A Chaotic Type Of Beautiful (UNDER EDITING)

Chapter 10- Control

"Anything interesting happen at school today?" My Dad asks me, through the awkward silence. Today, he picked me up from school and for the past five minutes I had been considering grabbing for the door handle and jumping out of the car while it was still moving. "No, not much." I lie.

He nods his head and focuses on the road. That's the one thing I like about my Dad - he doesn't ask questions if he doesn't care. My mum's always asking me if I'm feeling well, or if I ate lunch, and I hate lying to her. In this respect, I'm actually quite a lot like my Dad.

"Did you learn anything?" He asks, which strikes me as one of those questions which I never know the correct answer to.

"That I should never, in any circumstance, touch the underneath of a desk, in a classroom. Ever." I say with a serious expression. "I've never learnt my past mistakes in cases like these, but today, I walk away a changed woman."

My Dad looks at me, "That reminds me of when I was in my last year and this boy.." and he starts talking about something that happened decades ago. It almost feels like it should be, like we're family.

"...and that's how he lost his arm." He finishes. By the end of the story, my eyes are wider and I fail to see how any of that related to what I was joking about previously.

We exit the car and walk inside the house (our house - to avoid confusion) and I take off my shoes and walk upstairs. God (and I say this as an agnostic), I am a boring person. I don't have social media and I can't even be bothered to pretend to do stuff on my phone. So instead, I just look into the mirror.

I'm not the typical story female, I'm not curvy or skinny. I've lost weight, but my thighs, to me, still look out proportion to the rest of my body. I have brown hair which is wavy (just messy, actually) and above my shoulders. My eyes are a plain grey, boring and dark.

I'm not tanned and my complexion is rather pale. My features have grown a little sharper, but not by much. My jawline isn't even sharp and my cheekbones aren't that prominent.

The only cliche thing about me is that my name is Summer, but no one calls me that anyway. Well, no one calls me, period.

You're not that pretty.

I know that looking into the mirror for too long makes weird things happen, but I can't help it. Tearing my eyes away from the mirror, I see my Dad standing at my bedroom door. "What happened to your books?" He asked me, looking at my desk.

"I gave them to charity." I lie, shrugging.

"You wouldn't do that."

"Gee, thanks. Are you calling me a bad person?" I roll my eyes. A look of sudden realisation covers my Dad's face.

"I'm so sorry." He says. I'm going to be honest. I don't want him to apologize. I want to have a reason to feel depressed, and he's doing that job perfectly.

"Oh, I'm actually really pleased with the new minimalist-vibe. Now feng shui exists in my room." I say. "No need to apologize."

"No, this is... I can't believe I did that." My Dad says. "Let me make it up to you."

"No!" I shout. "I'm not going to let you make me think that you're getting better, because you're not. You're not getting better and you're still going to drink and I'm still going to get hurt in the crossfire! It doesn't work like that Dad!"

"How can I make it better?" He says weakly.

"That's the thing," I say. "You can't." Walking out of my room, I see the look of disappointment on my dad's face as I pass. I walk. I walk to the front door and outside, and I continue walking. I don't even know where I'm going - I never have. After several minutes of crying and walking, I realise that I'm walking to the park near town. I remember I used to love going there as a child, especially during winter, because they'd always set up a fair.

When I reach the gates to the park, I see kids playing with their parents, which makes me even more sad, so instead, I decide to walk along the riverside. It's a cloudy day, so the weather reflects how I'm feeling, but I can't actually think, because I'm too busy thinking of excuses in case someone asks me why I'm crying (or an escape method if someone tries to kidnap me).

Then, out of all the freaking people I could bump into, I bump into - not Will, tragically - his friends. "Hey, you're the girl that Will's working with, right?" One of his friends ask me.

"Um, right?" I answer, confused.

"We're just saying that you shouldn't waste your time on him." Another boy starts to speak and clears his throat. "If you're looking for a love story, you're not going to find one."

"What made you think I was looking for a love story?" I phrase my question carefully, and say it in a kind voice, even though I'm mentally trying to make them all spontaneously combust.

"Will's been talking about you." The first boy who spoke to me speaks again. I raise my eyebrow and try to give my best explain expression. "We just don't want you to get hurt. Will's a player - he wouldn't choose a girl like you." Another one says.

"Yeah, and we don't want Will to get hurt. He doesn't need some female toying with his heart."

"Just stay away from him, you're no good. We have a football match we need to prepare for."

"Well," I say. "That all sounded great to me, but there's a little problem. We're doing a project together. I mean, not singularly, but together. As in the two of us, both working. Together, as in the opposite of separate and independent."

They look between each other and exchange looks. I don't get how they can exchange thoughts without speaking. I do not need more added drama in my life by finding out that Will Nox is a freaking werewolf or something.

"Well, he doesn't have to do the work. I mean, you can, right? You must be used to it by now - the only reason anyone kind of likes you is because they copy your test answers and you do all the group work." Another one says, and my blood boils. "I mean, it's all about being a team player."

..............................................................
Hi, thanks for reading this story! It truly means a lot to me. Thank you so much to all of my dedicated readers and friends who supported me while I was writing this, I appreciate every single one of you!

10 chapters!!! Yay! *pops party popper in awkward silence*

*crickets*

I've spent so many hours writing and editing what seems like it only takes maximum half an hour to read. Seriously, I've never written so many chapters in my life and not given up on the storyline. This  is an amazing thing for me, even if all of the chapters are a little corny and grammatically incorrect. 

But seriously, I love you guys.

Thanks! 💛

~CatlikeG