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.

says, walking down the aisle. She stops before turning around —

"I'll be five minutes Em."

I

"Emily?"

is pulled away from her face into a

back. It feels incredibly surreal

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

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

"Emily, wait! Please." she pleads. The anger in me dies down a little at her desperate tone and I turn towards her, avoiding eye contact. I'm ready for that

said quietly, murmuring her words.

"Ever since you introduced that monster into my life, he has beaten me black and blue! He's nothing but a violent, cowardly man. You're my mum, you're supposed to take

with anger, the brown

"Trevor did nothing wrong."

widened in shock and I gritted my teeth tightly

in