Chapter 18

"Aurora?" I heard Cooper say as he appeared alongside Xander. Cooper shoved me behind them and he assisted Xander in landing hit after hit on this redheaded guy.

If they were drunk, they didn't seem like it. Punch after punch was landed on the redhead's face.

Michael, Sabrina, Joey, and Olivia appeared, rushing me out of the room where a crowd of nosy and shitfaced teens were. A group of schoolmates trying to look inside the room, but it was practically impossible with Michael blockading the door with his big frame.

"Move, people!" I heard Olivia shout beside me as I was led out of the house and into her car that we arrived in, but Joey stayed behind to help Cooper and Xander, I assumed.

Sabrina sighed heavily while she slouched down in the backseat. "You're shaking, Aurora."

I looked down at my body, and my dress which caused all this, and realized I was, in fact, shaking. Quite a lot, actually.

My body felt numb, my mind was mindless, and my thoughts were preoccupied with nothing but the event that happened only minutes ago.

"I feel..." I trailed, looking out the window at the shadowed scenery that passed by in a blur, "I feel numb."

A deep wrinkle was visible in Michael's forehead in the rearview mirror. He had no clue why I reacted the way I did, neither did Sabrina, yet they still stood by.

"I don't know what the hell that was," Michael started, "but all I know is that we're here for you, okay? Sabrina and I and Olivia and Cooper and Xander. Even Joey. We're all going to be here. We always will be."

I nodded and blinked my surprisingly dry eyes. I felt like I should be crying, bawling and sobbing even, but there was nothing. My heart didn't even seem to be beating, but I knew it was from the quick pounding in my chest.

"Should we call her parents or something?" Sabrina whispered to Olivia, but it could be heard by everyone since the car was silent except for the roar of the car's engine.

Olivia shook her head and replied curtly. "No."

I wanted to feel myself shaking. I wanted to feel my eyes watery with tears. I wanted to feel the chills on the surface of my skin. I wanted to feel something. Anything. Just something to prove I was still there -to prove I made it through.

But all I felt was terrified. And I had no idea how to make it stop.

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"And how did you feel in that moment?"

I shook my head. "I already said, Dr. Bruno. I felt nothing." I said through my gritted teeth and lied down on the blue sofa, my hair sprawling out on the cold, white pillows.

It had been only a day, more like 16 hours, since that happened, and I was still frozen. I isolated myself for the night, I hadn't picked up any phone calls, and I made sure to distract myself with homework. Sure, it was rude, but I just couldn't let myself look so...so weak in front of them.

"Nothing?" He asked, writing something down on his clipboard.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, nothing. Nothing at all."

He sighed, placing the clipboard down on his desk. "I know how it's been, Aurora."

I sat up to face him completely, curious to where he's going.

"You froze up, it's normal. Weakness isn't a trait of yours. It never has been, and it never will be."

"W-what do you mean?"

"You're parents are never there, you got assaulted, rumors went around, then the same thing almost happened again."

"Yeah, no duh."

"I know you're hurting, and you use insults to cover it up, so I'll let your attitude slide," he fake-scolded with a soft smile. "But you're not weak. You're the complete opposite, really. I mean, to go through what you went through almost twice- now that shows strength."

A sigh escaped my lips as I looked down at my ringing phone. Xander was calling.

I pressed the decline button and looked back up. "I just hate remembering things I don't want to remember. I mean, I can't even sleep at night without the meds you prescribe me! I'm goddamn broken."

He nodded. "I'm taking you off your medication."

"What?" I looked up, my eyes widened.

"You need to learn to fall asleep. You'll thank me for this in the long run." He stood from his white chair, signaling that the session was coming to a close.

"No!" I shook my head back and forth as I followed him to the door. "Y-you can't! I need some sort of help to sleep, please! Just help."

"I can only see you getting better and your nightmares stopping if you teach yourself to make it stop. Obviously I'm going to help, but this is your journey. I'm just a passing character in your book."

"I-I'll survive, somehow." I nodded slowly and opened the door to his waiting room but was met with a familiar set of grey eyes.

"Cooper said you didn't have a ride," Xander said while we made our way to the parking lot where his Corvette was parked. The sun was already starting to set.

I didn't respond. His words settled into the tense silence that stretched between us. The silence was full of assumptions and unsaid apologies, yet I couldn't bring myself to let words fall from my mouth.

After 15 minutes of uncomfortable silence, he finally parked in the lot at our dorm. When I was making my way to my dorm just a few doors down from his, a laugh echoed through the beige hallway. It was Xander's laugh that I'd become so accustomed to.

I spun around to see what he found so hilarious, but he just held my door open.

"Why are you here?" I practically yelled at him, tears threatening to fall. "You need to leave!"

"Shh," he cooed and didn't let his hold on the door go. "Can I come in?"

"Liv is here, so you can't."

He scoffed at my pathetic excuse. "I asked her to not be here so I'll have time to talk to you. You've been ignoring everyone, Aurora."

Still, I kept a firm hold on the door, trying to slam it close.

"You trust me?" He said, but it came out more as an unsure question.

I nodded my head after hesitating and then opened the door wider for him with a sigh of defeat.

He lied down on my light blue bed and patted the empty space beside him, inviting me to sit down with him, which I did. He brought his thumb to graze my cheek, a deep exhale coming from me.

"You need to tell me, gem."

I snapped my head away from his hand which made tingles burst everywhere. "I already told you, Alexander." I didn't want him prying into my mind, nor did I need him to.

He brought me to back face him again. "Let it out. For once in your life, let it out." He grasped my head and stroked my head. And that's all the clarification I needed for the dam to fall. The river of tears before turned to a steaming waterfall which couldn't be put out.

-The unsaid words and the memories I didn't want to remember, all conveyed with each and every tear.

"I-It was a nightmare." I let out a shaky breath and closed my eyes. "I was shaking, trembling, petrified. And it didn't happen j-just once." I willed myself to continue. "He-he didn't listen. Th-they never do." I waled, tears fogging my vision and burying myself even deeper into Xander's hold.

"I'll listen, love," he whispered into my hair and tightened his already tight grip on me. "Whenever you need me, I'm going to listen."

"I-I'm trapped in that nightmare, Xander."

"And you can't wake up from it," he whispered, more to himself then to me. His eyes focused on the bland ceiling above us while he continued to run his hands through my light brown hair.

I paused to wipe the traitorous tears that dripped down my cheeks.

"Stop that," he said, removing my palms from my face. "You're going to cry. You will let it out because as much as it hurts, it helps. You're strong, and you're brave. You're everything."

I shook my head, my brows furrowing. "I may be strong, but I'm exhausted and broken and damaged. All at once."

"Well, you survived the first time, so why can't you force yourself to survive a second time?"

I scoffed. "I barely survived. So who's to say I can survive now?"

"I say you can make it!" He hoarsely voiced loudly. "When, when will you just-"

I cut him off with the firm contact of my lips on his, the action not only surprising me but him also.

And for the first time ever in my 16 years of existence, I realized that this boy wasn't some tiny crush or a stupid fling.

I was falling.

I was completely and utterly falling for the boy I've come to know as Alexander Kings, and I had no clue how to keep balance.

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welp, idk what to say lol. i thought it had been a ton shorter from the last time i updated, but i guess not lol. self promo real quick- i have a covershop, and i rly wanna make covers for ppl.

make me super happy and press that lil star in the corner to vote and comment!

i love you so much, you don't even know. -sophia ✰