Tears of The Broken (Harry Styles Dark Secrets Series)
Chapter 1
A soulless black butterfly forever trapped in the form of smoke. When I look at her, thats; what I see. Everyone else has fallen for the lie, the innocent teenage girl whose life was changed by a single moment. Though the scars left room from that lesson have faded and reduced to nothing more than a silvery reminder of her tragic past, she wears her blackest ones on the inside.
But I smile and show them I'm okay, because if I don't, they'll ask why it's affected me so much. One that conversation starts, it can only end in a padded cell or my lifeless corpse at the base of a cliff. That's why I'm leaving the house today. That's why I'm letting them do this to me.
"Ara-Rose, hurry up. You're going to be late"
"Sure, Vic--uh, Mom" I called to the woman at the base of the stairs. "Just finishing my hair."
"You hair's perfect," she called back; I rolled my eyes. Perfect if you normally wear a dead-straight bob. Totally not me. "Okay." I said to myself. "Let's get this mask of composure in place." And with that, the girl in the mirror copied my every move; straightening her yellow dress and pasting a smile across her lips until it looked real.
Step one on Ara-Rose's road to recovery: new school.
I stuffed my cardigan in my bag and shut my door, waving to the lanky boy wandering down the hall, with his hair ruffled in a style fit for bed, his shirt untucked and his backpack straps on both shoulders. "Hey, Sam"
"Hey, Amara."
I huffed, rolling my eyes. "Ara-Rose. Okay? Respect the name, little bro."
"Okay, Amara. Have fun at school." He laughed as he ran down the stairs and out the front door before I could slap him.
"Nervous?"
"Oh, hi Dad" I spun around as he came out from his room at the end of the hall; he kissed the top of my head and stood back, wearing his suit and an expectant smile "Nervous? Me?" But my pathetic giggle told the truth my words wouldn't.
"You'll be okay. You just need to get back into living, honey. After all, its been two months."
"I know Dad, I've been counting the days"
He laughed once. "Do you want me to drive you?"
"Dad?" A frown replaced my pout. "Its across the road. I'll walk"
"I could walk with you?"
"Yea, right. That'll really help me blend in, won't it? I might even be lucky enough to get my head flushed down the toilet."
"None of the kids there are like that, I think you'll be fine. Now--" he turned me toward the stairs and gave a soft shove. "--go to school. And don't come home until you've been a normal teenager for at least a day."
I stopped walking as I got to the school steps. In the distance, behind me , Dad's little white house called me to return to its safe embrace.
I saw a few boys ran past in a tight sweaty group, tripping their way up the cement steps, ignoring me and my neon sign, though the word "new" had grown so big now it was making my shoulders sink. When the doors slammed behind them and the crowd parted, I braved a step, then another, stopping dead at step three when a pair of heavy black boots caught my eye-- beyond the glass. I followed them up to the denim jeans and to a black shirt, rolled up over the elbows of a guy. The head, however, was gone. Or rather , hidden behind the door handles. But his stance suggested he might be looking my way, so did the fact that he wasn't moving, while all around him people pushed and shoved, laughing acting normal, and he stood motionless, his shoes facing the stairs.
Sweet mother of all things inhumanly awkward, please do not let him be planning to greet the new kid.
By the time I reached stair seven, Mr. Black Boots with his hands in his pockets, had progressed forward as well. I closed my eyes and praying he'd just disappear, pushed the door open, waking to surprise when a hand grabbed my hand.
Notes
Hope you like the first chapter. Sorry, if you think its going a bit slow. I promise it'll catch up :)xoxo
~Gabrielle
10/25/13