by the coolest people. Always invited to whatever party thrown by whoever, wherever, whenever.

And it was always nice at first, acting out that character as if her life were a play. It inflated her sense of self worth when she realized people were buying it, and how easily they fell for her lies. How she was finally bouncing back from that pathetic time in her life where she completely isolated herself.

But she never truly grasped how much it drained her until she was finally by herself.

She liked being "Gianna Gray, Kook Party Princess", but she liked it more when she was just Gia.

Just Gia. Someone who cried when her not-so-perfect mother used drugs. Someone who felt guilty after eating too much. Someone who felt angry with the world a little too often. Someone who was actually real and not some persona made up by a desperate teenage girl who craved a sense of normality for at least a few hours a day.

She only wished she could be just Gia without feeling like people would look at her differently.

At least while she munched on her volcano rolls, watched The Hangover while sipping on a Coke Zero on the floor of her living room, she could be just Gia.

And as she watched Bradley Cooper deliver his lines in the movie, while subtly mumbling them to herself as a result from seeing the film so many times, she felt her phone vibrate against her leg, her fathers name and picture shining on the screen.

Gianna pressed the remote control once, the scene coming to a stop as she propped her phone against the can of Diet Coke, answering the buzzing device.

It took a second for the screen to load her father's image, which was currently pixelated and somewhat delayed as the words "hi, honey," weren't matching the movements his mouth made.

But Gianna ignored it, accustomed to the view of her father's face composed of small, colorful pixels on her phone. "Hi, dad," she greeted him cheerfully.

"How are things back home?"

Gianna couldn't deny the feeling of hesitation growing on her as she heard the words, even if she'd been through this exact routine time and time again. In the end, it always came down to a choice.

Lie, and make it seem like everything was okay, leading to a normal conversation on how Gianna's week went or how the family business was going. Or, tell the truth, and admit that her mother relapsed once more and watch her fathers usually upbeat and happy demeanor crumble and fade into a disappointed look, that Gianna couldn't help but feel responsible for.