Less than Perfect

1. Birthday Gone Bad {part two}

Chapter One

Birthday Gone Bad 

Part Two

Skye ducked into the restroom and saw two giggly girls. The girls snapped out of their giggling the moment they saw Skye, there expressions filled with surprise and confusion. She drew back for a moment and dropped her hand. My cheek, my eyes, I must look like a wreck. She thought instinctively. She hadn't even realized that water had made its way out of her eyes and was trickling down her cheeks. Blinking the tears away in embarrassment, she ducked into the closest stall and slammed it shut-sliding the lock in place.

The two girls started giggling again as they left the restroom, their giggles had changed into louder and abrupt laughter before they were all of the way out. Skye leaned up against the stall's door and sighed, tears trickling down her cheeks again. She let the crying come; she was in too much pain to try to banish it. A few minutes of thought would help her get away from it all. Her birthday's had never really turned out the way she planned, the more years that things went wrong the less she cared about them, her birthday is just another day in her mind. For the most part, the day of her birth she doesn't enjoy thinking about, especially because she knew that it had something to do with Leah and Skye's biological-father's separation. 

She wiped at her eyes after a couple minutes of crying and pulled out a compact from her purse. She examined her face in the mirror where she saw that her eyes were red and the side of her face had swelled up into a bruise. This is just perfect, how am I supposed to explain this to Mom? Skye always had to cover for Bryan and Johnny's anger. The last time she covered for them wasn't too far into the past; it had only been a few weeks earlier. She ended up covering for both Johnny and Bryan after coming home practically unconscious. It was one of those days that had been incredibly unexpected in going where it went. The day started off as any other, she went to Bryan's house after school-something they both did a lot during the school year-but that was when things got a little out of control and Bryan took all of his anger out on her, lashing out on her until she begged for mercy. Before she made it home that same evening, Johnny found her and became infuriated by the evidence that he thought he had left, beating on her already numb body. 

She tried to stay away from thinking about the past beatings, for she could still feel the pain it had all created. She snapped out of the past and back into reality, ache tainted on the windows of her heart. She covered the bruised side of her face with cover-up so that the skin was refreshed and the bruise hardly noticeable, and sighed heavily as she breathed a deep breath of the clear air, letting the events of the night fall away. 

Skye peered out of the stall and let out a quick breath of relief-the restroom was vacant from the looks of it. She dropped her purse on the counter and washed her hands clean of the cover-up. She quickly dried her hands off and leaned her hands and body against the counter, staring at her reflection in the mirror. Her hand slid up to her swollen cheek and a mumbled sob escaped her lips-a sob of regret. She hated that she kept giving into Bryan even though he didn't truly love her. The regret was overwhelming. 

"How could I let him do that to me? I should have just left, I should have just left!" She sobbed as she dropped her head into her hands. "I don't want this anymore," she breathed, her suddenly quiet voice muffled. Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground, her vision had blurred and there was a sudden dizziness swirling the entire room. She reached up for the counter and tried to pull herself back up; but it was a loss, her arms were too weak. 

On the far side of the restroom the last stall opened and a blonde-haired girl walked out of it. She washed her hands, but when she saw Skye, she gasped and ran over to her. "Skye! Oh my gosh, what happed?" She said hastily, crouching down to her knees and gently pushing Skye's raven hair out of her face.