Sophia-Runaway (Short Story)

Finally a new short story! It's been weeks since I've written one of these so I think you guys more than deserve it. This short story introduces a new character to the RED Tragedies series. She actually has a chapter named after her in Turn It Off (coming this Fall!) and is known for being one of Peyton's many girlfriends. Her name is also mentioned in A Tragic Heart when Peyton gives Taylor his "list".

Anyway, you'll learn while reading Turn It Off that Sophia and Peyton had a very complicated relationship. She introduced him to new drugs and a new lifestyle and in the book he compares her to tooth decay. This short story shows that Sophia isn't all bad and that she had a troubled past herself. Peyton mentions in Turn It Off that Sophia confessed to him that she was molested by her stepdad (which is probably what got her into her troubled lifestyle) while he told her that his stepdad used to abuse him physically.

You can check out the intro & first chapter to Turn It Off here: http://www.amazon.com/Turn-Off-Intro-Chapter-Tragic/dp/1508591970/ref=la_B00FNI34X4_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436746837&sr=1-4

Introducing to you all: Sophia!

Listen to "Runaway" by Pink on repeat while reading:

https://soundcloud.com/ahmed-hamed7/pink-runaway?in=musik1313-1/sets/pink-runaway

 

Sophia-Runaway

            He did it again. It’s not the second, third, or fourth time he’s put me through this pain. I try to like it but there’s nothing desirable about this. I keep trying to get into it so I won’t have to admit to myself that my own stepfather is taking advantage of me. 

            My mother’s too blind and in love to notice it. He gives us everything we could ever want. His business is doing better than ever which means that my mother isn’t going anywhere. This is her fourth marriage and the worst…at least for me. 

            Every day I wish my biological father was around but my mother ran him off long ago. He moved to Florida and started a new family. We keep in touch but my mother doesn’t like it when I say things like I want to live with him or suggest going for the entire summer. I’d do anything just to get out of this place. 

            I rushed to the bathroom and started the shower. I had to take the dirt off of me. I scrub until I bleed sometimes. It’s like I can never get clean. I take my washcloth and rub my skin over and over as the tears fall from my eyes. I feel sick; but this is nothing new. 

            I picture him kissing me, placing his hand over my mouth so I won’t make any noise, telling me how great it all feels. As the last thought rushed through my mind I ball my fists and bang them on the wall of the shower. I let out a sharp painful scream followed by more tears. The pain from my hands was minimal compared to the pain inside of me.

            There’s a knock on the door. I ignore it. I don’t want anyone to exist right now. I just need myself to be the only one on earth.

            “Sophia, sweetheart are you okay?” I can hear my mother say from the other side of the door. Her voice sounded worried. I only wished she was more concerned with what her current husband was doing to her fourteen year old daughter. “Sophia, answer me or else I’m coming in!”

            “I-I’m fine mom. I just hit my hand. I’m okay,” I answered with a trembling voice.

            “Sweetie, you don’t sound like you’re okay. Let me in so I can take a look at your hand,” she says.

            I quickly clear my throat to speak again. “No, no, it’s okay. I swear!” I insisted. The last thing I wanted was for her to see me like this…completely naked. 

            “Okay, just be careful,” she replies before walking away. 

            After a few more minutes I turn off the water. I grab my towel and step out. The bathroom mirror is foggy and I think about how I wish it could stay that way. I never want to look at myself after one of me and my stepdad’s sessions. I slowly open the bathroom door. It’s like having to step out into the real world after a two year vacation. 

            The air outside the bathroom is much cooler and for a second I feel like I can breathe again; that is, until my stepfather walks past me. He gives me a sly smirk and I could feel chills shoot throughout my body. I hurry and rush into my room making sure to lock the door behind me. 

            Everything in me tells me that this is all his fault and he’s the sick one but something else inside of me blames myself. Somehow I feel like I’m wrong in this situation. I feel like I’m the one hurting my mother and if I tell her what’s been going on I’ll be the one to ruin her marriage. I want to cry but I can’t. I cried the first few times it happened but after that I had nothing left inside of me. 

            I stood in front of my mirror and threw my towel off. My skin was bright red from all of the scrubbing I did in the shower. There were marks on my body from washing yet somehow I still feel dirty. I feel like actual filth not just a metaphor for it. 

            I put on a pair of underwear and lie across my bed in fetal position. There has to be a better way. There has to be a way out of here. I can’t stay in this house for another year. I can’t keep acting like everything is okay when it’s far from it. Nothing makes any sense anymore but I know if I stay here I’ll be the victim to a sociopath for the foreseeable future.

            Part of me tells me that I should tell someone…anyone but I’m not ready for the judgement that follows. I don’t want to be looked at differently. I never been with any other guy and I don’t want to have to say out loud that I lost everything to my stepfather. That my first lover was a man I never wanted to even touch me. No girl wants that.

            There has to be somewhere I can go…someone that’ll take me in. I pick up my cell phone that was next to me on the bed. I go to my contacts and call one of my friends, Hannah. She’s always there for me when I need her. She answers on the third ring. 

            “Hey Sophia!” she says happily into the phone.

            I can’t ruin the mood so I try to reply the same way. We talk for a little before I ask her what I really called for. 

            “Hey, Hannah, do you think I could stay at your place for the weekend? My mom and stepdad aren’t exactly getting along right now and I don’t want to get caught in the middle of it,” I lie. “Besides, maybe they could use the alone time.”

            “Of course! Come by whenever you’re ready. You already know my mom doesn’t mind at all. You’re like a daughter to her!” she says excitedly.

            For the first time all day I crack a smile…a real one. I don’t care if it’s just for the weekend, I get to run away and not think about this place…not think about him…

Find out more about Sophia in the RED Tragedies Series here. Sophia appears in Turn It Off.