Make Believe (Book #2, PRETEND SERIES)

Chapter 17: Monday, October 7th at 7:15pm

Time for another couple of uploads!!! Let me know what you think mwahhhh xxx

APRIL’S POINT OF VIEW

 

“I get it, OK? I get that you’re hurting, that he did that to you,” I said softly.

“You get it?” she said with the slight sound of humor in her voice.

“Yes,” I whispered, keeping my eyes focused on her.

“OK,” she said and walked right up to me. She very slowly lowered her body until our eyes were at the exact same level. “You get it, hmm?”

I nodded my head slowly, nervous about what was coming next. She moved her head slowly, until her lips were right next to my ear. Then she began to speak.

“So you get what it’s like to feel your stomach drop every time your mom said she had to go to work? You understand how it feels to here the click of a door closing, and then the sound of footsteps that haunt you every time that you close your eyes? You get not being able to sleep all night, twitching every time you hear a sound because you know that at some point someone is going to open that door, close it behind them, and not leave for hours? You just get what it’s like to keep telling someone how much they are hurting you, and no matter how many times you say it, they just keep telling you to ‘be quiet’ and that ‘you’ll get used to it’?”

I could feel the warmth of her tears falling onto my shoulder blade, but I didn’t dare move. “And I suppose you get it when you literally feel like you’re suffocating because your hands are too tiny to push away the person who is lying on top of you? I guess you understand what it’s like to have to steal your mom’s makeup so she doesn’t notice the bruises on your thighs or your arms? I suppose you completely get it when you spend half the night crying because your favorite Disney princess panties have been ripped to shreds? I guess you get what it feels like to spend hours in the shower scrubbing until you realize that you rubbed so hard you’re bleeding? And I bet you really get how terrified you are of telling anybody because that person keeps telling you that no one will ever believe you?” She suddenly took a deep breath and went on. “And I suppose you get it when the one person who finally...finally saves you and makes you feel safe, is taken away from you? I guess you really do get it all.”

“Leah, I….”

“Shut up, and don’t talk to me!” She backed away from me. “See the thing that you don’t get, is that I have nothing to lose anymore, April. I have nothing,” she said as more and more tears rolled down her face. “I can’t do this without him now. I feel so lonely, and I’m scared.”

“You don’t have to be scared. He can’t hurt you anymore,” I said, calmly.

“No one can hurt me anymore because after tonight, I won’t exist,” she said picking up the bottle that she had brought in earlier. She started to dump the contents of the bottle on the floor, and that’s when I smelled it. Fuel.

“Leah, no!” I was utterly in shock and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. “You don’t have to do this,” I begged.

“But I do. It’s not just your fault, you see, it’s mine as well. I’m just as much to blame as you. We both are, and we both have to pay because we don’t deserve to be alive, April. Neither of us do. He sacrificed everything and now...now it’s our turn, OK?”

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