He's Real c.h.

Twenty-two: broken mirror

Calum had taken Maely outside the orphanage a lot in the past week. Mainly just to eat somewhere.

Now that Maely had come into contact with the outside world, she'd changed. Not in a very good way.

"Calum?" she asked. She lay in bed, spooning with him.

Calum opened his eyes to the darkness, "Yeah?"

"Why are people on the outside so skinny?"

"Because they think that other people's opinions matter."

"Do they?"

Calum took a long time to reply, turning it over in his mind. People's opinions shouldn't matter to him, but they did. He didn't want to sway Maely.

"It depends on what you think." he finally said.

"I think they do," Maely thought aloud. "I think I should be skinnier."

~~~

Maely looked in the mirror.

She looked at herself from all angles, but stopped when she saw someone looking at her. She didn't recognize the girl.

"Uh, who are you?" Maely asked.

"I'm Lily." the girl replied.

Maely turned to face Lily, but she had dissapeared.

She furrowed her eyebrows and turned back to the mirror. There was Lily, in the same exact spot.

The girl scowled at Maely.

"Where did you go, Lily? Just a second ago I couldn't see you." Maely asked.

Lily rolled her eyes, "You're stupider than I thought."

Maely furrowed her eyebrows again. Lily was practically Maely's identical twin, but much much skinnier.

"Why are you being so rude? I-I just met you." Maely questioned.

"Don't be an idiot, you've known me your whole life. Those voices in your head are my friends and I." Lily said, picking at her nails.

"I-I don't have voices in my head!" Maely lied.

"Don't bother denying it!" Lily spat.

Calum walked in, hugging Maely from behind.

"Who're you talking to Maels?" he asked softly.

She looked back up in the mirror, but Lily was gone.

"I don't know..." Maely said.

"What do you mean?" Calum asked, kissing the top of her head.

She struggled for words for a minute. She opened her mouth, but Calum cut her off, "C'mon, we gotta take Ashton to get a refill on his oxygen tanks."

"Can Emma come with? She hasn't seen Ash in a while."

"Of course, but we gotta leave, like, now. I'll go get her." Calum said, and left the room.

He closed the door behind him.

Maely straightened her shirt in the mirror.

She looked up to see Lily smiling devilishly at her.

~~~

Maely sat next to Emma in the car, trying to forget Lily.

It was hard. Anytime she saw herself, she saw Lily too.

"So, Ash, when do you think you'll be able to go to classes again? Everyone thinks you left." Emma asked, breaking the silence.

Ashton shrugged, "Soon, I'm hoping. They said I'm only allowed to go downstairs for food. But I think that'll change soon." Ashton said, smiling a bit.

"I'm just so so sorry that this happend to you. A bunch of people in history really miss..."

Maely couldn't focus on the conversation. The beat of her heart filled her ears.

She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping not to see that girl again. Now that Lily had said something, she could hear whispering voices bouncing around her head.

She hated it. She wanted it to stop.

"Are you alright Maely?" one of the voices asked.

No.

It was Calum who asked that, not a imaginary voice.

Maely's eyes flew open, her ragged breaths had quickened without her realizing.

They slowed and she replied, "Uh...yeah. I'm just tired."

Everyone in the car was looking at her. Emma looked horrified, but Ashton and Calum were concerned.

"You were whispering things, but I couldn't understand what you were saying. You scared the shit out of me." Emma said in a whisper.

Suddenly, the four of them were inside the hospital.

"How did we get here?" Maely asked Ashton. He wheeled his oxygen tank beside him.

"We walked in, talked to the front desk lady, then took the elevator up. We literally just got off." Ashton said questioningly.

Emma flinched at the ding of the elevator.

"Oh yeah," Maely said, holding a hand to her head. "I forgot for a second."

Calum took Maely's hand and she leaned against him, like always.

"I think I need to use the bathroom." she said.

Once the words were out of her mouth, she was there.

She stood in front of the small bathroom sink. Maely walked over to the door.

"Calum?" her voice quivered.

"Yeah?"

"How did I get here?"

"I walked you here...?"

Maely nodded to herself and closed her eyes.

She walked back over to the mirror. She choked on a scream when she saw Lily right next to her.

"Are you okay in there Maely?" Calum asked, but she couldn't hear him.

"He literally doesn't give a fuck." Lily said coldly.

Maely couldn't bring herself to speak. All of these awful things started happening when she looked in a mirror.

Without thinking, she reached out and struck it.

There was a loud crack as she felt something warm trickle off her hand.

Calum was banging on the door and shouting, but she still couldn't hear him. The only thing she could hear was ringing as she looked at her bloody knuckles.

She could still see Lily through the cracked mirror and she screamed.

She ran to the door and wrenched it open. Maely flung herself at Calum and he held her tight. She watched as a few nurses came over to clean up the blood and broken glass.

"Calum," Maely whimpered. He looked down. "I don't want to live anymore."

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Hey, guys, I just wanna let you know that I was having a little trouble recently and that I'm okay now.

I told Emma at lunch that I had one--and only one--thought about self harm when my brother and mom were tearing me down.
Everything's all good now, I promise, but I just wanted to get that off my chest.

And to everyone who goes to school with me, please never say anything about this. I don't trust very many people, and I wouldn't want that number to get smalla then a bug.

I appreciate the support with both books (I'm disowning NPSBY for obvious reasons) and the 1.08k on Love Hate.
Ilysm, stay strong beautiful. ☺️😘