Before you read: I'm aware there are a lot of people out there that are going true difficult times because of the pandemic, and a lot of us may have lost people we care about. This is me sending out my support and love to all of you. In times like this, we all could use a little love. You can pull through anything, if only you can believe this.

Remember, no one is in charge of your happiness, only you are.

Stay safe.

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Half an hour later, girls and boys were rushing out through all the available exit points in Elizabeth's house and we succesfully rounded up the insects and disposed of them at the backyard littered with stubs of cigarettes and empty red plastic cups.

"I owe you pizza, Aurora. Thanks!" Brittany said, sinking into the brown hammock that swung slightly under her weight.

"I'm a certified party crasher, when I want to. You're most welcome, Eliza."

Summer walked through the back for holding up a pink thong from a stick. "Found these in the kitchen." She stated, swinging the stick haphazardly that I had to step away.

Brittany groaning dramatically, crumbled to the grass. "I wonder what my room will be like!"

And I wonder who her parents are. I guessed they weren't around town or she would have been freaking out about cleaning before they return.

"What should I do with-"

"-just throw the damned thing away."

Summer laughing, acted on Elizabeth's instruction.

"What's going to happen next?" I asked Elizabeth hoping she would not ask us to help her clean up the mess. Only the Lord knows what other weird stuff we might find inside.

Elizabeth grabbed her black jacket with a quick burst of energy. "Let's go to Martin's. Hold on, I need to change and lock the doors." She fled back inside the house.

I sighed, shaking my head at Summer who shrugged.

Elizabeth returned in record time. Her raven black hair was currently up in a ponytail. A brown jacket over her black tank top and black jeans, with a pair of black combat boots encasing her feet.

After raising a brow at her fighter-like outfit, I followed behind them to my mother's car.

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Martin's turned out to be a decent bar in the neighborhood. The street was bubbling with so much energy that it made my fingers itch for the comfort of a book and pen. I don't like public places at all.

"Don't we need I.Ds? I asked my companions after securing mum's car a spot on the side of the road.

"Watch and learn from the masters." Summer looped her arm in mine and Elizabeth's.

In less than four minutes, we were already inside the bar illuminated by blue neon lights. It was really big, fitting in my estimation nothing short of seventy people engaged around circular brown tables holding bottles and alcohol glasses. They were seated in pairs, threes and fours. The lighting made it quite hard to see much of people's face, giving us a mysterious aura.

While we meandered through the tables to find a comfortable spot, my eyes trailed to the singular painting against the grey walls.

A painting of a light-skinned woman drinking from a goblet with her legs crossed on a throne-like chair. Hair intentionally sprawled around her shoulders, atop the fabric of a red dress that hugged her body. It wasn't the details of the painting that drew my attention, it was the fact that woman bore an uncanny resemblance to my mother.

Maybe it's the just the alcoholic fumes acting on my senses.

"It's cool in here." I said.

Summer laughed, quickly snapping shut when I aimed her a glare. She knew why.

"Saturdays are more fun days than the rest of the days put together..." Elizabeth ranted about the events that took place on Saturdays while I focused on the familiar figure making his way to our table.

Jordan?

He flashed me a wink in recognition. "What may I offer you ladies?"

Elizabeth leaned on the table with her elbows, fixing her cleavage for him to see. "You."

I choked on my spit at her boldness. She didn't peg me as that sort of girl. If her name was Emma, Scarlett, Charlotte, I might have believed but Elizabeth, no.

Jordan grinned, playing with Summer's hair. She swatted his hand away, smiling nonetheless as he switched his attention to Elizabeth.

"I'm afraid, I don't do foursomes, it could just be just me and you baby?" He leamed down to her eye level and donated a generous kiss on her lips. I quirked a brow at this. Summer was unfazed. There were a lot of questions I would ask her this night. Later

Elizabeth pulled away. "Jordan." She warned, smiling coyly at some of the vicious stares of some of the ladies.

He chuckled. "You started it."

Dropping his tray on the table, he pulled out the last chair and sat, still avoiding my gaze.

"What happened to your party?" He questioned.

While Elizabeth narrated the details, I was having a mental battle, arguing about their relationship with each other. You don't go kissing someone except you're romantically involved or friends-with-benefits.

"If you say these people showed up accidentally, what about the ones you invited?" Jordan asked. I never thought it that way.

Elizabeth blinked. A blush formed on her both cheeks and she frowned. "I need a drink."

Summer chuckled. "Make that three."

After several bottles of alcohol, Summer and Elizabeth were completely knackered, relying on my support and Jordan's to lead them into my mother's car at midnight.

"Drunk are you?" Jordan nudged me in the front seat after we had eased the girls into the back.

"I didn't drink."

He laughed, silently demanding for the car keys. "I remember. You're the bad-girl who doesn't drink."

Rolling my eyes, I didn't respond with words, but I watched him start up the car and drive out of the area.

"How's your mother's state now?" He asked.

"I haven't returned to the hospital."

Jordan looked shocked. "You should, Aura."

"Why?"

He sighed. "I think you may not know how it feels like to have no parents around. You really should value your mother. My parents died when I was five in a shootout."

My lips parted slightly in utter shock. "I'm sorry about your loss, Jordan. It must have been a hell of time for you."

The sides of his lower jaw clenched and he rapidly blinked. "It still is, Aura. You should value your family. I would give anything to have one."

Nope, not mine, especially not my step-father.

"Jordan-"

"There's just a member of my family left. Angel." He told me.

"Your-"

"-my cat." Jordan interrupted me again and I rolled my eyes. "She's really amazing. You should meet her some time."

I didn't want to hurt him by saying I didn't like cats at all.

Jordan parked in front of Elizabeth's house, turned off the ignition and fixed me with his grey eyes. "Friday next week. Will you come?"

I glanced back at Elizabeth. He caught my reservation. That wasn't my only concern, by next week Friday, I will be neck deep in school work.

"Don't worry about Elizabeth."

And school.

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SATURDAY

In the morning, while Summer slept, I quietly stole downstairs to start my chores. At least something to distract me.

After taking out the trash, I lingered by the trash can in the backyard and fell back on memories from yesterday.

Jordan had insisted on me seeing my mother yesterday night but I declined, seeing I was not in the right frame of mind. However, he maintained that he still wished to see me next week Friday and got my contact. I wondered who ever wanted to get associated with a freak like me.

Freak.

"Miss White, please step aside from the body." A tall, well-built black policeman ordered.

The little knife in my hand fell to the tiled floor in our school corridor with a clatter. I stared at the line of crimson red liquid seeking a path through the lines in the tiles, oozing from Bertha's chest where I had stabbed her repeatedly for making fun of my dead father. For calling me a freak.

I was only fifteen but the weight of what I had done overwhelmed me. I almost killed someone.

Gradually, I placed a shaky leg behind the other until I backed into the wall.

Students had gathered to watch and many even took pictures and videos that circulated in less than a minute.

The police officer spoke into his intercom and received responses, all the while casting a watchful eye on me. Then.

"You're going to have to come with me to the police station, young lady." He grabbed my hand and as we exited the school building, I caught a glimpse of Bertha being wheeled into the ambulance parked at the front of our school building.

Bertha didn't survive. She was right about me being a freak.

I didn't notice I was screaming into a pair of firm masculine hands restrained me from hurting myself with a scrap of metal from the trash.

"Shh... Calm down, Aura. Shh..." Cole hushed, rocking me back and forth as he hugged me from behind.

I cried and yelled until I passed out right there, in Cole's arms.

When my eyes opened again, it was in my room, I took a long time adjusting to the brightness inside.

"Bloody hell! Who opened the curtains?"

"I did."

My gaze settled on Crystal perched comfortably in one of my sofas, with a book in hand. She was wearing a coral peach Rock T-shirt and baggy shorts.

I frowned. "Why are you here?"

She stuck her finger in the book which I hoped wasn't mine and sighed. "I came here with Winter only to find you passed out. Cole wouldn't tell me what happened but last I checked, the three of them went to the hospital to visit your mum. I'm sorry about her ill-health, Aura."

My mood lightened due to the tenderness of her words. Crystal was not one to show much emotions, but now she had and it was simply relaxing.

I got out of my bed and grabbed my phone lying on the bedside table. "Thanks for looking after me, Crys."

She smiled. "It's fine. Do you want to talk about what happened?"

My grip on my phone tightened and I quickly turned to look out the window so that she wouldn't see the pain on my face.

"That would not be a good idea, Crys." I said.

"Sometimes a lot of burdens are better when shared." She reasoned.

I smirked, meeting her unwavering gaze. "Key word being some times."

Crystal rolled her eyes. "I don't blame you for not trusting me. For all I know I'm this evil girl no one trusts. It's okay though."

"I never said you're evil, Crys. It's just that some memories are too painful to share. You understand, right?"

Crystal nodded slowly. "But do your friends know why you passed out."

"I don't know."

And it was the truth. They may just assume it's one of my panic attacks but they had no idea which memory triggered it. God, my life was a big mess.

Crystal abandoned the book completely on the sofa and came to sit on the window sill, staring outside at the few people straggling down our street.

"Have you been to see a therapist?" She asked.

I restrained the urge to toss my phone out through the window even though I could afford to replace it this instant. One needed self-control.

"Yes. The first therapist and the last tried to rape me. I gave up on seeing a therapist after that." I explained.

Crystal frowned. "There are so many female therapists, Aura. You shouldn't give up altogether on-"

"-can we just drop this topic?"

She watched me for a while and nodded, returning back to sit in the sofa with her book.

Going into my bathroom, I washed my face thoroughly and relieved my bowels. All the time in there, as I stared at the empty bleach container, I thought about Bertha, mum, and Sven.

It was after this incident that Sven hated me more than ever, mum stared at me when she came to the police station to get me. She didn't day anything on the way home and the next morning, she had arranged a therapist to see me everyday at home.

I remember the knock at the door that morning. I didn't like Mr Corbyn's face at all, the greasy fat man mum had introduced as my therapist. She pulled me from school and for a month it was just me and Mr Corbyn at home when she and Sven went to work.

That day, I was grateful Winter knew his way into our house through my bedroom window.

Mr Corbyn started asking me weird sexual questions so I sensed something was off. In less than five minutes, the man had pounced on me and was forcing his sticky, disgusting hands into my shirt when Winter pulled him off of me and I never saw that man again. It was the last therapy session I ever had.

Winter stole in through my window because Sven forbade me from having any visitors, so he usually came in through there to sneak school notes and assignments to me.

This was why Winter was my closest friend. He saw things Summer and Cole never have.

I met Summer in an alleyway where some girls at school, Bertha's friends, about five of them laid in wait for me to avenge the death of their friend.

This was three months after I was allowed to return to school.

They beat me with all kind of objects. I lay helpless on the floor curled into a ball when someone ran in and took them all out. A 5ft1 Asian-American girl. Summer Wilson.

Cole had always been her friend so when we became friends, Cole automatically fell into our group.

Winter and I have been friends since we were five but Cole, Summer and I's friendship was not until the last two years.

"You okay in there?" Crystal asked from outside my bathroom.

"Yes. I'll be out in a moment."

When I emerged, I suggested we go out for lunch and she followed me to a Chinese Restaurant around the corner.

While we we eating, some girls from my school streamed into the restaurant looking so comfortable in their bubble of five girls, three English girls and two Black-American girls. Victoria, Libby, Margaret, Robin and Sydney, the most popular girls at school for obvious reasons, their parents had money.

I on the other hand would have been among them but Bertha's death made everyone avoid me at school.

Even the new comers were infused with so much gossip that one had the guts to spit in my face and of course, I punched him straight in his face.

Back to the present, Robin spotted me and Crystal at the back where we sat and she nudged Sydney who sneered in my direction. Soon, they all ordered their meals and, shit! They were coming straight to our table.

"Hi Aurora." Margaret said nicely. Wait what?

Robin, Sydney and Libby occupied the chairs at the other end of the table while Margaret occupied the one beside Crystal. Crystal who had been busy with some science stuff on her phone pulled out her ear buds and raised a brow at the strangers.

"Who are you guys?" She demanded.

Libby smiled. "We attend the same school with Aurora here." She winked at me. I scowled.

Sydney yawned dramatically. "Don't you just love it in here?"

What's she up to now?

"I smell something like blood don't you?" Margaret scrunched up her nose while Robin shot me a wicked smile, bright white teeth illuminating her caramel-coloured face.

"What do you want? Can't you leave me alone to eat in peace?" I desperately would have told them to fuck off if Crystal wasn't seated beside me looking all baffled.

Libby snorted. "Peace? The Bible says there's no peace for the wicked, how's it put again, Syd?"

"The book of Isaiah 48:22 reads thus: There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked." Sydney recited.

Crystal dropped her chopsticks carelessy. "Look here, you skinny poles, I came here to eat my food, not to get preached to."

Margaret laughed. "Keep out of this, sweetheart-" She faced me. "Nice glasses, Aura. Do they help you sleep at night?"

I regretted my decision to wear my medicated glasses out today.

My mouth remained shut however. These girls were pure evil. There's no telling-

"Bertha's cat got your tongue?" Robin purred.

I was about reaching for my phone but I froze. Something stirred up in me. "What the fuck did you just say?"

Already, some people in the restaurant were watching us now.

Sydney leaned forward, daring to look in my face. "How do you live with yourself each day knowing you killed an innocent person."

In retaliation, my fist collided with her nose and all of them gasped.

"Get the fuck away from me!" I yelled.

Startled, they pushed back their chairs and in a couple of seconds, they fled.

Crystal just stared at me the entire time. I sighed.

"If you're looking for an explanation, you won't get it, think what you want." I spat, trying to restrain myself from flipping the table over.

Crystal didn't run away like I expected, instead, she reached over the table and unclenched my fingers, with a sad smile on her face.

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In the evening, I packed up some of my stuff to stay in the hospital with mum. I felt the need to apologize to her for my outburst the other day. Winter and. Jordan made me realize my error.

It was six p.m when I decided to walk down stairs to meet with Cole and. Winter waiting outside the house.

A strange event occurred. The lights flickered off and it was like I was transported into the darkness. At the middle, I saw images flash by, images of my dad laughing with me and mum in the living room, Sven kicking me, Sven sitting in jail, a man approaching Sven, Sven handing over something to the man and talking through the metal bars, the man driving to Patrick Greenwood Specialist Hospital, it was like a movie being fast forwarded. Then I saw the man in Mum's room, pointing a gun at her.

Immediately, the darkness cleared and I was standing in my house again.

What the hell was was that?

I think I might need to get my head checked by a psychiatrist.

Outside, Winter was holding the front door open for me. He aimed a warm smile at me.

Wearing a weak smile, I managed to ruffle his hair before entering the car.

"How come she gets to sit in the front and I don't?" Cole complained after Winter started driving.

"I'm right here, you know?" I reached back to swat Cole with a hand towel. He dodged, sliding to the other side of the car, behind Winter.

"Care to talk about what happened today?"

My eyes whipped back to Winter. "Straight to the point I see."

"Aurora." Cole warned.

I sighed and told them everything, from what caused my collapse to the girls that confronted me in the Chinese restaurant and I added that Crystal was there too.

Winter frowned. "I think you need to get a restraining order against them."

"No. What they need is a knife in their chests and then they'd get the message and leave me alone, like Bertha did."

A strange cold descended on the atmosphere in Winter's car when Bertha's name was mentioned.

Cole was staring with his mouth open but Winter kept driving. I knew he wasn't pleased.

"Sorry. That was a bad joke."

Cole sighed, swiping his hair away from getting into his eyes. "Cool. Aura, when do we get to hang out together, just you and I?"

At this, Winter scoffed. I looked at him suspiciously.

"What?"

"Why do you get to hang out privately with him?" He demanded in a grumpy voice.

Cole gazed from me to Winter and beamed. "Are you actually jealous that I'm having Aura all to myself today? Goodness! I never thought I'd get my god kids so soon Win-"

"Shut up." Winter growled. Cole and I passed the rest of the drive laughing at Winter and teasing him. And I knew he willingly sacrificed himself for my happiness, or else, throughout that ride, my mind would have been on pretty dark thoughts like Bertha's death.

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Now you've gotten to know Aurora's dark secret, have you already concluded Aurora to be a psychopath?

I may have hinted at her killing someone in the past in one of the previous chapters.

I included a little Crystal moment in here. How was it?

What are your thoughts in general about the  progress of the story.

I hope I don't pass out due to the long hours I've been spending on my phone these days. I sincerely hope so.