Twinkling in the Dark | ✔︎

Chapter 18

"Aurora?" I heard Cooper say as he appeared alongside Xander. Cooper shoved me behind them and he assisted Xander in landing hit after hit on this redheaded guy.

If they were drunk, they didn't seem like it. Punch after punch was landed on the redhead's face.

Michael, Sabrina, Joey, and Olivia appeared, rushing me out of the room where a crowd of nosy and shitfaced teens were. A group of schoolmates trying to look inside the room, but it was practically impossible with Michael blockading the door with his big frame.

"Move, people!" I heard Olivia shout beside me as I was led out of the house and into her car that we arrived in, but Joey stayed behind to help Cooper and Xander, I assumed.

Sabrina sighed heavily while she slouched down in the backseat. "You're shaking, Aurora."

I looked down at my body, and my dress which caused all this, and realized I was, in fact, shaking. Quite a lot, actually.

My body felt numb, my mind was mindless, and my thoughts were preoccupied with nothing but the event that happened only minutes ago.

"I feel..." I trailed, looking out the window at the shadowed scenery that passed by in a blur, "I feel numb."

A deep wrinkle was visible in Michael's forehead in the rearview mirror. He had no clue why I reacted the way I did, neither did Sabrina, yet they still stood by.

"I don't know what the hell that was," Michael started, "but all I know is that we're here for you, okay? Sabrina and I and Olivia and Cooper and Xander. Even Joey. We're all going to be here. We always will be."

I nodded and blinked my surprisingly dry eyes. I felt like I should be crying, bawling and sobbing even, but there was nothing. My heart didn't even seem to be beating, but I knew it was from the quick pounding in my chest.

"Should we call her parents or something?" Sabrina whispered to Olivia, but it could be heard by everyone since the car was silent except for the roar of the car's engine.

Olivia shook her head and replied curtly. "No."

I wanted to feel myself shaking. I wanted to feel my eyes watery with tears. I wanted to feel the chills on the surface of my skin. I wanted to feel something. Anything. Just something to prove I was still there -to prove I made it through.

But all I felt was terrified. And I had no idea how to make it stop.

♛ ♛ ♛

"And how did you feel in that moment?"

I shook my head. "I already said, Dr. Bruno. I felt nothing." I said through my gritted teeth and lied down on the blue sofa, my hair sprawling out on the cold, white pillows.

It had been only a day, more like 16 hours, since that happened, and I was still frozen. I isolated myself for the night, I hadn't picked up any phone calls, and I made sure to distract myself with homework. Sure, it was rude, but I just couldn't let myself look so...so weak in front of them.

"Nothing?" He asked, writing something down on his clipboard.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, nothing. Nothing at all."

He sighed, placing the clipboard down on his desk. "I know how it's been, Aurora."

I sat up to face him completely, curious to where he's going.

"You froze up, it's normal. Weakness isn't a trait of yours. It never has been, and it never will be."

"W-what do you mean?"