When China Breaks//Ed Sheeran #Wattys2016 #NewVoices

shake on it

*happy early update day! That's Ed's truck there, lets pretend he could drive then. Anyways if you haven't seen the movie Keith, please watch it cause it inspired this book, as well as the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan case. vote, comment and share with your buddies!*

I stayed locked in the guest bedroom except the days I was doing physical therapy. My mom hadn't lied when she said she was hiring help. It came in the form of a woman named Mary Ella, who was a complete stiff who didn't know how to take a jo ke. My mother obviously went out of her way to find someone to make me hate my life even more than I already did.

I stared out the window, hoping that the mailman would deliver our mail. Not because I was expecting a letter, that wasn't even likely, but because he was the only person that came to our front door.

My mother has friends, but sure all busy, helping their daughters become the dancers they never wanted to be. With me here, my mother had nothing to do but disappear for hours at a time and come home and go to sleep.

So other than the mailman, nobody came by.

But I watched for hours and hours hoping that someone would swing by to say hello, but there was no one. Despite all the things I had managed to get over, this was one thing I couldn't come to terms with.

Around five thirty, the Thursday following my removal from the Hill house, I was sitting in my room, my door locked, listening to my iPod on shuffle, trying to drown out the silence. A rickety green truck stopped in front of my house and I pressed myself harder against the glass, squinting, hoping that the person who got out of the truck would be for me.

I was unfortunately granted my wish because none other than the flame-haired devil himself climbed out of the truck, guitar in hand, one strapping it with his stupid backpack. My stomach dropped into my ass before it was pulled back into place. I held my breath, hoping for some reason that if I was quiet enough, he would leave, but then I remembered Mary Ella.

Knocking at the door made me sigh in defeat. I didn't make a move to my door, which was closed and locked to avoid Mary Ella, but I knew she would be coming for me any second. Sooner than I anticipated, I heard the sound of the knob being twisted, but there was no follow-through action because it was locked. "Aaliyah!" Mary Ella called, her Spanish accent making my name sound almost unfamiliar. "Open the door right now!"

"I can't hear you!" I shouted over the music.

"Open the door right this second Aaliyah!" She shouted, the panic in her voice growing more and more apparent.

"I'm masturbating! Girls do that too you know!" I called back. I looked out the window and found Ed pacing in the yard. Fate brought our eyes together. "The doctor said it will help ease my pain."

"I'm calling your mother!"

I sighed and wheeled myself to the door before unlocking it. Mary Ella's face was red and she looked irritated, but not ready to quit. "I'm still calling your mother." She hissed at me as I wheeled past, refusing her help.

"I don't need a play by play," I mumbled. I went to the front door, where Ed was standing, clutching his guitar as if he were going to serenade me. We looked at each other for a long minute, not saying anything. He wore a red hoodie, both of the strings dangling from the hood at two different lengths. "I'm not dying," I say, breaking the silence.

"I know that." He said, tucking his free hand into his pocket.

"I'm pretty sure I said I didn't want to see you until I was on my deathbed."

"You never said that."

"Oh! I've been thinking it this whole time. Well, fuck you, Ed Sheeran, and I don't want to see you until I'm on my deathbed." I spat at him. He sighed and came a little bit closer. "Don't! Don't come any further. Don't come up here with your stupid guitar trying to sing to me. This isn't a musical, Ed! This is real life, okay? At least that's where I'm living. I don't want to have anything to do with you ever again."