The Above || Completed

03 Erica

!!Author's Note!!
Scars To Your Beautiful - Alessia Cara as a "soundtrack" to this chapter. The video is up with the picture. ❤️

^^^

For a long time, everything was quiet as Aeron stood up to dust himself off. He stared at all of us for a while. And then he sighed.
"Maddison, I'd hate to put you through this but you were sixteen once. And you're a girl so I guess you'd understand better. Talk to her?" Aeron said considerately.
I nodded. "I guess I could try."
Zachariah and Grace looked on with curiosity as I entered the bathroom.

The first things I heard were sobs and screams. Well, I never imagined a soundproof bathroom. If I had been able to hear all of this outside, I wouldn't have needed to be asked to do this. I walked further into the bathroom and gasped at the blood I saw in the first basin.
"Erica, are you okay?" I called out worriedly.
"Go away!" Erica shouted, her voice coming from the stall right next to me.
I knocked on the door. "Come out, Erica. We'll talk."
"I have nothing to say to you!" She countered bitterly.
"You don't have to say anything to me, just come out," I said.

Erica came out after a long silence. Her cheeks were streaked with tears and her sleeves were rolled all the way down, where she grasped the hems tightly with shaking hands.
"What do you want, Maddison?" she said.
"I want to help you," I said softly.
"I don't need any help and you just want to watch the show," she said bitterly, looking away coldly.
"That's not true. I'm pretty sure you've been through a lot," I said. "You're tough."
"Right." She chuckled. "Now, I'm stuck with that douche."
I narrowed my eyes. Had her and Aeron met before? It looked like I'd have to ask Aeron because Erica didn't seem to want to talk about it.

I walked over to the basin where all the blood lay splattered. Erica followed.
"Did you cut yourself?" I asked, whispering despite the fact that the room was soundproof.
"Since I was thirteen. I've never been able to stop myself." Her eyes nearly welled up with tears again as she rolled up her sleeves.
The cuts and scars written across her skin screamed of agony and self-loathing. Her wrists bore the wounds left by her own demons for the world to see. I almost teared up myself. But instead, I pulled her towards me. She accepted my embrace.
"Do you want to tell me about it?" I asked.
"No," she answered.
I pulled away. "Then let's get you cleaned up."

Erica rolled her sleeves back down and pulled the shirt over her head as I instructed her. She wore a tank top beneath that. I gently rinsed the blood from her wrists until only several thin, long cuts lined her skin. I threw her shirt in the trash as she washed her face. And after that, I ran a brush through her luscious hair and pulled it back into a ponytail, revealing her serene, natural beauty. Her black hair really brought out that deep blue in her eyes. I'd always had this bleach blonde mop over my head.

Erica looked at me through the mirror. "How come you can still look at me like that?"
"Like what?" I enquired.
"Like I'm beautiful and pure. Like I'm not a monster," she responded.
"The scars on your skin don't make you any less beautiful or less pure. They're your own reminders of what you've been through and that you've survived," I said.
Erica smiled a little, tears in her eyes. "Thank you."
"Not a problem." I smiled. "Still, I ask you, just slowly abstain from taking that knife in your hand."
"You know I haven't been able to." She looked down in dismay.
"I know but you've got to go slow. The scars are good but giving them to yourself isn't," I said.
"Okay." She still sounded a little dubious.
I knew I couldn't push her to believe she could. I'd done what I could. The rest was her own battle. I helped her stand up from where I had her sit down.

As we walked out of the bathroom, I gave her a nod.
"I'll be here if you need me," I said.
She nodded as we emerged into the dorm and sat on our separate beds. Grace had fallen asleep and so had Zachariah. Aeron sat up hastily and watched as Erica and I came in.
"Erica, are you-"
"I'm fine," she cut him off as she slipped on another sweater. "Maddison helped me."
Aeron smiled thankfully at me. "Thank you."
"Always a pleasure," I said gently.

^^^