Being Played

TWO DAYS.

I close the door behind me.

"Oh my god, Terra this isn't about you!" Ash yelled allowing her voice to carry her disgust.

"I was trying to protect you!" Her aunt screamed back pacing around in their city penthouse. One whos walls screamed with all the lies thrown at it.

Ash took a deep breath and stroked her hair back. "I get that but when something is a threat that directly concerns me, I have the right to know what that is. That way I won't be running around blindly. I will be aware and vigilant but you took that away. All of this could have been dealt with in a much cleaner way." Her silver tongue doused with venom. Her erratic heartbeat contrasted the numbness. "Because of your negligence, I lost my best friend. One of the only people I loved. Her birthday's in two days!" She rasped her chest tightening.

"Ash, I am only human, there's only so much I could have done!" Despite the warm fire burning in its pit, there was nothing warm or welcoming about the glare Ash gave her aunt.

"No, you are a selfish monster, that only has your own interest at heart. You didn't bat an eye when Uncle Max died. You burned everything I had of my mom and dad not thinking that maybe I needed something to hold them with. You sent me away, to live in a strange town, miles away from anything, and refused to give me the same care and safety you gave your clients. All I needed from you was home after I lost mine but no I get brushed off. I'm not even 17 Terra. I just wanted you to be my family." The fretful tone was disheartening to the woman on the receiving end.

She struggled to respond, afraid that whatever she said would only hurt the girl more. No apology would matter. She didn't want it. It was true that she, Terra Maxwell had been selfish. Right from the very first day she had made little effort to personally insure the safety of her family. That wasn't her goal. She smiled sickly sweet. "My dear Ashaya, this was never about you either. You and your friends were the unfortunate souls caught in the middle." She whispered harshly, tracing a finger down Ash's cheek.

Ash slapped the hand away defiantly intensifying her glare. "The only family gets to call me that." She pushed away from her smirking aunt afraid she might kill her as well. Her aunt wasn't aware that Ash had so thoughtlessly killed Charles Webbler. To her and the rest of the world the notorious Gangster, Cage Hollander did. "When this is all finished you leaving, for good. I'm cutting you off." She didn't give her aunt time to reply as she grabbed a small suitcase and backpack and sashayed to the door slamming it shut as she left her only known relative behind.

She felt the cold freezing air slap her with a nice hand full of snow as she stepped out of the apartment block. She had a long day ahead of her. Many had been worried about what would happen now that they had a dead principle and incarcerated staff while exams were only two weeks away from finishing. She had feared that it would be post owned to next year but luckily the principle was a mad man that tried to murder a bunch of high schoolers everyone passed their year. Seniors now had a longer vacation and the juniors become seniors. Though now they all wondered where they would go to school next year.

Her hands trembled as she tied her suitcase to her bike. That fleeting heartstopping, stomach-dropping feeling known as fear ate her up inside. Her thoughts were messy butt silent. She wanted to cry, to scream but every time she tried she was met with dull and dumb silence. She bent forward, her arms supported against the glimmering bike, and her loose locks framing her bowed head. She stayed silent trying to get some form of peace.

Thinking back to that night they spent on the beach. How serene everything was, it was for their falling out but she wished she had never asked her to start over. Nothing was changed, she would just feel less guilty. She tried to remember the sounds of that shivering night. Though it was cold and dreary out on that beach it did not stop Grace from snuggling in her woolly coat or chucking her sneakers off.

She could imagine herself on that beach, her toes burrowing into the cold damp sand. Small pebbles littered the surface for miles and the ocean's waves broke solemnly on the shore. Grace told her that she always wanted to live by the ocean. It was a dream she inherited from her mother she said. The ocean always reminded her of the curious and submerging blue eyes of her mother. It's the only memory that stayed untainted.

Ash knew Grace better than she knew her mind. She just forgot how to show it sometimes but on the second last day, her tears were shed for someone else not out of remorse but something else. Something that scratched her at heart.

Grace only wanted to love the world.