Why We Laugh (#Wattys2018)

28. I Laughed Because I Was Tired of Being Scared

Hi!

I am so sorry. I have been crazy busy. This chapter isn't that good and later in the week I am going to go back and edit it because it sucks. But I felt so bad for not updating in over a week.

Thank you so much!

28.

I leaned against the car, my feet fully submerged in goopy sewage water.

I thought about tonight. About Reece's and Eliza's anger, their kiss, Eliza's kiss with me.

I felt like a circus tightrope walker. Odd, yes. But I seemed to be in this world with people who were too screwed up to be normal. They were lifeless souls who had views of life that could scare anyone. I was the one walking the tightrope, risking my life to amuse them. Risking my sanity. I was always on the verge of falling, and so were they. I didn't want to be there. They did. They wanted to tempt lions and dance through fire. They wanted to be freaks.

I didn't.

But somehow I couldn't forget tonight.

I couldn't move on from the flames in my crush's eyes and the smoothness of Eliza's lips.

Then I realized.

This was a love triangle.

Somehow, in the middle of night, cold to the core, I laughed. I mean I cackled with laughter.

Roared because this was a screwed up teenage cliche story that I never wanted to be in.

And then I realized who was in it.

The girl behind the mask

The boy who doesn't eat

The girl who is normal.

I was still laughing, holding my cramping stomach, and wiping my sobbing eyes.

But then I heard a scream.

I gasped as my heart began to beat. I looked up at the big house.

The light in the living room lit up a cowering figure who was getting beaten by a man.

"You little fag," the man roared.

You could hear the girl's sobs from outside.

I couldn't leave.

I couldn't let Eliza be beaten.

It seemed so surreal. The girl who always smiled was being abused.

I heard those stories in tv show dramas but never heard it happen in real life.

But I wasn't sure I wanted to get involved in this.

Not after she kissed me.

But then I realized, I was being selfish.

"Go get me some beer!" the man howled, his voice thick with smoke.

Eliza shuffled out of the lit room and into the kitchen.

This was my chance.

I dashed across the lawn; my head held high.

I faced a fence. A large fence that seemed unclimbable.

But I had to, I was determined.

My whole body was shaking as adrenaline pumped through me.

I threw myself over the fence, tumbling on the concrete on the other side.

Once back on my feet, I scurried up to the kitchen back door.

Through the screen, I saw Eliza fumbling to get a beer.