Chapter Eighteen

Asher

Brenton

Trouble was my best friend.

It chased me around until it got to my parents when they found out the truth from Jocelyn, the vindictive girl that used to be by Averly's side. The heated stares from my dad and mom to my bruised up face was boring me to death.

"How did you do it?" Mom asked, her knee above the other as if she was interviewing me.

"I choked him with a pillow." I clipped. He was basically in a coma, but I removed any signs of life.

Mom squinted as if trying to decipher what her abnormal son did. Her blonde hair in a bun and her glasses on.

"How did you not get caught?"

"There weren't any cameras and the security guards were knocked up and piled to the side of the building. Jocelyn was the only one who followed him to the hills." Dad answered grimly for me. The cold rush in my shivering bones made me drowsy, but I wasn't going to show that to my parents.

My mom, Anya Brenton, was a naturally suspicious person; she wanted to keep questioning until she hit the jackpot.

So she proceeded. "Then how did you escape from the hospital?"

"Trashy place and zero security."

"You just got lucky?"

"Yes."

"Did Leslie see you at the hill? Did he know it was you?"

"Nope."

Dad was getting annoyed from my answers, but I didn't give a single shit.

"Did the police catch any trail of you?"

"Not at all, unless you hand me to the police." I suggested.

"Thinking about it." My dad taunted with clasped hands on his lap.

"No evidence." I reminded dad as I smiled sweetly at him. He frowned and wanted to get up, but mom stopped him with her hand and he sat back down.

They were the reason I got worse, any other parents would get their child to the doctor except for mine. I didn't get treated the way I deserved.

But Averly was there for me. For every struggle. Every episode. They weren't, they were too busy kissing big peoples' asses. That's what made me appreciate my sister even more.

"Did you plan all of this?" Mom scrutinized.

"Yep." I popped the last letter carelessly as I leaned back on my chair.

Their questions weren't important to me. All I saw were two matching people with the same equal hatred towards me, as they sat in their royalish red chairs and inspected me, they thought they could scare me like that, but that was the time where I was glad I had my disorder. It was that easy to avoid them.

"Okay then, you can go to your room now." She dismissed as she looked at my dad, who had his gaze steadily on my mom, he didn't want to look at me.

I rolled my eyes as I disobeyed my mom and went outside the house, my jacket zipped up as I shovelled the ice with my boots. The neighbors stared at me from behind the windows, they heard the shouts that escaped through my dad when he beat me up.

The decision to go to the frozen lake was adequate for what I felt and it was my second favourite place to go to after the bookshop. It witnessed all of my painful memories and it helped me gain my composure, it wasn't far away which made me better. I took my place in front of the lake, blowing out the water vapor into foggy breaths escaping into the air.

It was the last day of the weekend, not that I cared much about school. It was morning and I had no plans, but the crunch of snow behind me alerted me that there was someone.

She sat next to me.

"Hey there," With a smile, Kalina looked at me. My jaw tightened as I still kept my focus on the exterior of the frozen lake. "Vera told me about your disorder, I didn't know." She informed as she laid out her legs.

"It's okay, I had it a long time ago." I answered her monotonously. Everyone knew about it since mom liked to spread news about her personal matters.

"Can you tell me more about it?" She sounded interested as she asked and I turned my head to look at her — she had a braided bun and her doe shaped eyes soaked mine as she tilted her head with her washed jeans and dark green sweater. She was beautiful and she knew it as her sultry lips widened to a smile.

"It's the fear of social interaction and people with that disorder tend to avoid it, just like I did." My stomach churned when I summarized, I wasn't used to speaking to another person other than Averly.

"Well, Asher Brenton. I'm planning to change that."