Control » l.h

Chapter Five

I stood at the top of the stairs, listening to my family talk down below. Their voices drifted from the living room, down the short hall, and up the staircase to me. I could hear the words "depressed", "hospital", and "psych ward" being tossed around by my parents and two sisters.

"She's terrifying," I could hear my younger sister, Melanie saying. "Last week, she was making weird noises in her room when my friends and I walked by. They don't want to hang out here anymore."

The "weird noises" she was referring to was me crying. My days at school were always terrible. The stress of keeping up in school was making life difficult. I'd already been put in a hospital before for my depression, but it didn't help. I just pretended to be doing better so the doctors would let me out. Being in the hospital for so long caused me to get incredibly far behind in school. Not to mention all my friends had been leaving me behind lately for boys that have been showing quite the sudden interest in them.

"I don't know what we're supposed to do with her," my other younger sister, Avery sighed. "Obviously, the hospital trips didn't work. Do we try again?"

No, they weren't going to put me through that again. I sprinted quietly back to my room, closing the door behind me before writing a note, telling them I was going to Amp Apartments. I wrote down my goodbyes, not even shedding a tear before I slipped out of my window, easily maneuvering myself onto a large tree branch. I climbed down easily like I've done so many times before, before sprinting across the yard and down the road.

I reached the apartment building, climbing all of the fire escapes to the roof. It was about a 100 foot drop to the bottom. I reached the edge, looking over it as a small crowd gathered, gradually getting bigger as they caught onto why I was up here in the first place. It was only a short time for police to arrive and try and coax me down. But instead, I slipped one foot over the edge, gruadually leaning my weight onto the foot dangling over until I tipped and fell off the edge. My body dropped towards the ground.

I jumped in my sleep as I impacted. Something had my wrists pinned to my side. That only caused me to try and force them up even more. The grip was released, but I still had the constricted feeling. Then the memories of the night before came rushing back to me. Luke.

"Jemma," his voice was soft and still full of sleep. His hand stroked my hair back. "Jemma, are you alright? Wake up, please."

I peeled my eyes open to stare into Luke's glowing white ones. While his right hand stroked at my hair, his left was held palm down about three inches from my body, keeping me pinned down so I wouldn't thrash anymore.

"What are you doing?" I asked, my voice still groggy.

"You were thrashing around in your sleep," he informed me, his eyes dimming and the tight feeling around my body slipping away. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I snapped, remembering the last part of my dream actually never happened. I found it hard to believe that yesterday I was warming up to the boy in front of me.

"I can tell today will be fantastic." he sighed, straightening out.

"Didn't think you could be sarcastic." I grumbled.

Luke raised his eyebrows at me. "What makes you say that?"

I sat up, resting my weight back on my elbows as I glared back at Luke. "Seemed like you only had two settings: 5-year-old, and asshole."

"Asshole, huh?" he said, an evil smirk crossing his face. His eyes glowed to life, his hand lifting as he brought me off the bed and onto the floor with my back against the cool wall. He stepped forward, trapping me there as his eyes dulled back to their original blue. "You have no idea, Sweetheart."