Sage Rose Parker, a seventeen almost eighteen year old girl getting ready for college with her two friends.
Having the world on her shoulders and her past in her mind she's down to break.
An alcoholic as a mother and an abusive father in jail didn'...
(Trigger warnings: Drug use, Intoxication, panic attack, Manipulation etc)
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Fading Echoes =================================
I drift through a world that's not my own, A shadow among lights, a heart turned to stone. Voices are distant, but they call my name, A fleeting connection, but I'm not the same.
Smoke in the air, the buzz in my mind, The truth feels so blurry, so hard to find. I smile through the haze, pretend I don't see, The cracks in my skin where my demons breathe.
Lost in the chaos, I fade with the crowd, Silent and screaming, but never too loud. The world spins around me, I'm caught in the ride, But I don't know where I end, or where I've been inside.
I numb myself slowly, piece by piece, Every hit, every sip, is a desperate release. The pain doesn't vanish, it lingers, it grows, But I drown it with laughter, and no one knows.
In this room full of faces, I'm still so alone, Chasing a high I don't understand, unknown. I'm reaching for something that slips through my hands, A life I can't touch, like grains in the sand.
So I let myself fade, let the night take me in, Pretend I'm alright, though I'm broken within. The echoes of me, lost in the noise, A hollow existence, a shattered choice. ~~~~~~~~~~~~
The car hums softly beneath us, the engine a steady purr as Owen focuses on the road. The air inside the car feels a little too warm, too tight, like I can't escape the tension that's been building between us. Every few minutes, Owen glances at me with a smile as he squeezes my leg.
I reach for my phone, the cool surface of it grounding me as I unlock the screen and scroll through my contacts. My thumb hovers over the name, and for a brief second, I hesitate. The thought of calling him fills me with unease. I don't want to deal with it—don't want to deal with him.
But I need to. I need to ask for permission, or at least let him know where I'm going.
My fingers dial my brother's number, but it's Alexa's voice that picks up after two rings.
"Hey, babe," she says, and her tone is instantly warm, a stark contrast to the chill of the night outside. "You okay?"
I blink, trying to keep the conversation light, even as the weight of Owen's gaze on me presses into my chest. I force a smile, glancing over at him before answering.
"Yeah, I'm good," I say, though it's not entirely true. "I was gonna ask Jay if I could stay at a friend's house tonight."
There's a pause on the other end of the line. I don't know if it's because she's surprised or if it's just the usual delay from her own thought process, but I feel the second her tone shifts, softer, more understanding.
"Of course," Alexa says, a little chuckle in her voice. "I'm sure he'll be fine with it. Go have fun tonight. You deserve it."
I try to ignore the weird feeling that creeps up my spine at the words. Go have fun. But what kind of fun? The kind where Owen's all over me, where I can barely think straight? Or the kind where I let myself forget about everything else?
