Paradise // th

twenty one

Life was as good as it gets, in June Hestia released her debut single, Skyscraper, which went Platinum in two weeks, after two months, in August, she released her second one; Rockabye and it went Platinum in three weeks, but she was setting records because no new artist was ever that good with such perfect hit songs. Artists and the media were waiting for her to make mistakes, but she made none.

She was now done working on her album and it was set to be released in October 2018, she was getting big, and Entertainment Tonight kept supporting her while E!News kept trying to bring her down with no luck. She won awards for both singles, and for being the best new artist, after only releasing two singles, she already had eleven awards and they were all in Tom's house in London, she moved in with him after they went back there and Zeus loved it.

Mostly because it was pretty close to where Zoe lived, but also because he really liked Tom. Zeus did a small cameo in SpiderMan 2 and starred in the movie adaptation of Wonder, in which he had to stay in America for- and Hestia stayed with Zeus in America for the three months of shooting, while Tom was flying from country to country to shoot but he made time to go to her every chance he got.

They were the new power couple that everyone loved and a lot hated on, but they stayed strong. Throughout their ten months of dating, nothing went wrong, except maybe- fame became overwhelming for Hestia and the hate she received was cold blooded, so she went back to her old habits, hating herself became a strategy- a perfectly hidden one- as she seemed confident and fine on the outside and cried herself to sleep every night after she cut in places only she could see.

Not even Tom suspected anything, which only proved that she was a perfect actress- even better than award winning ones, she was so believable when she faked a smile and she was even more believable when she said she was fine.

A girl with a talent like this was dangerous, not to others but to herself, it was scary, how someone could be so broken but hide it perfectly- even from their own family.

So as Hestia laid in hers and Tom's bed in their apartment in London- knowing her brother won't be coming in the bedroom like always and demand she would sing to him because she recorded the song in the studio and put it in his phone-, she thought about what the comments on her post said, tears streamed from her eyes and she cried softly speaking while Tessa whimpered clearly feeling her pain, too, as she felt her stomach and thighs sting from the cuts underneath her shirt and sweatpants she spoke;

"If there's a God out there hear my prayer, I'm lost and I'm scared, and I have nowhere else to go, I've come a long way but I'm not sure I can make it much farther, so if you're listening, could you give a helping hand to your daughter?"

What Hestia didn't know was that Tom was right behind the bedroom door, he heard every word, he heard everything and he felt guilty for not being there with her- making sure she was okay, but it wasn't his fault. It wasn't hers either, but the people who hate on her were the reason and it was their fault.

A teenage girl scrolls through the comments on her feed only to find half of them being hate towards her, what could she possibly do other than hate herself like they do?

After she stopped talking, Tom opened the door and with a tight- fake- smile he looked at his girlfriend who wiped her cheeks and smiled at him- it amazed him, really, how her smile looked so real, but he saw the difference now, he couldn't find the twinkle in her eyes when she looked at him anymore- the innocent happy twinkle that she developed while he was around, it was gone just like when she was in that diner.

It just disappeared somewhere along the way, when he wasn't around.

"Hey, Stan, why didn't you tell me you were coming? I could've picked you up from the airport."She said and he opened his arms for her to wrap hers around his waist and him to lock her inside his arms, wrapping his arms tightly around her tiny frame, he even felt tears sting his eyes but he tried to keep them contained as he spoke.

"I missed you so much."He said after he pulled away from the hug and put his hands on her damp cheeks and spoke again, "I don't know why you were crying or what happened, but I want to apologize for not being there when it did.. I love you, Eris."

Hestia's breath was caught in her throat in a soft gasp after he said those words, she looked at him with wide eyes and then quickly recovered by clearing her throat and smiling sweetly at him, "I wasn't crying, I just took a shower."

Tom looked at her with pain in his eyes and shook his head, "Please don't do this to yourself, at least speak to me, Eris- I'm your boyfriend, baby, don't you trust me?"

Hestia stayed silent and looked down, she did trust him, but she didn't want to burden him with her stupid- her words not mine- self loathe and shame.

"Baby?"He said waiting for a reply.

"I trust you, you know that."She spoke softly looking into his eyes, finally showing her true emotions, "And you're the only person that I am always on the verge of breaking around because of how much I do trust you.. But I can't talk about anything because it'll just burden you, Tom, I'm sorry."

-

So many emotions im dead..