VALERIE

Seven

"I'm sick of this shit." The loud shrill of her older sisters voice emanated through the corridor.

Clutching onto her duvet, Valerie shed tears silently waiting for the shouting to be over, she hated when people fought because of her.

"You have no right to talk to me like that Grace." The firm yet upset voice of her mother was heard clearly as well as the small thumps of footsteps coming down the hall.

"What kind of mother forces her daughter to take more antidepressants?" Grace screeched at the top of her lungs.

Shaking Valerie clutched the sheets harder making her knuckles turn white,

"She's psycho Grace, it's for the best, I know what I'm doing."

"Yeah if you want to kill her! You fucking forced her to take 7 pills! She could die."

Valerie heard the screams right outside the door, but then suddenly everything fell silent, her numb body relaxed itself as the pressure and anxiety within her dropped.

With the door to Valerie's bedroom flinging open, she lay still and motionless, unable to react at the sight of her mother coming in with Grace storming in right behind her.

"Valerie, sweetheart tell Grace you're okay." Valerie's mother Emily crossed her arms as she stared at her youngest daughter with her piercing green eyes.

"She's not okay, she can barely even function." Grace shouted down at her very tiny mother, she ran her hand through her hair before crossing them against her chest in an attempt to calm down for her sisters sake.

Trembling Valerie attempted to speak but couldn't, she had an overwhelming dryness in her mouth that prevented her from doing so.

"We need to get her to a hospital." Grace cried frantically as she reached for her cellphone in her back pocket,

"No!" Valerie managed to scream out, "I'm, I'm, I'm okay."

"Valerie you're shaking." Grace said putting her phone down in a discouraging manner,

With a forced smile Valerie nodded, "I'm okay, mom is right, she knows what she's doing, besides they were just 20mg, it's not enough to kill me."

"See Grace, she's okay." Valerie's mom shot Grace a smile, the botox wrinkles around her lips curled upwards exposing her shiny white teeth, the slender woman in her long custom made Valentino night gown walked away, shutting the bedroom door behind her leaving the 2 sisters alone in the large cold bedroom.

Sitting up Valerie offered her sister a fake smile, the fake smile that so many people believed was genuine, but she couldn't fool Grace, because Grace knew when her little sister was truly happy, and she knew Valerie hadn't been happy in a very long time.

Grace took a seat beside Valerie on her large round bed, the two of them adjusting the sheets in between them.

"Val, you don't have to take those pills if they make you feel bad." Grace began, her eyes skimming her sisters tangled brown hair,

"No it's okay, I'm fine with it, mom is right."

"Valerie, it isn't fine, if they make you feel worse then you don't need to take them."

Valerie felt her face getting warm with anguish, "If I take them they stop me from having an episode so it's okay."

"You can't fix your disorder with pills."

"Grace you don't understand."

"Don't let mom force you to take them Valerie, it's your life not hers." Grace said firmly,