The Cruel Truth

She felt lost in her own thoughts as she lay back on the yellowed grass. The sun beamed down on her, sending warm sensations through her body, and yet inside she felt cold from the decisions she knew she had to make in the next hours ahead. It seemed silent, and with that came a tranquillity she didn’t feel comfortable with. Everything was so messed up in her mind, and yet lying there she felt she could sleep for hours, in a dreamland where everything was better.
‘Boo,’ a voice whispered behind her.
Beside her sat Clay, his long brown hair showing beneath his black hat. She shuffled, feeling self-conscious suddenly, pulling her pale blue top down over her stomach. She turned her head away, knowing she would break down if she looked up into his deep green eyes. He expected her to say something, to blurt everything out to him as she normally did, but she stayed silent, attempting to stay strong.
‘I know everything seems bad, but it will get better Sophie,’ he said, breaking the silence, ‘I promise you.’
She knew she had to say something after those words escaped him, she felt so full inside, with all the secrets she had kept locked inside, and it all seemed to be exploding from her, as tears formed in her eyes.
‘My parents are going to split up Clay, I’m so scared,’ she whimpered as she leant in to him.
For a second he didn’t know what to do, sitting stiff, and then he gently wrapped his arm around her, as the tears fell onto his black vest.
‘I’m sure they won’t, come on, you’re parent’s relationship is like water-tight, I always look to them for advice they are so close and perfect…’ he said, his rough hands running up and down her arm soothingly.
She sat up, looking into his green eyes, tears streaming from her, an expression of despair on her pale face, ‘my mum’s cheating on him.’
‘What?’ he asked, shocked.
‘I caught her with him, some ugly fat bastard, she said I’d better not tell dad, she said if I did she’d… say I was lying for attention, she said he’d believe it…and...’ She whimpered, unable to say the final words, she wrapped her arms around his neck, crying into his shoulder, wanting it all to end.
He squeezed her back tightly, listening as she cried more and more, and he began to wonder… was Sophie’s mum really capable of that? He’d never seen her angry or hurt…
‘Come on my broken fairy, let’s get you inside, it’s getting dark,’ he whispered, standing and lifting her off the grass into his arms, her legs hanging limply, as he walked across the field to his Jeep.
Settling her in the passenger seat, he removed his big leather jacket, placing it over her, as her reddened eyes opened slightly to glance his way. He started the engine, pulling his black hat over his brown hair, and rearranging his twisted Sex Pistols vest.
‘Where to? Your house? Adam’s?’ he asked, but she had drifted off to sleep, so he made the decision himself.
He drove down the road, clicking his head lights on to make the dark country lanes visible, watching as the dust flicked up in front of him. He glanced over his shoulder every minute, looking at her closed eyes, she was one of the smartest, most gentle teenagers he knew, and yet her life seemed endlessly falling apart. His mobile began to ring, he leant down, trying to reach his phone. Swerving across the road, he sat back, shocked and slightly shaken up as he almost drove off the road into the forest. He tried once more, as the phone shuffled towards him with the movement of the car.
‘Hello?’ he answered.
‘Clay where are you? I told you this was you’re night to look after Rebecca, you stupid twat, get home, I have a date tonight!’
‘OK, I’m sorry Jenny, I got caught up,’ he said, genuinely sorry.
‘Just get here quick, before I leave her on the doorstep for fuck’s sake.’
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