"You ready?" Makenna's roommate, Hee, dabbed on her lipstick with her finger and turned to her,

"Almost." Makenna lifted her hands behind her neck sliding the necklace on and then hooked the ends,

"I'll be downstairs, hurry up." Hee left the room.

Makenna had been lucky to have Hee as her roommate for two and a half years going on three. To find a roommate and be so in sync with each other was hard to come by but the second she met Hee, they'd hit it off. Of course, she had been less talkative and reserved in her first year and Hee had given her the space she wanted and helped with her social life when she started to come out of her shell.

Makenna stared at herself in the mirror in her all-black outfit and silver pieces of jewellery. She looked nothing like herself and that was perfect, she thought with a smile. She grabbed her phone and locked her room door on the way out.

"Mac."

Makenna turned in the direction she heard her name as she walked down the stairs. The group was back together for the first time after winter break and they were heading to the frat party, she was certain, to get wasted.

"Who's ready to party?" Makenna screamed when she got to the bottom of the stairs.

At the frat party, Makenna still nursed her first drink when everyone else was on their third and fourth.

"Hey." Brandon, who was part of their group, joined her where she stood and watched everyone else have fun, "What are you doing here by yourself?"

"I'm not by myself," She took a swig of her beer, "I'm with you."

Brandon smiled and took a swig of his beer,
"I haven't seen you dancing with anyone."

"Gee, stalker much?" Makenna looked at him,

He glanced at her and Makenna downed the content of her red cup,
"I need another one."

"I'll get it for you."

"No, I got it." She was already headed towards the kitchen where the snacks and drinks were.

Makenna filled her cup and placed the tap on top of the keg before she turned around and bumped into someone. Actually, the person bumped into her and she jumped back in horror.
"Watch where you're going, horse-face!"

The guy turned to her, clearly drunk, hands up in surrender as he snorted a laugh,
"Sorry."

To-late for an apology when her drink was all over her.
"Ugh!" She dumped her cup in the bin and headed out of the kitchen in search of a bathroom. "Jerk." She muttered under her breath as she headed up the stairs.

She tried the first door when she reached the top of the stairs but it was locked, she kept trying every door in the hall until one of them finally opened up. The sound of the music was immediately muffled as she shut the door behind her and leaned back against it, eyes closed as she sighed.

She'd almost lost it there in the kitchen, a second longer and she would've punched that guy's face. She told herself it was an accident and he hadn't meant to. She sighed and opened her eyes to find that she was standing in someone's room. She found another door and headed towards it, she walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. Gathering a bunch of toilet paper, she dabbed on the front of her top to soak up the beer. At least she would smell drunk, that was the only advantage because she had to keep up her image.

Just as she threw the toilet paper into the toilet and flushed it, the lights went out.
"Great party." She said in the darkness and then headed out of the bathroom.

She thought to wait it out till the lights came back on and then head out but as the seconds ticked by, the darkness began to close in on her. She swallowed and shut her eyes, mentally transporting herself to a younger version of herself in her bed.

She'd just woken up from a nightmare, her heart racing and completely terrified of waking up to the darkness of her room. She yelled for her mum and kept yelling to fill the silence with something other than the deafening silence and nothingness until her mum barged into her room.

"Sweetheart, are you ok?" Her mum sat beside her in bed and she threw herself into her mum's arms.

"I had a nightmare and you weren't here." She cried into her mum's arms,

Her mum sighed,
"I'm here now."

"But what if I wake up again and you aren't here?"

Her mum pulled her back and smiled at her,
"God is always protecting you, sweetheart."

"But God isn't here." She frowned, the nightmare still clear in her mind,

"But he is." Her mum said, "He's got his angels around you, protecting you, every day, every night, you just can't see them."

She smiled a teary smile, at the thought of angels surrounding her,
"Little doll-sized angels?"

Her mum smoothed her hair back away from her face and laughed,
"Yes, sweetheart, little angels."

Makenna breathed in and out as she stood in that dark nothingness,
"Little angels." She muttered again and again,

But she couldn't picture them anymore, not since that night when those little angels had stood back and did nothing to save her or Rachel.

"Fuck!" She didn't need a reminder of that night, not now.

"Are you ok?"

Her eyes snapped open and her heart jumped in her chest.
"God, is that you?"

Atlas snickered in the balcony that was concealed by the dark chiffon curtain. He'd heard when the stranger walked into the room but he'd stayed quiet and hadn't turned around in hopes that whoever it was would leave but then they'd gone into the adjoining room which he figured was the bathroom. They stepped out a few seconds after the lights went out and then he heard her curse and wondered if she was alright.

"Of course, it isn't." Makenna said as she wondered why God would be there if his angels weren't.

But the voice she'd heard had been deep but calming. Yes, she'd jumped when she heard whoever it was that spoke but it was because she hadn't been expecting it.

"Who's there?"

Atlas thought her voice was soft and sweet, and the toughness he heard in her voice the third time she spoke, he knew she was trying to fake because it just didn't sound like the real her who'd asked if he was God.

"Not God."

"Yea, I figured," She leaned back against the bathroom door and let the calming voice of the English stranger wash over her as she let the dark thoughts fade into the darkness.

She turned in the direction his voice came from,
"What are you doing hiding up here?"

"I don't hide," He said, "I just prefer the solitude."

Makenna understood that so well seeing as there was a part of her, a major part, that would have rather stayed back in her room every time her friends went for a party but to keep up appearances was hard work. Pretending to be someone you're not gets tiring in the long run but then again Makenna didn't know that's what she was doing, or rather, she didn't want to admit it to herself that she was not cut out to be the person she's been trying to be for the last two years.

"Why come to the party in the first place?"

"First night here, I thought it would be a good idea."

He was a freshman, Makenna thought.
"So, you came up here to star-gaze instead?"

Atlas smiled,
"Something like that."

Makenna rolled her eyes and snorted which made Atlas turn in the dark to face her, wherever she was.

"You have a problem with that?"

"Something like that." Makenna smiled as she threw his words at him,

"Please do tell." He leaned against the railing.

*******************************************************
Hey you,

Thank you for making it all the way to this chapter. I'm trying to get a few more chapters down before I start to post more frequently.
I'm afraid that won't be until I feel the end is near which might take a while.

So, I filmed a video of the day I uploaded Broken and I also talked about how Broken came into being and literally all things "Broken"; I hope you check it out.

https://youtu.be/o7OJZ0jdVYs

I hope you enjoyed the video. It would mean a lot of you could support me over on YouTube as well by subscribing to my channel.

I've got a lot more Youtube content relating to Wattpad coming soon like: My writing journey, Navigating Wattpad as a first timer and now after 6/7 years and lots more.

I cannot explain how blessed I feel to have this community, to have you being a part of every journey I've started here on Wattpad.

So, thank you. Thank you so much for your love and support. İt means a lot to me more than you could imagine.

Anyway, I got to get back to writing so I can get closer to updating more than once a week.

For now, see you next Saturday.

Love,
Jane Lanett. ❤️