Paper Doll - Book 2

The Day The Music Died

Home...

(American Pie, Don McLean)

...

The Sokovian watched on as her friend yelled at her once adoptive parents, pain etched across every inch of her usually gentle expression, voice cracking as though her vowels were sliding across a grater. Her blue eyes spilled tears as she stood up from the table, the chair screaming as it slid across the floor, before she stormed from the room with a heart-wrenching whimper.

"I'll go talk to her too..." Alexei sighed, dropping his head in what she had assumed was defeat, perhaps embarrassment. If he was even capable of an emotion other than arrogance. 

But Bethany knew her friend needed time alone, also she also knew that she had heard sorrowful sobs and bottle swigs coming from the room behind the dining room.

"I think it's best you leave her alone,  both of them," she told him politely, truthfully quite unable to look up and meet him in his eyes. "I'll go talk... no offence, you just aren't great with the whole comfort thing." That was before she made her way to the room behind the faded glass.

Rapping her knuckles lightly against the glass, she didn't wait for an answer before she slipped in through the opening. Glancing around, she noticed the blonde had plopped herself on the carpeted floor, her back resting against the side of the bed. It was simple, with a worn, floral-patterned duvet atop, and it was pushed against the wall, the mattress sagging slightly from years of use.

The carpet beneath Yelena was frayed and thin, its original colour long faded into a dull brownish hue. There was a chipped wooden dresser in the corner, its surface cluttered with a few forgotten trinkets—a cracked mirror, an old comb, and a small, faded photo frame. A rickety chair stood next to the dresser, the paint peeling off its legs. Despite its aged and tired appearance, the room felt strangely comforting, as if it had been a silent witness to many moments of solitude and reflection.

"I came in here because I didn't want to talk." Yelena groaned, before slowly lifting her head, eyes red-rimmed and raw. "Oh. Sorry, I didn't think you would check on me."

There was a slight pause before the Sokovian dropped to her knees and took a seat beside Yelena. "I usually try to keep myself out of things that don't involve me but, I can't help it if it comes to someone who means a lot to my family. And I don't like seeing you upset."

Yelena turned to look at her, green eyes hardening as they scanned the girl's face before her arms fell and went limp by her side, signalling her exhaustion. "You care about them both a lot, don't you?"

She nodded, turning her head slightly to face her. "More than anything. And, you now, too. Family, it's all we have when it comes down to it."

Yelena's eyes widened slightly, a flicker of confusion and hope dancing within them. "I'm family?"

"Of course you are. Why wouldn't you be?" Bethany frowned.

Yelena swallowed hard, her voice barely above a whisper. "Because...because I've always been on the outside. I've never felt like I truly belonged anywhere. They all just...stripped that away from me." Tears welled up in the girl's shadowed eyes, and she blinked them away quickly. "It's just... hard to believe. Hard to trust."

"I know it's not easy. Trust takes time. But we all did it, we came out the other side," Beth said softly, trying to infuse all of her belief in the girl into every word, trying to think of all the things those she now loved told her, once she escaped. "Besides, doesn't look like I'll be going anywhere for a while so, we have time."