A Fresh Start

Don't Speak

What an asshole. My whole body was lit up with rage, all of it directed at the boy in the room next to mine. After I had cried my eyes dry the pain was replaced by fury. Me being me, I tried to blame myself, trying to find reason in his heartless game. I grappled with the thought until I finally was able to see the situation clearly. A vulnerable girl moved into a cruel boy's house, he decided to play with her in the hope of sex, she inadvertently fell in love with him. After the gravity of the situation hit me my self-doubt and pain was replaced by a fiery rage. Thus here we are, me sitting on my bed plotting Sebastion's death.

I went down to breakfast that day feeling the dread pool in my stomach. Just because I was mad didn't mean I wasn't hurt by what Sebastion said, I certainly wasn't ready to make small talk around the breakfast table with him.

To my relief, when I arrived in the kitchen Sebastion was nowhere to be found. Upon hearing me arrive Ben and Gloria's eyes tired eyes snapped towards me, I looked down at my feet, hoping to hide my swollen eyes and pallid complexion. I knew it didn't work when I saw Ben's eyes harden and Gloria's fill with worry. "What's wrong Marie, you look off" Gloria questioned me as I sat down with a bowl of cereal. I felt my pulse race, I had a hard time lying to Gloria, something about those blue eyes seemed to cut through all the bullshit.

"Oh nothing, just this boy I was seeing." Well, it wasn't a complete lie. I managed to keep my voice relatively steady as I spoke. "I thought he liked me as much as I did him, but it turns out he was just using me." I felt tears well up in my eyes as flashbacks from the conversation Sebastion and I had plagued me. 

"Whoever this guy is, he's an idiot and he is not deserving of someone as wonderful as you." I nodded at Gloria, thinking about how Anna had said the exact same thing when I called her in tears last night. She had more context obviously, but still, the similarities were remarkable.

"Thanks, Gloria," I said, giving her a watery smile. She looked at me pityingly but looked away when her phone buzzed. 

"Oh dammit, I told her it'd be done tomorrow, I'm only up this early to finish it. Don't people get that works of brilliance take time?" Gloria said, flinging her bowl into the kitchen and running into her studio. I laughed, the smile feeling foreign on my face after my long night of crying. I glanced over at Ben to see what he thought of his eccentric mother, only to see him staring at the table, eyes filled with rage.

"That's why he was pursuing you, he just wanted to take advantage of your situation?" I felt a pang shoot through my chest at Ben's blunt question.

"Yup, I was just another conquest to get his mind off the guilt," I said bitterly, causing Ben's head to snap up.

"B-but he stopped drinking and partying I thought he stopped doing that sort of stuff. I know he has issues but I don't think he'd do that to you, I knew he'd hurt you, but I never thought it'd be because he was using you for free sex. You're different from those other girls he hooked up." I sighed at Ben's defensive nature around his brother. Even after what they'd been through, they fought for one another.

"I thought I was different too, looks like we were both wrong," I said, clearly hearing the venom in my voice. I shook my head, I was determined to put this in the past. "Look, I'm just going to go to get some coffee, I don't want to talk anymore." Ben nodded absentmindedly, his mind was obviously somewhere else.

Sebastion's POV

I had just started to lose myself in the song when the door flew open, banging against the wall hard enough to make me jump. I looked at the doorframe, seeing an enraged looking Ben. Judging by his face I was guessing that he must have talked to Marie.

"What the hell did you do Sebastion?" Ben yelled, making me thankful for the soundproof walls.

"What do you mean Ben, I thought this is what you wanted?" I responded bitterly, still resenting him even after realizing the truth in his words.