"What happened to that beautiful, happy little girl you used to be?" her father yelled, anger raging as he stoop across from his daughter in the living room. It was a complete mess in there. Furniture out of place, pictures and decorations laying broken in pieces on the floor.
"What happened to her? What happened?" she yelled back, tears running down her cheeks, one cut from a piece of glass from one of the pictures that were thrown across the room. "You wanna know what happened? She grew up! She changed! And your looking at her right now!" Her body was shaking from the anger and pain and before her father could answer, she turned and ran. Grabbing the two things that meant anything to her and out the door. She ran down the street with a picture in one hand and a a bag in the other. The picture was of her and her best friends, back when they were in elementary school. Before they moved away.
She ran down the street, blood dripping from her cheek and tears filling her eyes, blurring her vision. Naturally, she was heading for the park, as it was the one place she felt safe and calm. Stumbling a bit, she ran, bock after bock till she could see the park. Smiling, she picked up her pace, running as quickly as she could. She stumbled into the street almost to the park when she heard a loud honk. She turned her head and froze in her tracks. The last she saw was a flash of car lights and a sharp pain in her side, before everything went back.
Ella is falling apart trying to live a "perfect" high school life. Then she meets Ren, who can see past her scars. Suddenly perfection isn't her only option.
*****
Ella Volkov is a gifted music student, but she's depressed and starting to crack under the pressure of high school. Her overbearing father won't even let her choose what instrument she plays. Then she finds herself alone at a party with Ren, her best friend's crush. She'd always thought he was rude, but after that night he's all Ella can think about. Now she's trapped. If Ella dates Ren, it will ruin her friendship with Jenny. But if she stays true to Jenny, she's losing the one person who can see past her scars. It's up to Ella to decide if she will forge her own path, or stay in the "perfect" box designed for her...
Content and/or Trigger Warning: depression, anxiety, self-harm, violence, sexual assault.
[[word count: 50,000-100,000 words]]