The More I Try (An One Direction Fan Fiction)

Defeat (Chapter Twenty Six)

Thalia woke with what felt almost like a hangover.

But I didn't drink anything. She glumly reminded herself, her first thought in the morning being for a drink.

It was just what Thalia did when she was upset- well, what she used to do.

Drinking away her troubles, hadn't been what had made her an alcoholic. It was more like her drinking away her everything.

Drinking to impress, drinking because she was bored, drinking because it was cool.

She hated drinking, but she loved drinking.

Thalia- the recovering alcoholic at almost eighteen. Was that an angle the whole world had thought about using against her yet?

Probably. Thalia thought bitterly as she pulled herself out of bed, content on just taking a shower and then getting back in bed.

Slowly shuffling towards her door, Thalia stiffly grabbed her towel- peering out of the crack of her door and then quickly going down the to the bathroom. She ducked inside, locking it behind her and feeling so grateful she didn't run into anyone.

Thalia peeled off her clothing- all the while sighing sadly and murmuring under her breath.

Turning on the tap, she waited a moment before stepping into the warm water- relishing in the stream for nearly a half an hour, her only thoughts being about turning in circles to keep the warmth evenly distributed around her body.

It was so simple, and so peaceful.

A couple more minutes stretched into an hour, and soon enough Thalia was embracing her sudden arrival back into the real world.

Turning off the tap, Thalia stepped out of the shower- shivering as she quickly wrapped herself in her towel.

Holding her shaking hands tight in each other, Thalia took a deep breath before she smoothed back her hair- positioning herself in front of the full length mirror.

It took her a second to build up the courage to smudge the steam off of the mirror- and for a while she could only stare a the broken person staring at her from the mirror.

She had huge bags under her eyes, and her cheeks were hallow. Her skin was abnormally pale, and almost had a yellow tint to it. The hair on top of her head seemed brittle, and her eyes seemed dead- the colours dulled. She seemed to even loose weight in the day she'd had to fall.

It wasn't Thalia Eldridge.

It didn't even seem possible.

That's not me. She thought, frowning when the girl in the mirror mimed her rubbing at her tired eyes.

For a second Thalia just inspected herself, and then she tried to smile.

It was a fake smile, but it was a pretty one. It was like the one's she used to use, when trying to impress and pretending to care.

Good to know I can still do those... she thought, her smile fading when she realized her eyes hadn't gotten any more happy.

They stayed dead.

They were dead.

"God.." Thalia moaned, rubbing at her eyes again before she pulled her robe on- not looking back at the mirror as it steamed up again.

Gathering up her stuff, she prepared to make another dash for her room. Her free hand was on the doorknob when a loud knock shocked her into stumbling backwards and dropping everything she had in her hands.