The phone fell out of her hand and she sank to the floor. Her mind was racing. She wanted to scream so badly, but she seemed incapable of doing anything. It was so quiet in her room, but she couldn't stand how loud it was in her head. She couldn't seem to quiet her thoughts. It felt like bugs were crawling on the inside of her skin. She needed to escape her body, but she didn't know how. She knew if she didn't silence her thoughts, they would kill her. So she did the only thing she could think of: she leaned forward and quickly reared back, slamming her head into the window, producing the loudest crack she'd ever heard.
Candice was sitting at the kitchen table, twirling a lock of her silky blond hair around her finger as she listened to her best friend, Elizabeth, babbling about the newest thing Husband Number 5 had done to piss her off. "You know, when I go to work, I actually WORK, instead of screwing my assistant on my so-called "lunch break"! I swear, Andrew takes 5 lunch breaks! AND he's LOSING weight! That's physically impossible! And what the hell does he even need an assistant for? All that slut Stacey ever even does is sit there and giggle!" "Gosh, Lizzie, calm down! Just because you've called a few times and he wasn't there doesn't mean he was sleeping with his assistant. Maybe he was in a meeting?" Candice suggested in a soothing voice. "I doubt that," Elizabeth said bitterly. "I mean-" Just then, Candice heard a loud crack, followed by a scream. "Liz, I gotta go. I'll call you later," she said hurriedly. Elizabeth started to protest, but Candice hung up and ran upstairs to her daughter's room.
Writing now. I know what I want to happen, but it's hard to find the right words. Update in..a half hour?
Hitting her head didn't shut her thoughts up. As the searing pain shot through her head, she found her voice. She screamed at the top of her lungs just as her mother burst through the door. "Ryleigh! What happened!?" Candice asked. "Go away!!" Ryleigh yelled, pulling her knees closer to her chest , hoping she would disappear. "Sweetie, what's wrong?" Candice asked as she got down on her knees and tried to comfort her daughter. "Don't touch me!" Ryleigh screamed, hitting her mother's outstretched arm and leaping back into the corner like a skittish cat. "Ryleigh.." her mother said helplessly. "Just leave me alone!" Ryleigh shouted in a hoarse voice as she shoved past her mother and ran downstairs. Candice followed her. "Ryleigh, where are you going?" she asked, slightly irritated now. Ryleigh didn't answer. "Ryleigh Nichole Summers, get back here right now!" Candice demanded in the most authoritative voice she could muster. But Ryleigh was gone.
Ryleigh had to get away from that house. She didn't know where she would go, but she knew she couldn't stay there. She couldn't take one more second of her stupid mother, pretending she knew what Ryleigh was going through. Candice acted like she knew everything, but she didn't know anything, least of all how to be a parent. Candice had gotten pregnant at 16. Disowned and boyfriend-less, she had moved to a new town, lied about her age, gotten her GED online, and become a successful businesswoman. She was never home, and when she was, she was always on the phone, usually with her excessively dramatic best friend, Elizabeth. Ryleigh knew her mom didn't care about her. In fact, she was probably on the phone with Elizabeth right now, making plans for dinner at some fancy steakhouse. Ryleigh just knew her mom had already forgotten about her.
Ryleigh drove until her tears had blurred her vision too much too see. She managed to park in front of some crappy little boutique before she broke down. Her body shook with the force of her silent tears. She tried to cry out, but her voice had disappeared again. Suddenly, she couldn't breathe. She rolled all of the windows down and turned on the air conditioner, gasping for breath. Finally, she calmed down. She felt like a zombie, staring straight ahead, but not really seeing anything. Her body was as rigid and still as a statue. Her racing mind had been replaced by a blank one. She didn't know how long she'd been sitting there when a woman came up to her car. "Ma'am?" the woman asked hesitantly. Ryleigh didn't move. "Ma'am?" the woman asked, a little more forcefully. Ryleigh slowly turned her head to look at the woman, but her glassy blue-gray eyes seemed to look right through her. The woman involuntarily took a step back, obviously startled by Ryleigh's appearance. After a moment, she regained her composure. Clearing her throat, she said, "Excuse me, miss, but this parking space is for customers only. I've noticed you've been out here a few hours and I'm sorry, but if you're not going to buy anything, you're going to have to leave." Without taking her eyes off the woman, Ryleigh put her car in reverse and slowly backed out of the parking space. Then she sped away, leaving the woman behind.
You can be one of Whitney's best friends, so you won't come in for a while, but I'll put you in and really? I'll go read it now!
After 5 minutes, she stopped in Zoey's driveway. She hadn't planned on coming here, but her body was kind of on auto-pilot, and going to Zoey's was like an instinct to her. As soon as she parked, the tears started coming again. It wasn't long before the passenger door opened and Zoey climbed in. "PLEASE tell me you came to surprise me with a trip to get ice cream," Zoey pleaded, only half sarcastically. Ryleigh turned to face her. Zoey looked at her best friend's face, streaked with tears and mascara. Her hair was wild and her eyes were puffy and swollen. Zoey had only seen her best friend like this once, and it hadn't been good. "Oh no..Ry? What happened?" Zoey asked, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. Ryleigh turned away from her. In a dull voice barely above a whisper, she said, "It's over."