Hold On...

Chapter 1. What happened?

        "Hey Cat! Come over and check this out." Mariya said. (pronounced Muh-rye(like the bread)-uh so you aren't saying it wrong in your head the whole time you read :P) Mariya is my best friend in the whole world. We've known each other since we were in pre-school and still hang out all the time. I stopped looking at the curling wands and walked over to her in the hair dye section; we were at Sally's beauty salon. She was holding up a small container of dye. "I think I want to do this color." She said, smiling.

        This was the first time she had ever dyed her hair and she was really excited. "I already looked at all the other purple dyes and this one is my favorite! I'm so happy." Mariya showed me the container of Ultra-violet dye and put it in my outstretched hand. She smiled as i said, "Yeah, I like it too!" I turned towards her and looked at her waist-length brown hair. "Are you sure you want to do this? We are gonna have to bleach it first or the color won't show up." I asked. "Totally. Now, it's your turn. Pick a color." She replied happily. I walked over to the pastels. I've always wanted pastel blue hair and I grabbed my favorite one.

        We checked out and and got into my black Jeep. I turned on the car and we both rolled down our windows to feel the nice summer breeze. The stereo started playing some random song on 98.3 (My favorite station... sorry last editors note haha.) and I told Mariya, "Hit 6." as we pulled out of the parking lot. Six was set to 107.5 in my car and it played all the popular songs. There were commercials for about 30 seconds and I was about to change it before we heard the beginning of our favorite song. We started to sing along to 'Am I Wrong' by Nico & Vinz.

        Mariya and I always had so much fun together. When I turned 17 two weeks ago, we got matching tattoos. We got an infinity sign with a heart on the left side of it. Mine was light blue, like my hair was going to be, and hers was purple, like her hair.

        We drove back to her house and when we got there we started the bleaching process and then we dyed our hair, laughing and talking the whole time. 10 minutes after my hair was dyed my phone started to ring. Mariya and I were about to start watching a movie so I thought about ignoring it, then i saw it was my mom. Uh oh.

        "Hello?" I asked hesitantly.

        "Catherine Joslyn you get home right now!" My mom was yelling so loud I had to hold my phone away from my ear. I heard my dad in the background muttering curses and I thought I heard something break. I hated home. I normally hung out with Mariya all the time just to get away. I know this isn't right though. Home is supposed to be a safe place.

        My dad has beat me ever since I was little and has a drinking problem, my mom yells at me all the time and makes me fell worthless, and, to make it even worse, they won't let me go to stay with my grandparents. I looked over to Mariya and said I had to go, grabbing my things and rushing towards the door so they wouldn't be even more mad if I was late.

        I got home and went straight up to my room, hoping to avoid my parents anger. When I got there it was already dark and they were sleeping, so I thought I was safe for now. I didn't know what to do because I had so much adrenaline from expecting to be yelled at. I finally decided to just call my best friend Caleb Jones. Caleb was a total hipster punk kind of guy. He had lots of piercings, but not like all over his face, just his tongue, lip and right eyebrow. He also had small-ish gauges. He was the kind of guy to always wear a beanie even though his blonde hair was perfect. He is a t-shirt, skinny jean, converse type and I absolutely love him, but I'd never date him. I'd be afraid of ruining our friendship.

        I pulled out my phone and dialed his number, laying back on my bed. It rang about 3 times before I heard a raspy "Hey."

        "Hi." I replied. I love the sound of his voice when he is tired. "You alright Cat?"

        "Not really." I said sadly. "My parents were at it again earlier."

        "Aren't they always though?" He asked.

        "Yeah, it just gets worse sometimes." My phone beeped, and I was worried it was dying. I looked at it and it said I had a new message. I opened it up, 

        Hey Cat, I hope you know Mariya is not your friend, she is just pitying you. She hates you and she wishes you were dead but doesn't have the guts to tell you, just like everyone else. You should just kill yourself.

        I didn't know the number and I just sat there for a minute staring at the text. 

        "Hey Cat?... Hello.... You there?" Caleb asked, sounding worried. I jumped slightly at the voice, momentarily forgetting he was still on the phone with me.

        "Oh yeah, sorry... Listen I gotta go. I will call you later, probably." I said my voice shaking a bit. There was silence for a few seconds and Caleb said, "Okay. I hope everything is okay Cat. 'Bye."

        I heard a click as I hung up and pulled up the text again. I thought about texting back Who is this?, but decided not to. My eyes started filling up with tears as i punched in Mariya's phone number. 

        "Hello?" I heard her say after a few rings.

        "Um, hey." I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking. "I just got a text from some restricted number saying that you hated me and stuff...?" I didn't want to make it to specific and I was afraid my voice would crack if I said anything else. There was an awkward silence before she said quickly, "Please don't call me or text me again, okay? I really can't be friends with you." I heard a click and she was gone.

        I sat on my bed in the dark room for a minute, stunned. I got up and walked out of my room to get some water to try and swallow the lump in my throat. I can't believe her. Maybe I'm getting pranked or something. But still... I didn't think she would say that.

        "Ouch!" I yelled as I hit my head on the cabinet. I heard my dad yell in surprise and could feel the vibration of his angry footsteps as he walked down the hall into the kitchen. "Sorry." I said quickly as he walked in. "I hit my head on the cabinet. I wasn't paying attention."

        He looked extremely angry and his eyes were bloodshot, no doubt from drinking. "You woke me up, and don't care that you hit your head!" He clenched his fists and cursed, "I doubt I'd even care if you committed suicide like your brother. Me and your mom would be better off that way." He looked around for something to throw and decided on a book. He threw it at me hard and stormed out of the room.

        I stood there, stunned as he walked away, tears filling up in my eyes and slowly spilling over. I started sobbing and ran up to my room slamming the door shut behind me so I wouldn't be making more noise. I rested my forehead against the cold door and heard a click as I locked it. I got up and started running around the room, packing my things in my duffle bags. When I had got everything I ran down the stairs and out into the cold air. I threw my stuff into the back of my Jeep and started driving away. 

        First that text and Mariya and now this? I sped out of my neighborhood wiping away tears with my sleeve. I'm never going back.