the very first night, ᶜʰʳⁱˢ ˢᵗᵘʳⁿⁱᵒˡᵒ

✰. . . halloween

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
[ real life, instagram ]

real life!

it's been almost a week since the incident. chris had quite literally refused to leave her side, but it worked out okay since delilah didn't want to leave his.

she was scared at first, not for herself but for her sister. but with chris's constant reassurance, she felt like she had no reason to worry. and that was the only reason why she was currently dressing up for a halloween party.

well, not the only reason. she's also madly in love with the costumes she picked out for herself and chris, plus she wouldn't mind a distraction.

she had been bombarded with messages from her stepdad. ones that clearly suggested he wasn't in his clear mind. which than made chris want to leave a strong worded message back, but he resisted.

these past few days have been a lot for delilah and anna.

anna was even more quiet and didn't entertain any conversation at all while delilah acted like the whole thing hadn't happened.

of course, that failed massively. even with trying to keep herself together, all the years of abuse crashing down on her was too much. she didn't know how to handle it.

she couldn't brush it under the rug anymore. she knew chris wouldn't have let her.

and knowing matt knew made it so much more worse but.. better? she felt like she couldn't look him in the eyes anymore without him seeing her different. but once she realised how silly that statement was she snapped out of it. matt would never judge her.

and he didn't, instead there was a silent understanding between them. one that she felt made them closer.

the others didn't know of course, and even with delilah's excessive amount of convincing and begging she managed to hold off chris on telling his parents. although the bruising on her body or face could reveal the story itself, so they made sure to sneak in and avoid their view. delilah was only thankful it was coverable with makeup.

nick didn't know, neither did lucy or layla. she couldn't physically tell anyone. the idea of the words coming out of her mouth put her in distress.

and delilah didn't want to exactly shout the information from the rooftops. she found it embarrassing. she just wanted to keep the secret a little longer, delilah was just grateful chris understood. but he had made her promise that she wouldn't keep it to herself forever, and she agreed she wouldn't.