Better Believe It

Part 3

Tring. Tring. Tring.

The bell had gone off and I had to get my act together. I quickly pulled myself out of the bathroom stall and washed my face. I almost got scared when I saw my face in the mirror. I didn't recognise myself at all with my puffy eyes, red nose and pale lips.

"Good thing I packed some makeup in my bag," I said to myself.

I quickly covered any evidence of my breakdown and headed to class. At the back of my mind, the following words were embedded: "It's not over yet."

I made it through class as best as I possibly could, but I knew that I would lose it again if I ran into Chase. So I kept a low profile throughout the rest of the day, only talking to the necessary people like my teachers. When the day finally came to an end, I started contemplating on whether I should go to my room or not. I didn't want to see Chase; I didn't have the energy to be honest. But my tired brain was screaming for some sleep so I made my way back to my room.

I was surprised when I didn't see my usual stalker outside my door. In fact, I hadn't run into him all day, which was in my favour. I wondered if he was okay. Wait. Why am I thinking that of all things? It's a good thing Chase isn't here, I thought to myself.

"Hey, America." Speak of the devil.

I turned around and came face to face with Chase.

I should have said, "Hey, Chase," but instead I said, "What are you doing here?"

I guess I was too tired to pick up the extra bitterness in my voice, but unfortunately for me, Chase wasn't.

"I just came to see if you were okay," he started speaking with annoyance layered in his voice, but with a hint of sadness, "but I guess you are fine, judging by the austerity in your voice. I thought I'd come and say sorry for anything I would have said to upset you, but I don't think you deserve it."

He was so angry that I couldn't open my mouth to say anything. I just let him continue thinking he at least deserved to lash out on me, given the way I've treated him all this time when he was nothing but kind to me.

"Do you even have feelings?" he asked me, but didn't let me answer. "I guess you don't."

It actually hurt for once of how he thought of me, but then again I did lead him on to think that. I did have feelings; I just didn't like showing them to people. I was very insecure when it came to that, but I had my reasons.

"It's all your fault, America," my mum had said. "Why couldn't you just get aborted like all the other unwanted babies?"

"What are you saying mum?" I was shocked to say the least. "Tell me that's not true. Dad?"

"It's true," dad said looking me straight in the eye, not even feeling a little sympathy for a 14 year old girl with tears running down her face. "We tried to abort you and return to our normal lives, but the doctor said it was too late to go through with it."

I couldn't believe my ears. Tears were flowing freely from my eyes, but my parents did nothing to console me. I closed my eyes and wished it was a bad dream, but when I opened them my parents were still there and talking again. I couldn't handle it anymore, so I just ran out of the house. I ran until I was out of breath and I when I took a note of my surroundings, I was all alone in the middle of a field.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"

I took the opportunity to scream at the top of my lungs but it didn't help to relieve the pain that was now my heart. The amount of tears that shed from my eyes would have probably made a swimming pool by now, if the ground hadn't soaked them all up. But I knew that nothing would ever be right in my life and there were more tears to be shed in the nearing future.

When I returned home, my parents were not in sight. I found a note on the table by the main door. It said:

"Gone out for a walk. If you feel hungry, the food is in the fridge. Don't wait up."

I could tell by the handwriting that it was mum, but she didn't even care enough to sign her name at the bottom. Dad probably took the car out and went for a drive as I noticed it wasn't in the driveway. He didn't even have the decency to leave me a note, but then again I didn't expect anything from him. What marvellous parents I had. I went straight to bed that night, not even wanting to have my dinner. I felt too tired and sad to eat.

"There's no point of having feelings," I found my voice to finally speak, ignoring the fact that tears were burning in the back of my eyes. "They just leave you with regret and emptiness at the end so might as well not have them from the start."

Chase gave me a look that was completely unreadable. I didn't know what it meant, but then he gave me a small smile, his eyes void of any emotion, and he walked off. I stood there watching him walk away, and when he was out of sight I turned back to my door. I couldn't get my head around the fact that he actually came to see if I was okay.

But then I remembered Tony Mallark. He was one of the popular guys at school, with his bad boy attitude and behaviour. He got into quite a bit of trouble at school, and I had heard a lot of stories but didn't know the truth until I actually experienced it myself. Tony was the type that sweet talked girls and trapped them into his boyishly handsome charm. He was actually really good-looking, with his curly dark locks always in a mess, his muscular tall physique and his mesmerising green eyes. He had no competition with Chase though – wait, did I just think that?

Anyway, he approached me the day after I found out the truth about myself. I was sitting all alone in one corner of the cafeteria feeling all kinds of sad when he came up to me and started talking. I was shocked at first, but then gave into the charm and started replying him. Before I knew it, he had me liking him as more than a friend; little did I know that it was all part of his plan. Every year a girl would become his victim in a game him and his friends liked to call 'Hump and Dump'. They would pick a girl, get her to fall in love with him, do bad things with her and then leave her just like that.

Unfortunately I was the girl they picked that year; no idea how I even came under their radar. But I guess it was my luck that I overheard them talk about what they were going to do to me. I was looking for Tony after school as he had promised that he would walk me home, so I went around looking at the back of the building. And there I saw him with his boys smoking a cigarette. I didn't want them to know I was there, so I hid behind the nearby bush of flowers, close enough so I could hear them but far enough so I wouldn't inhale the disgusting smoke. Yeah, I wasn't a fan of smoking or anything that would kill you internally, including love. He was asking them if he should get me out my pants straightaway or if he should play with me for a little longer. That disgusted me so much; I actually felt like jumping out the bush and giving him a hard kick right where the sun doesn't shine. But I had to keep my cool and find out the whole plan so I could counter it with my own strength. They said that he should play for a little longer, but no way in hell was I going to let him near me again.