TW: Injury and medical issues, trauma, slight cussing, slight mention of suicide if you take it that way, kinda child abuse, so be careful. Pretty sure that's it, lemme know if there's more.

"Marella."I groggily opened my eyes to the sound of my dad's voice. I rolled over to see him standing in the doorway. "Your alarm's been going off for fifteen minutes. It's bothering your mother. Also you're walking to school today, I need the car." When I blinked, he was gone.

Weird, usually he only says two or three words to me per day. Full sentences? Unheard of.

I turned off my alarm and quickly got dressed, seeing as I slept through my alarm. I didn't have enough time to get my poofy and curly hair under control, or put braids in it. Since I was walking to school, my time was even more limited. I skipped breakfast and ran straight out the door. I didn't stop running until I got to school, and by that point I was a minute late, and a sweaty mess.

"Marella!" Shouted my girlfriend from across the hallway.

Girlfriend. My girlfriend. No one could possibly understand how happy that word makes me feel. My girlfriend, Linh Song.

"Hey babe." I said, getting knocked back a bit from the force of her tackling me into a hug.

Linh's cheery voice continued to cheer me up all throughout the day, until I got home and she wasn't with me anymore.

My dad was still at work, but mom was home. She was always home. We couldn't even take her to the doctor in her condition, she had to get house calls.

"Mom!" I called out, waiting quietly for any sign of where she was. I heard a soft grunt from the living room, walking in to find her laid back on the recliner. She smiled as she looked up at me, then turned her gaze to the TV.

My mom was fairly young. She had me at twenty one, making her now thirty eight. Her long blonde hair was straight and pulled back in a single braid running down her back. Her eyes were a beautiful gray-blue, but they looked lost. She looked fifty, ever since the accident.

No one really knows what happened, because no one was there. My parents threw a party when I was eight, having me spend the night at my grandparent's house. All anyone knew, my mom had gotten extremely drunk and went up to her bedroom on the second floor, going onto her balcony. She either fell off or tripped, landing on the concrete below. 

Her mind had never been the same since. She couldn't fully form words, and her emotions always got the better of her. They were a hundred times stronger now.

She could still partly understand what we would tell her, but we had to be slow and use smaller words. Her brain just couldn't move at the same pace it used to.

It looked like she was having a good day, until she started bawling and rocking around in the recliner. I rushed over to her, holding her arms to steady her, but she got one free and smacked me in the face with it in her frenzy. I knew she didn't mean to do that, but it still hurt. The hit was hard enough to send me to the ground.

By the time I got up, my mom was rolling off the recliner. I heard a thud as her head hit the table next to her. My eyes widened and I ran to her.

"Wilda!" I shouted for her caretaker, wondering where she was.

Rather than just paying someone to stay with mom while dad was at work and I was at school, doing nothing but watching her, we hired Wilda to watch her and act as a maid, cleaning parts of the house and doing chores when she wasn't needed.

The short woman ran into the room then gasped. I backed away as she took my place. It felt like I was there but I wasn't. My mouth was answering her questions while my brain replayed everything over and over.

All I could pay attention to was the closed eyes of my mom.

"She's going to be alright." Elwin sat down next to me in the waiting room. He was technically a pediatrician, but he got the information from the other doctors for me.

"She is?" I didn't believe him.

"Yep. No added trauma. In fact, she's actually awake right now and responding well considering her condition. She will be a little off for a while, her emotions even stronger, but in the long run she'll be okay."

"When can I see her?"

"In maybe ten minutes. They're still running a few tests to see if anything else got affected, after that you should be able to see her. Is your dad coming?" Until he said that, I had forgotten about him.

I called my dad earlier, telling him what happened. He just said okay then hung up. It wasn't necessarily unusual behavior for him, but I had expected a bit more worry. Ever since mom's accident, he had been closed off, only going to work then going home and being with mom. Her accident hit him really hard, she was his true love. They made me believe in true love.

If this was what happened to people in love, I didn't know what to think anymore.

The next day, everyone in the friend group decided to meet up after school. I wasn't really feeling good at all, but decided to go along with it anyway. I was the last one to meet them by the big weeping cherry tree in front of the school.

They were all talking for a bit until Sophie said something.

"I feel kinda bad because I never call Edaline mom and Grady dad, even after all these years. It just, it doesn't really feel like the right time yet-"

"Would you please shut up?" I snapped. I really didn't mean to, but it just came out. Why was she complaining about having loving parents when mine are basically never there, either mentally or physically.

"Marella." Linh's soft voice said. She was surprised by my words.

"No. Whatever you say, no. I'm so sick and tired of hearing little miss perfect complain about every little thing. 'Oh I had to move from America and make like a million friends in the first week! Everyone loves me, the horror!' You literally have the perfect life, you can stop complaining! Some of us don't have that!" I didn't even realize I believed that until the words were out of my mouth. She really did have a perfect little life, everyone fawning over her when she got injured, having a big family that's always there for her, all of it. Why should she get to complain about it, but I have to suck it up and act like everything's normal?

Dex looked like he was about to stand up for her, but she held him back. She was looking at me blankly. Why couldn't she have a reaction? I wanted a reaction.

"My life is far from perfect, and I can't believe you would actually say that. And say it like that too, I thought we were friends."

"Really seems perfect from where I'm standing. And I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna just sit and listen to somebody complain about meaningless things when others have real issues. We were doing just fine before you came along, and no one cares about your dumb parents-"

"Don't talk about them like that." She was angry now, good. "I don't want to hear a single word from your mouth about them. You don't get to do that. They don't get to be dragged into this fight because you decided to throw a hissy fit and take it out on me. You can talk crap about me all you want, but not them."

"I'm not throwing a hissy fit, I'm being honest. How long did you think it would last, trying to take over our friend group, thinking you can have everyone's attention on you all the time. All anyone talks about is you and I'm sick of it!"

"Well I'm sorry about that, but you can just say that instead of blowing it up! We're all your friends, you can talk to us. But you don't have to take it out on me, and you don't have to take it out on my parents. They're good people, and even if they don't know someone's saying something bad about them, they don't deserve it." She just didn't get it. I couldn't understand why she couldn't just be mad and stay mad. I wanted her to yell and scream. I wanted to make her cry.

"I don't care, I really don't care, Sophie! You act like you're the hero all the time, always there for people, well no one should be there for you! You always go and cry to people for attention. It's not that I'm just annoyed by something going on, I'm genuinely sick of your fake personality! You're toxic! You can't just unload your miniscule problems on everyone else. We have our own stuff going on, go suck it up and cry to your mommy."

"Okay actually, what the hel-" Dex tried to intervene, but I saw Biana stop him.

"I don't need you to fight my battles, Dex." Sophie said. I heard a slight quiver in her voice, her bottom lip shook a little bit. She was about to cry. "I can do this on my own."

"Sure you can. I bet you've never even done anything by yourself. You go and spread some sob story, then get somebody else to do something for you. Maybe you should let Dex help you out, you've probably never done something for yourself before. It's weak and pathetic." I spat out the words, hoping they would sound like venom to her. Her lip quivered again and her nose flared a little as she blinked rapidly.

"Okay no. Absolutely not. You don't get to call me weak or pathetic when I've been fighting by myself every single day!"

"Oh yeah? Prove it." Whatever she came up with, it better be good.

"My family was murdered in front of me when I was little, and the killers were never caught. I had to hide in a closet, without making a single noise, while I saw them get shot. While I saw them die." Her voice cracked slightly. It felt more to me like she was making it up. That sounded more like some story background rather than something that had actually happened to her. Those things tend to mess people up, and I've never seen her have any sort of breakdown.

"Oh please, you actually expect me to believe that? That's the fakest thing I've ever heard."

"Okay I think we should all calm down-"

"Shut up, Keefe." I glared at him. He was taking Sophie's side, I could already tell. I was right, she tells a sob story and people come running. "Like the little princess said, she can fight her own battles. Or at least, she could try. I still think she's too weak to do it on her own, though. Maybe you should have someone help you." I taunted her. I could actually see the tears welling up in her eyes, but she was looking more angry than sad.

"I don't need anyone to help me. I-"

"Still don't believe you. Just like everything else, you say things with no actual proof. It's pathetic." I over pronounced each syllable of the word, hoping it'd really dig into her.

"You want proof? You can literally just look it up. William, Emma, Sophie, and Amy Foster, San Diego, murder." Her face was full of anger, but her voice was disturbingly void of emotion. "And if that isn't enough for you, I can tell you the foster care wasn't pretty, but I'm not showing you anything for that." I was silent, but she must've taken it as stunned speechless. "Not enough? How about the fact that after I got adopted, and finally got a new sister, she died, and it's my fault?"

"I didn't realize this turned into some trauma dump party." A part of me wanted to stop, but I couldn't. I needed a reaction. I needed something. "Really, who asked?" I hadn't realized how close I'd gotten, but I didn't notice that when I threw my hands up, Sophie visibly flinched and almost fell backwards in her haste to move out of range. I wasn't even going to hit her. The movement of my arms wasn't even close to hitting her. Before I could do anything, Dex got in front of her. The others in the group were standing far enough away that they weren't able to hear his whispers, but I could. I could also see Tam holding Keefe back from going to Sophie.

"She doesn't need to be crowded right now, it's probably better to let her cousin help her." The emo told him. I ignored them and focused on Sophie and Dex.

"What happened?" He asked. "You've never done that before, and you've been acting differently recently. Is someone hurting you? You know you can tell me anything. We always tell each other everything." Sophie shook her head in response.

"It's embarrassing. Please Dex, just drop it."

"No, if someone's hurting you I need to know."

"No one's hitting me. No one has laid a single violent finger on me." Dex cocked his head to the side. It gave me the impression that he saw something I didn't, something she didn't say out loud.

"I didn't ask if someone was hitting you, I asked if someone was hurting you. They can be threatening you and mentally abusing you without any physical actions. So who is it? You only find loopholes like that when I'm right."

"It's Noah." Her face was still completely blank, but I no longer wanted to see any negative emotion from her, yet also I didn't want to see this. There was nothing and it was scary. "I need to go."

She started walking away at a normal, if not slightly rushed pace. I saw Dex's shoulders rise and fall in a deep breath, before turning to the group and nodding to Keefe. He immediately ran after Sophie, blonde hair flopping with every step.

Our friends came over, wanting to know what it all was about. But first, Linh punched my arm hard. Any other time I would be upset, and ask her what it was for, but this time I knew. I also knew I deserved it.

"What the actual hell Marella?!" Dex was seething, steam might as well have been coming out of his ears. "You can't just say things like that to people, and you shouldn't have kept going! She literally told you what's probably the most traumatic thing that happened to her—and because you baited her by calling her weak and pathetic, something she's really sensitive about—but you kept going and might as well have told her she was crazy. It's taken her so long to get better." His voice cracked too, just like Sophie's had. He took another deep breath, then looked me in the eyes. I was scared he would start yelling again, which was what I wanted before, but not anymore. I couldn't even remember why I was so determined to start a fight, all I knew was I regretted where it led. Apparently Dex didn't.

"But thank you also. I hate what happened more than anything, and you can bet I'm going to be mad for a long time, but she wouldn't have told me about Noah otherwise." He turned his attention towards everyone else. "You guys were right about Noah. I don't know what he did, but he's been hurting Sophie in some way, and I know he hadn't hit her, but he's at least been threatening her. Now I need to go, she needs me." He ran off in the same direction as Keefe had, and Sophie before him, leaving everyone's attention to fall on me.

"I didn't know. I swear. I don't know why I did that. I didn't mean-I never meant-"

"Marella." Linh gently said, placing her hand on my elbow. "Why?" She didn't clarify, yet I knew exactly what she was talking about. The others were standing around awkwardly, but I didn't care. Linh asked me a question and I was going to answer.

I told her everything that had happened, and everything leading up to it. I even started telling her about my dad's neglectfulness and emotionless reactions, even though I haven't told anyone before about that. The rest also knew about my mom's condition, so I could see them all wincing when I said she hit her head.

"I'm really sorry for all that happened Marella, but you can't bottle it up and take it out on other people. You need to explain and apologize. And let us know when something bad happens. Let us help you." My beautiful and very smart girlfriend told me.

"You're right. I'm sorry. I'll apologize."

"Wait no, you might want to give them some space for a while." She told me. And while it was probably smarter, I needed Sophie to know right away. I walked off in the direction Sophie, Keefe, and Dex went, finding them in the parking lot near Dex's car. I walked over slowly, not wanting anything to get worse than it already was.

Sophie was sitting on the ground against Dex's car, with Keefe and Dex next to her. She was smiling lightly at them. If I didn't know better, I'd say it looked like nothing even happened. I continued over in my slow pace, eventually getting close enough that they noticed me. Both boys looked like they would throw me into a tree, but Sophie just smiled at me. She pushed the boys away with surprising strength, sending them at least a few feet away, then patting the spot next to her.

I was honestly more scared than I'd ever been. I was waiting for her to hit me, scream at me, everything I deserved. Instead, she wiped tears away from my face that I didn't even know were there.

"Why are you being so nice?" I wanted to take the words back as soon as I said them. It'd probably make her flip a switch and start attacking me.

"You wouldn't have been crying while walking over here without a good reason. And I know you. While what you said hurt, I know you usually would never actually say anything to seriously hurt any of your friends. I just want to know what happened, and what I did."

"No, no. You didn't do anything. I'm really sorry Sophie. And I mean really, really sorry. I would understand if you don't want to see me right now, or probably ever again, but I need you to know. I never should've said those things, I, um, I was wrong. I've been having a rough few days, but that's not a good excuse. I never should've said any of it. I shouldn't have bottled it up, waiting for it to blow. Everything went wrong and I never wanted this to happen. I've loved being friends with you, and I'm honestly so glad you came here. I don't know why I said all that, especially since it isn't true. I took my anger out on you without you doing anything. You were there and I thought you were an easy target. And if all you told me taught me anything, you are one of the strongest people I know. I was such a jerk, and I won't blame you if you don't forgive me. I really needed you to know how sorry I am."

"I don't blame you." My head bolted up in shock.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't blame you." She smiled at me again. "It's happened to me too, where you just need someone to give some sort of reaction, that all other thoughts are gone. You just need them to scream or cry and you need to be the one that causes it. Right?" I was surprised, she got it completely correct. "So yeah, everything you said hurt, but I really can't blame you, otherwise I'd be a hypocrite. I've said some nasty things to people too. Especially Grady and Edaline when I got adopted, then again after Jolie died. But all that matters to me is you came, and you apologized. And I know you're truly sorry because you never cry. You didn't have to apologize. But you did. So thank you." I hugged her tight

"Thank you so much." My voice was hardly able to be heard, but she squeezed me a little tighter in response.

"If you don't mind, can I ask what happened?" I explained the story again, giving her the background on my mom too, and when I finished she hugged me again.

"I can't say I understand the situation you're in, or how you're feeling, but I do know how scary any and every bad thing involving parents is. I'll always be here to listen, whatever you need." She cracked a small smile before speaking again. "We can even have a trauma dump party."

I could only stutter out a small thank you, I was too confused by the fact that she was already joking about everything I'd said to her. I hugged her again. And we stayed like that on the concrete ground, hugging. Until Keefe had to ruin it.

"Group hug!"

Ugh the nerve of that guy.

But Sophie and I both laughed anyway.

This one's a little chunkier, and a little deeper. And kinda a major dump and maybe not written the best, but it was needed so deal with it. Also again, please let me know if i missed anything in the trigger warning, i don't want anyone to read this thinking they'll be fine then something happens that hurts them. also i hope you enjoyed the chapter, and the little bit of marella sophie bonding, along with marella backstory. love you all!

edit: i edited most of this, starting at their fight so it's pretty much different from there. the premise is the same, but i like how it's worded a lot better now, and how it flows. also some of the things you guys were commenting that i didn't think about while writing this the first time around. and if you liked the original better, deal with it. i feel like this makes more sense, plus with psychological responses and whatnot.

edit 2.0: changed it again guys 😭 lol i really just keep hating on this chapter. anyways, i just changed it so sophie didn't have a panic attack and she didn't cry. trust, it's for later in the story. i came up with a new idea involving the main plot that i hope you angst lovers will like, so i needed to change it to go along with the idea. hopefully this will be my last time changing it! 

Avery, out ->

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