You Think You're So Great

Brayden got into his car at his doctor’s office and buckled his seat belt, but instead of putting the car in reverse and backing out of the parking space, he leaned his head down and started to cry, after a minute of that he realized how stupid of him it was to cry. I’m fucking awesome he thought I didn’t do anything wrong, he got snapped out of his thoughts when he accidently hit the horn on his steering wheel. “Shit,” he mumbled as he jumped from the sound. He finally put his car in reverse and backed out, then changed the gear to drive to head to the convenient store he had passed on the way to his destination earlier.

He pulled into the parking lot at the store and parked. He searched his pockets for money and couldn’t find any, and then he realized his wallet was beside him in the passenger’s seat and grabbed it, where he found $20. He stuffed the money in his pocket and headed into the convenient store. He pushed open the door and heard the little bell ring as he made his way in and when he looked up he noticed the people in the store had stopped what they were doing all just to look at him. Some of the looks were looks of disgust, others were of sympathy. He walked over to the newspaper stand and saw his face, still, on the cover of the paper. He shook his head and made his way to the cooler section, straight to the beer and grabbed himself a case of it. He paid for his alcohol and made his way home.

Once he had returned and was in his room, he had just remembered he had a girlfriend, although, he thought, she probably had broken up with him. He picked up his phone to find that he had 14 text messages and scrolled to find that 3 were from Kelsey, and they were explaining to him that she couldn’t be a rapist’s girlfriend, not to mention it was pretty much cheating. The last message said for him not to text back, ever. He sighed and threw his phone down on the bed. He grabbed a beer from his mini fridge and guzzled it down, using it as a chaser for his liquor. he didn’t want to think so he continued drowning his thoughts with alcohol and it was working for him. After a while of drinking he was very drunk and thought it would be a good idea to text Emily. He typed ”Heyyyyyyyy Emily” and pressed send, he then passed out on his bed.

Emily’s POV

My phone started vibrating beside me on the bed and I picked it up, it was from Brayden, I gasped, a feeling of sickness washing over me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read the text or ignore it. I decided to open it. ”Heyyyyyyyy Emily” I stared at the message, not expecting that at all, I was expecting something sexual. I texted back a simple response, figuring he was drunk anyway, ”Please, leave me alone Brayden.” I set my phone on the table beside my bed and dozed off to another night of restless sleep. At 3am I sat straight up in my bed, covered in sweat, I had just been dreaming, once again of Brayden, on top of me… hurting me. I had just realized that I had been crying, I wiped the tears off my face and went back to sleep reluctantly.

I woke up to the sound of an alarm clock at 9 am. Ever since the second attack I had been staying out of school, I was glad about that too, because there were probably countless rumors going around and I really didn’t feel like I could handle them. I reached over and grabbed my phone, seeing that Brayden had replied, I opened the text. Oh shit, Emily. I’m sorry, I don’t know what got into me, I never meant to text you. I know I hurt you and you never want to hear from me again, I understand. The text just made my mind more confused, I knew I was supposed to hate him, but I didn’t feel like I did. I sighed and put the confusing thoughts aside and headed downstairs to find that my mom had made a big, nice breakfast. I took a big whiff of the wonderful smell, “Yum!” I exclaimed smiling.