Crybaby

Quiet

"What do you want me to do, Kayla?" She is almost yelling into the phone now. She has given up on trying to hide her weakness.
The receiver is shaking violently in her hand.
"What do you mean?"
Kayla sounds eerily calm.
Electra doesn't even think that Kayla feels a twinge of remorse doing these things.
She is wrong.
"You know very f**cking well what I mean, Kayla! What can I do to stop you from ruining anyone else? Please, I'll do anything."
Electra's voice is breaking on every word.
"Fine. All you've got to do is do what I am doing before I can finish the job.
Cut yourself off from them, and they don't get hurt. Make your life hell or I will. Do it yourself or I will." Kayla can almost hear Electra collapsing inside. The only people left she cares about. Even her parents don't care about her.
"P- please. No. Is there anything else?"
"Either I ruin them or you cut yourself out of their narrative."
The line is silent for a moment.
"Fine. Fine. You are so cruel, you know. I hate you so much." Electra sounds furious, helpless, broken, and numb, all at the same time.
"Watch your tone, or Crybaby is next."
Electra shutters.
What could she know about Crybaby that no one else does...?
"So is it a deal? You promise not to hurt them if I stop talking to them?"
Electra hates this feeling of submitting to blackmail.
She does it though.
She has to protect them.
"Yes. But you must do it before February and you can't tell a soul."
There is a hint of something strange in Kayla's voice as she says this.
"How will you know if I tell them?" Electra asks shakily.
"Oh, I will know, and when I figure it out, I will tell them all it's your fault that Troye is out to the whole school and it's your fault all of the secrets are shared.
They will hate you."
Electra feels tears again.
She is in high school, how can this be happening? Why does her life have to be ruined so early?
"Ok."
"Good luck buttercup!" Kayla chirps into the phone.
The call ends with a sickening beep.
Electra shakily drops her phone and collapses into a crying heap on her floor.
This is worse than any heartbreak.

Kayla drops her phone just as shakily.
She is an excellent actress.
Why do I do this?
What is wrong with me?
Why do I hurt them?
A tear hits her desk.
And then another.

Troye wakes up at 2:37 in the morning.
He stares at the ceiling and notices it's not his.
He turns his head to the side slightly to see a sleeping crybaby draped over a chair and Alessia sitting across the room with her eyes blankly out the window.
Snow is falling in the dark.
For one blissful moment, Troye is peaceful.

Then the floodgates are opened.
Memories cloud back into his vision like stinging black smoke and the pain pulls him fifty feet deeper.
He suddenly feels a throbbing pain traveling through his head, cheeks, and knees.
He lays there for a moment, breathing increasingly fast, before a desperate noise escapes his throat.
It's more of a dry sob.
Alessia's head snaps towards him and she immediately jumps up, giving Crybaby's shoulder a quick shake on the way to him.
Crybaby rubs her eyes for a before quickly realizing where she is and rushing over to Troye.
Before he knows what's going on Troye finds himself wrapped in Crybaby's arms. She is gentle, making sure not to put pressure on any one of his many bruises or scrapes.
"Troye. I- I'm so sorry Troye."
She is trying to hold in tears too.
Unnatural for her.
Troye clings to her until he stops shaking.
She hands him a chocolate bar.
"You need to eat." She whispers.
When bad things happen Troye will forget to eat sometimes. This terrifies Crybaby.
Troye sighs and unwraps the candy slowly.
The silence thickens and they stare out the window at the slowly falling snow.
Snow falling outside a window on a dark night is one of the strange wonders of the earth.
"What do I do?" Troye whispers.
Helpless.
Hopeless.
More silence.
"I don't know." Alessia mumbles.
"Jacob. He hates me." Troye has a numbness creeping into his voice.
This shakes Crybaby hard.
Numbness. The one thing that is worse than all of the emotions combined.
She turns her face the other way so that he won't see her tears pricking her eyes.
She has no idea what to do.
Helpless.
She looks back out the window.

At 3am across the town, someone else is watching the snow too.
He is wondering weather it's really worth it
These people he is friends with just to protect his reputation.
What reputation?
He is the quiet one, the friendly one, the other one.
Is he doing it for himself?
Yes, he knows he is attracted to Crybaby.
He wonders how anyone can't be, with her eyes and hips and glow. But he is more than just attracted, he feels something different for her.
It's scary because he doesn't want to hurt her.
But he pretends anyway. At school he pretends to not know her, he pretends to like his "friends".

He pretends.

Electra forgot that she invited Brendon over tonight.

Tomorrow is not going to be easy.

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A/N: Hi!! Sorry for the short chapter, I just wanted to put this out for now.
The drama right now 😅
Love you!! Thank you for all the reads and votes, they mean a lot more than you realize!!
XOXO