The Great Pretender
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- Parts 52
Cherish had never been good at coping. She knew this. It had always been Len who'd held her together. But with Len gone, Cherish turned to the only coping mechanism she knew- denial. It was easy, simply pretend it hadn't happened; pretend he hadn't happened, pretend she hadn't happened. All she had to do was ignore any and everything that served as a reminder. Even if that meant moving and changing everything about herself and living as a shell.
The problem? Everything reminded her. Her sister, her old friends, even her own skin. And she was putting so much effort into avoiding the newest truth that threatened to pull her apart, that she was letting her guard slip elsewhere. For years she'd kept a careful distance from boys, steeling her heart from a pain that scared her. And yet somehow, the strange new boys had managed, despite her best efforts, to work their way into her life.
Cherish was soon going to learn that pretending was just that; pretending. That she could only patch the walls that she'd built around herself for so long. It would only be a matter of time before her dam would break and the buildup of her denials would surge through and drown her. She would need to learn to cope and trust or be washed away in the flood.
Rated Mature for dark themes and substance use & abuse and language
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