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FIFTEEN
STELLA
“That’s it!” Ruby scolds, violently yanking the covers off of me. I could murder her, no one would know.
“What do you mean she threw herself out the second-floor window? She was such a smart girl. It’s horrible her life ended so soon,”they’d say.
The room is as dark as I remember it, only her shadow visible hovering over me. I assume it’s dark out just the same. Another day has come and gone, though my ability to keep track of time lately has been completely non-existent. My days blur into nights as I spend them like a recluse locked in my bedroom.
“We’re going out,” she adds, forcefully ripping open the curtains, allowing the fading dark red sunlight to enter the room. I groan, tugging my blanket back over me and shielding my eyes from the blazing sunset. How she even got in here, I have no clue. Jade and Sebastian are out, and since I moved into the beach house with them a few weeks ago, we have seen little of each other.
“Get out, Ruby,” I mumble, my voice muffled by the thick comforter covering my face.
She tugs it off of me once again, disturbing my reclusive wallowing. “Nice try, sweetheart, but you and I are not spending another day locked up, feigning heartbreak and sulking about.”
“Speak for yourself Ruby,” I snap, lifting my head to look up at her, “Because that is exactly what I am planning on doing.” Flipping on my stomach, I bury my face into my pillow, using both hands to press it into my ears.
It’s been two weeks since my graduation, also known as the night, it all blew up in my face.
She’s not worth the trouble.
His words still hurt just as bad as they did the moment they left his spiteful lips. Like deadly venom seeping out, aiming to poison me. He succeeded.
For once, the reprimand that came after from my uncle was not as painful as the embarrassment I endured. There was no beating, no degrading slurs thrown my way. Nothing. For the first time in my life, my uncle ignored my indiscretion, instead, laughing at the pathetic person I’ve become. Knowing my life, my future, is in his hands, is enough to make him believe he’s won, and that’s something I can never escape.
Stephan Silver saw the painful heartbreak in my eyes at Kai’s hurtful words, and that was enough to appease the sadistic bastard.
I went home that night, not in the mood to celebrate or entertain the pitiful look my friends gave me after our altercation, and I’ve been holed up in my bedroom since ignoring every one of their messages and calls.
The mattress shifts on my right from the weight of her body as she settles down beside me. “You can’t live like this, Stella,” she whispers. “I won’t let you. I get it. He broke your heart, he led you on, made you fall for him, only to push you aside continuously.”
Raising my head, I turn to face her, whacking her with one of the many pillows to my right. “Ow!”
“Don’t do that Ruby. Don’t act like you know what I’m feeling. Stop pretending you and I have anything in common.” It’s not a fair assumption of her, but I doubt the gorgeous, bold, and brazen Ruby Drake has ever had her heart broken.
Hovering over me, she grabs the same pillow I used and throws it back at me. I quickly sit up and dodge it, the tassels only grazing my arm slightly. “You’d be surprised Stella. You’re not the only one who’s had a shitty childhood, and definitely not the only one who’s struggled with keeping sane. There is a lot you don’t know about me, and I can guarantee you’d be surprised to discover we’re more alike than you think.”
I roll my eyes at the absurdity of her statement, giving up on getting any more sleep in today. “Regardless, Ruby, it doesn’t give you the right to belittle my pain.”
She scoffs, a snide chuckle escaping her. “You think that’s what I’m doing?” Clearly, I’ve pissed her off if the scowl on her face is any sign. Her eyebrows crease, her lips quivers, and her hands are placed angrily on her hips. Long red polished nails contrasting against the short black leather dress she’s wearing. “I’m trying to get you to see that the world doesn’t stop and wait for us to work through our shit. It moves on Stella, keeps spinning, and gives absolutely no fucks if we hold on or not.”
Leaning back, my head resting against my headboard, I close my eyes, trying to erase the look of disappointment I saw in hers just moments ago. Memories of what Damon once said to me, reasons he suspected of my addiction to the meds, swirl in my head. Could it be he was referring to Ruby and her own addictions?
Deciding it doesn’t matter and I don’t have to listen to this anymore, I turn away from her. “Then what’s the point of holding on? Why try to move on if nobody gives a shit?”
Her voice softens as does her gaze, now more solemn and almost apologetic. It’s not her fault I’m like this, yet I see empathy in her eyes as I look back at her.
“The mere fact everyone expects someone who’s gone through the shit we have to give up is enough to keep going, if only to prove them wrong.” The bed shifts once again. This time I feel her hand upon my leg, rubbing back and forth over the blanket. “You’re not the only one who lost her parents. You’re not the only one suffering because of an addiction, because of some form of abuse.”
There it is an honest confession given in her own way. Time stands still as I open my eyes, watching Ruby’s expression shift from angry, to solemn, and then to completely devastated as she confesses a truth, I don’t think she’s ever said aloud. I don’t know too much about her upbringing other than the bit Scar had first mentioned when they arrived.
A fierce and brazen girl who uses her fiery personality and sex appeal to hide a past she’s trying to run from. A drug addicted mother who overdosed when Damon and she were only six, dying right in front of them. Her dad was a dead-beat coke dealer, the man surely to blame for her mother’s overdose, though I’m unsure if he ever even knew he’d fathered them, or just simply didn’t care. Though that’s as far as the story I know goes.
“I’m not saying you’re to blame, but you should have known from the beginning, babe. That boy’s been fucked so badly by life, I don’t see him ever getting over the shit that happened to him as a kid.” She scoots in closer to me, reaching out to hold my hand. “The broken can’t heal the broken Silver. All they can hope to do is to keep each other from completely shattering to pieces.”
“I don’t think it’s enough, Ruby. Not enough to keep me from falling apart, from tearing at the seams. I was made this way. A puppet, a fragile porcelain doll. Bred to be weak, to crumble at the slightest pain.”
Shaking her head, she tightens her grip on my hand, making me wince. “You’re wrong, Stella. You’re the strongest person I know.”
