Seventeen year old Safaya Bennett must navigate young adulthood under the stresses of her sins, her crumbling relationship with her twin sister, Rue, and a crippling mental disorder that makes her very dependent on her relationship with Nate Jacobs...
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Love is such a fucking confusing thing, nobody knows how you measure it or how you determine it. You just know when it's there and you know when it's gone.
Safaya walked back into the house soon after meeting with Fez. They were back on good terms so her conscious felt a little lighter. I found her near the kitchen, sort of panicked, because I was worried about the person missing from my sight.
"Hey, how you seen Jules?" I asked her.
She stared off into space. "Um, I think she was by the pool? She's been avoiding me for a while." Saf pouted.
We both didn't know the danger that Jules was in. That same day she was forced to go to the East Highland Police Department and file a false police report on Tyler, saying that he was the one who choked Maddy instead of Nate. The whole time Jules wanted to throw up for blaming someone innocent. But she knew she had no choice, Nate was going to expose her nudes with absolutely no remorse and she couldn't afford being a registered sex offender. So she was spending the night drinking in efforts to forget what she did, but it only haunted her more.
I gave her a nod before wondering off. We were both dealing with our own shit the best way that we could, but, soon we would find out there was more in common than we thought. Safaya was in the house party just wandering around aimlessly trying to find a familiar face. The only people she really connected with were Nate and Cassie; but she was by default. My sister only really hung out with her because she was seeing McCay, and Saf and McCay had known each other since freshman year, courtesy of Nate Jacobs.
Cassie was upstairs about to do something she regretted with Daniel. Kat was in the bathroom getting head from Ethan the Vampire. Jules and I were trying to figure our shit out. Lexi was MIA. And Nate was no where to be found. Safaya was scared of being by herself but she tried new shit to make her not freak the fuck out. She was breathing deeply and on her phone in hopes to find someone to be with and to chase the demons away.
Across the dance floor she saw a familiar figure, standing there in his football jersey, black sweats, and white sneakers. Safaya wasn't sure if it was the Hennessy in her system or the overwhelming sense of loneliness in her chest, but, she began to walk across the floor in his direction. He was staring down at his drink but when he looked up a short Catwoman was standing in front of him, mask off, looking more nervous than seductive.
"Hi, TJ." She said like a nervous child. "Can we talk?" She inquired.
He was surprised. "Uh, yeah sure? I thought you didn't want me to talk to you?" He wasn't sure what to think. TJ could never really get a read on my sister, she always made it impossible to tell what she was thinking.
"I wasn't..." She stopped, not sure how to word what she was going to say. She didn't want to flat out admit she had a drug addiction and that caused her to flip out. "I was having a very rough day. That's no excuse for how I acted towards you, especially after you were nice enough to give me a ride, but I was really mean. And an asshole. So, I'm sorry. Like really sorry." She began to pout again. It was just how her face rested when she was sad or felt bad.
