Severed Bonds

"You okay Han?" She rubs my shoulders.

"No, Lola I'm just going to go home you guys can continue the movie night without me." Before she can object I walk out the front door and text my dad. Instead of enjoying a comical movie or Justin's humor. I'm here at home packing my belongings, my dad and I still haven't spoken to one another. It kills him that I won't talk to him, I'm not so angry anymore but I don't know what to say? I don't want him to be hurt by my reaction but I don't want him to think everything is okay. Because it's not, none of this is fine or normal... On friday I go to school exhausted, I could barely sleep. I kept dreaming about that day and Noah's confessions, but this time Justin and Lola were there too. First Noah confessed to me then out of nowhere Justin came out from behind me and began pressuring me to tell him the truth. Then Noah looks toward me; Lola somehow was next to me glaring at me menacingly. They inch closer to me and surround me yelling at me, I turn around to escape but Justin blocks my way. I huddle in the middle and cover my ears and crouch down. Till the voices fade, but they don't instead they get louder. I shut my eyes tight hugging my knees in tighter. I uncover my ears slowly and hear nothing; I open my eyes and see nothing but pitch black surrounding me. I slowly get up trying to get accustomed to my new surroundings. My eyes stop on a hooded figure in front of me, my breathing hitches. The figure wears a dark cloak that drags on the ground with a hood low enough to cover their eyes. A creepy smirk creeps across their face,

"Did you forget?" A female voice echoes. I stand there with my feet frozen on the ground staring at her in shock. This girl why does she look and sound so familiar? I start searching through my memories for the girl but she doesn't appear. Suddenly a sense of realization hits me before I can put my finger on it. She gives me another smirk. She's mocking me! Before I could interrogate her I woke up in a cold sweat.

"Hannah!" Justin stands in front of me wearing an irritated expression. I stare up at him like a deer in headlights. "I've been calling you four times."

"Oh...sorry." I mumble. He lets out a frustrated sigh,

"What's going on Hannah?" This time he's pleading for me to tell him the truth. "Something happened that night didn't it. Shit!

"Yeah, my dad told me about the job." I say forcefully.

"That doesn't explain your injured arm." I jump.

"You kept your arm covered all night after you left the bathroom."

"I hit it against the side of the door when I was walking out." Another lie.

"Can I see the bruise?"

"It didn't bruise, but it just hurt a lot."

"Cut the bullshit Hannah, why would your dad make you move now instead of waiting for you to finish the year."

"We need the money."

"He can't wait two and a half months?"

"It's not my call!" I shrug my shoulders.

"None of this adds up, you're dad called you to tell you, you're moving in a week!" I snap.

"Justin! For once just... drop it the fact is moving and nothing is going to change that."He yanks my arm, I wince again holding the tears in my eyes.

"Your arm shouldn't hurt that much."

"It doesn't." I grit. I try my best to twist my arm free which causes my arm to throb in pain. He yanks a wrinkle on my sleve using my motion to his advantage. Fuck! The long scar appears before him. I yank my arm back pulling down my sleeve,

"What the hell is that?" Before I can answer Justin rambles on, "Did someone-" He stops. "W-why would you?" He hesitates, and locks eyes with me for awhile before continuing. "Do this?" He said heavily. I can't lie to him like this, I can't even look at him. I close my eyes and bite my lip to hold the tears back. I walk away from him going the opposite way from his direction. I ditched school and called my dad, it's been awhile since I said anything to him. I even avoided calling him. When I heard his voice I couldn't hold in my tears any longer. He kept asking what's wrong I just answered with a shaky voice to pick me up. By the time he's here I've exhausted myself from crying. My head begins to throb and my face is soaked from my tears. He doesn't bother to ask me why I'm so upset or sniffling still. We rode all the way home in silence. I enter my room and change into comfy clothes for a nap. When I wake up from my nap the first thing I do is check the time. It's close to three pm, I only slept for a bit. Surprisingly there's no messages or calls from Justin. Maybe he's dropping it, I hope so... with nothing else better to do, I decide to do some packing. I start taking down all the frames on my drawers, removing the remaining posters and other remaining junk.

I shove a drawer closed and hear a crash on the back of the drawer. I shift the tv a bit to the right, I hang my head over the drawer. I make out a shape of a frame in the dark. I slip my arm down the narrow space and pick up the frame, the pieces of glass shift off the picture. I manage to pick up the frame without getting cut by the glass shards. The picture is me, Lola, and Justin, dressed in fancy attire. It was our boat picture from the eighth grade field trip. Justin is in a dark grey tuxedo, Lola is wearing a baby blue dress with a flower hair clip and I'm in a sparkly red dress with my hair curled. I smile to myself as I recall the moments of that day. Time flew by faster than I thought, a week feels like a day. The memory of the man becomes less vivid as my fear grows stronger. Fear and curiosity begin to overwhelm me, it's because of him my life is falling apart and I need to move. Why? What does he have to do with anything? I don't understand what's going on! I think hard on my memories and try to see if a man or any other crazy scenarios has come to my memory. Nothing! Who is he? Why was he here? What did he mean by him? Why did he risk going into the bathroom just to get to me? Gasp, is my father involved with shady people? Maybe that's what they meant by him...