Fading Out (completed!!!)

(11) moving on

Moving on got easier as the weeks passed. I started talking to people in classes and Luna no longer stood out among the sea of student filling the hall. I avoided the spots she would hang out.

But I was able to see the sadness in her eyes when she stared out the window.

She stopped wearing her red lipstick, ignored everyone and got rid of the boy. She rarely came to school and skipped classes. Never ate lunch but always had a bottle of water and a container of pills. She was withering away slowly.

I started dating again at the end of February. She didn't do drugs or lie, she never partied too hard, she kept herself simple and I could handle her.

But I was missing something.

I stopped smoking, after finishing my last pack on the first day of March. I limited my drinking to only special occasions. I started to exercise more often, partied less and smiled more. I was happy and doing well.

But something always happens.

It was a Wednesday when I heard and knock on my door, not thinking it ask who it was I told them to come in and I was surprised at who stood before me.

Luna stood there, shaking as tears flowed down her face that was covered in bruises and scrapes. She wasn't the same girl. She was too skinny, too bland, too tired and too pale. I could see the old bruises that covered her arms.

"What's wrong?" I asked without moving from my bed.

"I'm sorry. Ember. I just hope you know that."

"What's wrong Luna?" I repeated in a softer tone.

"A lot of stuff but I just wanted to say I'm sorry." She wiped her nose. "Like really sorry."

"Who did this to you?"

"Peter." Finally a name to the face that helped ruin our relationship.

"Why?"

"I own him a lot of stuff. He doesn't want me. He just uses me." Her face was a disaster. I remembered how beautiful and clean it was before everything. "I don't love him, Ember."

"I know."

"I love you."

"No."

"What?" She looked shocked. "What do you mean no?"

"You don't love me Luna. Not the same way I love you. If you love someone you don't lie. You don't have sex with someone else, you don't break promises, Luna!"

"I love you, I was too stupid to see it!"

"You were too high to love me!" She cried at this point and I ran to her. "I understand you want to love me and that you want me to love you too, but I can't Luna. I'm sorry, but I can't truly love you right now. It's too late."

She cried a lot, leaving my shirt soaked with tears and mascara. I held her to my chest and rubbed her back while she let it all out. She wasn't the same and she would never be again.

Luna destroyed herself for good.