COMING DOWN | M. WAY

Chapter Twelve

Ten months later

Cecilia's POV

It had been ten months that Mikey and I had been together. It was the best ten months of my life. I'd never been happier.

And then, it all came crashing down.

It was on a Sunday night. Mom and Dad started fighting, but this time, they didn't stop. Dad kicked Mom out of the house and took a majority of his money to buy a house in Columbus, Ohio. But that wasn't all. She decided to take two more things from him.

Me and Tyler. 

I thought it was temporary. I really did. But, it wasn't. 

The court said that they weren't going to fight my mother. She was keeping us, and that was final. 

I didn't get to say a proper goodbye to Mikey, or Frank or Gerard. I didn't get a word. 

But I got a video. I took my camera and recorded a tear-filled video of me saying goodbye to them. I burned it onto a CD and prayed that Mrs Way didn't hate me so much as to throw away the package before any of them got to see it.

So I addressed it to Gerard from Tyler. As I put the package in the mailbox, Mom drove up, boxes filling her car, and honked the horn. I sadly got in and said goodbye to every happy memory that I'd had, which had all been made in the past ten months. 

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I'd written to Mikey. A lot, actually, but I never got a letter back. I couldn't text him. Mom took my phone away and broke it. I couldn't call him. Mom monitored all of my phone calls. He didn't have any social media. I was hopeless. 

And I missed him so much. It felt like I'd been hit by a freight train when all of the letters that I'd sent came back to me, all saying that they'd been delivered. On the back of the first one, there was a note, clearly in Mrs Way's handwriting. 

Cecilia,

Don't try and send things to Michael. Or Gerard, for that matter. They wish to not speak to you again after you left. They are much happier without having to worry about you. Don't try to contact us ever again.

Donna Way.

I think that hurt the most, the note from her. I'd always known that she didn't like me, so that was no surprise. But to hear that they were happier without me, it hurt even more than leaving. 

So I didn't send anything else. I just went on with my unhappy life, living numb. 

There was really no reason to try and make things better. I didn't want a boyfriend, I wanted Mikey. I didn't want friends, I wanted Gerard and Frank and Josh. I didn't want anything but them. 

So I blocked everything else out. I went on. Painfully, yes, but I went on. I didn't move on, I just simply went on. 

I did that for three years. Except, when I turned eighteen, I started channeling my emotions into lyrics. And then those lyrics became songs. And those songs became an album. And that album changed me into an overnight success. 

I'd done something with my life, even without the love.