Tangled Love

It's been a few weeks since Jake and I admitted our true feelings to one another. The more time I spend with Jake, the deeper I fall for him. The hype over our new unexpected relationship is beginning to die down in college. The envious stares are becoming less frequent and the loud obnoxious conversations are now hushed whispers.

Ivory is practically a best friend to me and has joined Trish and I's permanent friendship circle.

Everything is going pretty damn great.

I'm at the local food supermarket, pushing the trolley whilst Ivory browses the shelves. I glance down at my watch, noticing we've been frozen in place for the past ten minutes whilst in the junk food aisle.

"Delicious," Ivory grins, her eyes lighting up. She lunges for a bag of Toffee popcorn and drops it into the shopping cart. I glance down at it and grimace at the contents of our trolley. It's full of sugar and processed foods.

"Shouldn't we cut back a little on our sugar intake?" I groan, nudging the trolley into her back gently. She gasps over dramatically and turns around, her hand on her heart.

"No! I love sugar, ok?" she huffs, causing me to roll my eyes at her drama queen attitude.

"Okay," I shrug, grabbing a box of golden balls off the shelves which are practically full of sugar. I know I'm a hypocrite but when it comes to Golden Ball cereal, it's worth it.

We need milk." Ivory says, walking down the aisle. She stops before turning around —

"I'll be five

her, pushing the cart into the next aisle which thank god, is fruit and vegetables. I grab some bananas, oranges and apples

"Emily?"

I whip my head round and come face to face with Mum. She's carrying a basket and her dark hair is pulled away from her face into a tightly swept back ponytail.

small step back. It feels incredibly surreal to

"You look good," she smiles tightly at me and I stare at her, my eyes connecting with hers —

I haven't been beaten recently." I breathe out. I turn to walk away from her, wanting to get as far away as I can. The pain was still raw and I don't think I'll ever overcome it. She stood back and allowed me to be beaten for years by someone who was practically a stranger. Mum held out her hand

"Emily, wait! Please." she pleads. The anger in me dies down a little at her desperate tone and

murmuring her words. Am I

into my life, he has beaten me black and blue! He's nothing but a violent, cowardly man. You're

the brown

did nothing wrong."

widened in shock and I gritted my teeth tightly together, shaking my

me. Dad would be turning in his grave at how evil you've become." I said, watching as the fire in her eyes grew