Smiling through it
- Reads 46
- Votes 11
- Parts 11
To everyone else, Harper Bennett is the life of the party-the girl who always has a smile on her face and a joke ready, the one who can light up a room. But underneath the bright laughter and endless energy, Harper is falling apart. Her world is crumbling-her dad walked out on her family, her best friend moved away, and her mother is lost in her own pain. Instead of showing the cracks, Harper hides behind an over-the-top, cheerful mask, pretending everything is perfect.
No one notices how exhausted she really is. No one sees the emptiness behind her eyes. No one knows how hard she's trying to keep up the act-until Ms. Alvarez, the new school counselor, sees right through her. Armed with a gentle persistence, Ms. Alvarez offers Harper a place to be honest. But letting someone in means risking everything: her image, her carefully constructed world, and the illusion that she's doing just fine.
As Harper's cheerful façade begins to fracture, she has to decide if she's ready to face the truth she's been hiding from-not just from everyone else, but from herself. Smiling Through It is a story about secrets, loneliness, and finding the courage to take off the mask.
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"Talk to you about it?" I asked with a dark laugh. "it's not as easy as you make it sound," "Yes, Garret! Talking! You know what that is right? It's very easy! You just open your mouth and let the words that are in your head, come out of your mouth." "It's not that simple," I fought down emotions that were building up. "Yes, it is! See, i'm doing it right now!" "No-it's not!" "Yes!" "No!" "Yes! just talk, dang it!-" "You just expect it to be easy to talk about my dead parents?! About how guilty I feel for not visiting their grave for the past 11 years?! I didn't even realize how long it's been, I had pretty much forgotten about them for 11 years! Do you know what kind of guilt is eating at me right now!" I shouted in angst, my hands grabbing at the clothes on top of my head and pushing it into myself, wanting to just be shielded away from everything I was feeling, guilt, sadness, from thinking about more people I've lost in my life. Before I could even react, Keeley's tiny arms wrapped themselves around my torso. ~ Garret had a difficult life. His parent's died when he was 10, and he got moved around for 4 year's in foster care. He finally find's a home where he feels like he's family, He has a mom, dad and a brother. 4 years later things happen and everything start's to go wrong. People die and people you thought you knew show a whole different side. Garret finds himself distancing from everybody. Because if he's not close to anybody, they cant get hurt. Right? One day while at a fight he runs into Keeley, who is a spirited and confident little fireball. when they met it left an impression on Garret, soon he finds himself wanting to know her more. and soon, he find's himself falling for her. Everyone Garret's ever loved has died, has gotten hurt, or stabbed him in the back.will he be able to trust her enough to let her close,or push her away to keep them both from getting hurt? © 2013
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