Borderline

Session Three Chapter 4

High school was known anywhere to be one of the toughest challenges a person could go through. You either make it or break it. This was true for almost everyone. But for Sophie it was much more than that, because Sophie wasn't like everyone. She had just gone through a breakup and just needed this summer before high school to go untouched. That would've been a success had she been able to stay at home all the time, but her father decided to make her and Sebastian take some activity time outside, but no interactions with people whatsoever. So, Sophie and Sebastian took up fishing at the lake.
The lake quickly became a special place to the Twins, it was their place, and no one was ever there to disturb their precious time together or make them break their promise to their dad. Until the day Tessa Gardner was there. Tessa who had opened the door for Sophie on her very first sleepover 3 years previously. Tessa who replaced Sophie as Alice's best friend and then disappeared a year ago.
But Tessa didn't look the same. She wasn't that cheery little kid who had a crush on Sebastian anymore. Her once long curly hair had now reached just below her ears and had streaks of red running through. She obviously lost a lot of weight and looked to be very pale and generally exhausted.
Apparently all this time when she was in town with them she had been living with her very rich grandmother for about 2 years. Then she was called upon to go back home across the country for that one year she went missing and now she was back again to tend to her seriously ill grandma.
From that day on, a trip to the lake meant their hangout time with Tessa. They quickly grew attached to Tessa and to her grandmother, who she always talked about from how great she was to live with and how her condition improved or declined with the days. Tessa had also grew to love that one hour at the lake where she felt she had found people she could trust and who would understand her and be of support to her when her own family didn't.
Then one day came the news of Grandma Gardner's death. It was on a Friday afternoon when Sophie was out at the mall with her mom picking out clothes for high school for her 'new look' as her mom would say, when she heard the news. Sophie immediately went back home, locked herself in her room, and cried for Tessa's grandma as if she were her own. Sebastian had gone to the funeral, but Sophie refused to step out of her room, until the next day when she begged Sebastian to take her to the lake so she can meet with Tessa, even though it was doubtful Tessa would even be there. Sebastian took Sophie to the lake and once they reached there, Sophie had blacked out. She couldn't remember what happened next on that Saturday afternoon at the lake.
All she remembered after that was the day she stepped out of her room, where she stayed in solitary for 10 days, and went to her mom, to tell her that she was ready for her first day at high school. Her mother who was used to her daughter's straight brown hair, had been shocked by the now curly brown hair that reached her ears and the red streaks running through.
"Sophie what happened to your hair?" Her mother asked her.
"Mom, weren't you the one that said I needed a 'new look' for high school. Plus I think this more me anyways." Sophie had answered. And then walked out the door to the bus stop. To start in her new world.
***
"What happened at the lake that Saturday afternoon?" Dr. Claremont asked.
"Well Dr., Let me give you a little glimpse into Tessa's story; Tessa was badly abused by her father and step mother at home, and that's why her grandmother had taken her in, but then her father got his way and took her back for that one year. The only reason he sent her back to her sick grandma was to collect her inheritance once she died" I told a little indifferently as if this wasn't such a heartbreaking story.
"You still didn't tell me what happened at that lake. Why did Sophie passed out? What did she see?" The doctor asked, but I knew damn well he knew exactly what happened at that lake
"Patience, doc. It's a sad story to tell. Sophie and Sebastian had arrived to find Tessa's dead body, at the edge of the lake, her wrists cut wide open. She had taken her life at the place where Sophie felt most alive." I narrated the last chapter of Tessa's story, which counted for only a part of Sophie's story.
"So Sophie lost what she considered as her true family, and then decided to pay tribute to Tessa by making her very last miserable version of self live on? Why not take on the cheery Tessa persona to honor her?" The doctor, who seemed to have a point on this aspect was truly fascinated by the story. I just didn't know how to answer that very question.
"The miserable are only attracted to misery"