❦𝓡𝓸𝓼𝓮❦

I'm currently running down an ally as fast as my feet can take me. My heart pumps wildly as I look behind me to see how close he is.

But no one was there, he was just behind me though.

"What?" I whisper out trying to catch my breath. He's been chasing me for miles.

Something smashes against my head, liquid pouring over me. Laughter sounds from above me, I look up to see Isaiah leaning off a roof with a smile.

I groan in defeat.

The group is playing water balloon wars around the city. Three teams, Isaiah and Mary, Blake and I, and then Ace is by himself. I invited Bella but she had to go to work.

Now the only two people left in the game are Ace and Isaiah. Mary was out first, I hunted her down and got her out within minutes.

Blake got out because he dove in front of a balloon aimed at me trying to be some sort of hero.

Then I got out because Isaiah is secretly a ninja monkey. There is no other explanation on how he got up there so fast.

"He got you?" Blake asks as he jogs over to me.

"Yeah, he got above me somehow and dropped it on my head." I grumble.

"We'll get him next time. Cheer up." He wraps his arm around me and pulls me in for a hug.

"Ew." Ace says a few feet away. I thought he was on the other side of the agreed on war area, but these guys seem to be able to pop out of nowhere so what do I know.

"Isaiah went that way." I point down the street. "He's climbing around like a monkey so keep your eyes open for him."

Ace grins at me, "Thanks, I knew I was your favorite." He goes to chase after Isaish but before he can get far I yell, "Isaiah, Ace is right here!" My voice bounces off the brick walls. Ace shoots me a friendly glare before he takes off running.

"You little devil." Blake laughs. What can I say, I'm a little devious sometimes. I also want this to end soon because my hair is soaked and the sun is setting, I'll be shivering in no time.

I hear hooting and haulers around the corner. "Who do you think won?" I ask. Blake shrugs his shoulders and grabs my hand. Let's go see.

⇿♡⇿♡⇿♡⇿♡⇿

Isaiah won, Ace didn't listen to me and walked right under him. It was game over as soon as he did it, Isaiah dropped all three balloons he had left on top of Ace's head.

Ace went home to sulk and the rest of us went back to Blake's place to hang out some more. The guys left moments ago to get some food, Isaiah doesn't trust Blake to pick a good place to order from and Blake won't let Isaiah drive his car.

They came over earlier with Ace so now that he's gone Blake is the only one with a car here. I would have been nervous to be left with Mary again, but everything's changed since I talked with Bella about it.

I decided that the next time she tries anything I'll stand up for myself and if she doesn't quit after that, I'll tell Blake.

Then depending on what Blake thinks, I'll decide how to tell Isaiah about it.

"You know, you sure have been gaining a lot of weight lately. Bet Blake is going to drop your sorry ass when he realizes how ugly you've become." She says as she grabs my pink lemonade out of the fridge.

Well that was fast, they left only minutes ago.

Blake bought that lemonade for me yesterday, it's not hers in any way shape or form and she knows it.

I know I've been gaining weight, but I need to, I'm still working on getting my body to a healthy weight. I starved myself for so long and it's going to take a while to mend that. Her words don't hurt me, but they do piss me off.

What if I was someone who struggled deeply with self image, those words could be enough to push someone over the edge.

"I don't like the way that you talk." I snatch the lemonade from her before she can open it up. "And I'd appreciate it if you stopped." My voice comes out powerful, I'm not playing her games anymore.

"Stopped?" She scoffs. "Why would I stop? I'm not doing anything wrong, I'm simply telling it how it is." She says nonchalantly.

Maybe she really doesn't see what she's doing as wrong, I find that hard to believe, but maybe it's true. That doesn't change anything though, what she's doing is wrong and it needs to stop.

Actually, no. She does know, she wouldn't change so drastically when other people are around if she didn't know it wasn't ok to talk like that to me.

"No, you're degrading me. You constantly wait until we're alone then you choose words to tear me down." I keep my voice steady but calm.

I don't want to fight, but I won't allow her to walk all over me anymore.

"God, you're such a baby. No wonder your mother never loved you." She rolls her eyes.

Her words dig into me, because they're true. My mom never did love me, I blamed myself for it for a long time.

But I know enough now to know that there was nothing wrong with me though. It was never because of me, and it wasn't my fault.

What stings the most is that Isaiah told her about it. "Awe, that hurt your feelings?" She mocks, pouting her lip out.

"Why are you so mean? What do you get out of it?" I don't understand it.

"I'm not mean. You're just a little bitch that can't handle the truth." She's getting heated, I can see the rage start to burn in her eyes.

At this point I'm done, I've said my peace and I don't care to fight with her. I could yell and scream at her, but that would bring me no joy or peace of mind.

I'll talk to Blake later and tell him I don't want to be around her anymore, then go from there. I stand up and start to walk out of the kitchen, I'm going to lock myself in my bedroom until they get back.

I don't want to even look at her face right now.

"Why are you even still alive? Didn't your brother try to kill you or something, why didn't he finish the job." She spits.

I freeze in my place, take a deep breath and say. "I don't understand why you're the way that you are. I don't know why you have to try to bring me down to feel powerful. But you need to stop, I'm done letting you say whatever you want to me." I shift my feet and look her dead in the eye. "I don't care if you like me. But I request that you treat me with respect." I speak slowly and clearly.

She can hate me all she wants, but that doesn't make it ok for her to treat me like she has been. "Respect?" She scoffs. "Why would I respect a homeless piece of trash like you? When I found out that Blake was letting you stay here because they found you sleeping in the streets everything made sense. They don't want you around, they just feel bad for you."

I go to walk away, because I'm not even sure if she has the mental maturity to comprehend what I say. And I'm just so over it. I'm not even mad, I'm not sad. I just want to get away from her and go work on my painting.

But then her nails dig into my arm, holding me back. "Let me go." I grit.

I don't want things to get physical, but if she pushes this any farther I'll have to.

"Honestly, do you really think it's anything more than that? I mean come on, you're the fucking ugliest thing I've ever seen. Your own family doesn't love you. You should do us all a favor and leave. I'll lend your poor ass some money if you buy a bus ticket out of here. Maybe if-" She's cut off by the sound footsteps stomping towards us.

"Get out of my fucking house." Blake growls. He pulls me to him, burying my face in his chest. He probably thinks I'm upset and crying. In reality I'm just excited that she has to leave now.

Sure her words hurt, but I'm getting better at distinguishing what's actually true, and what she's just saying to hurt me. And most of what she says is complete lies so there isn't a lot that gets to me anymore.

"Wait, this isn't what it sounded like." She says, panicked. I would pay the money I earn off selling my first painting to see what her face looks like. But Blake has my face pressed so hard against his chest I can't see a dang thing.

"Don't make me repeat myself." His voice rumbles, the vibration relaxing my shoulder muscles, I didn't even realize they were tense.

"Mary, let's go." Isaiah's voice sounds hurt, oh gosh, he must have heard too. Shuffling of feet sound then the door slams shut shaking the apartment.

Blake continues to hold me, I can hear his heart beating wildly in his chest. My face is squished and I'm having to breathe weirdly out of my mouth. Not my most elegant moment, that's for sure.

"Blake, I can't breathe." My muffled voice says against his hard chest.

"Shit, sorry." He quickly loosens his grip on me, allowing me to lean away so I can look up at him.

"You ok?" He's pissed, I can tell by the low grumble in his voice.

"Yeah." I nod. Then I realize he's probably upset that I didn't tell him and he found out about it by walking in.

"Please don't be mad, I was going to talk to you about it tonight." Stupid Mary and her loud mouth, I could've talked with Blake about it like hes been asking me to do more of, but she wouldn't shut the hell up.

"I'm not mad, I just feel like a broken record. We've had the conversation time and time again about you not asking me to help. You try to handle everything on your own and I admire your strength. But I'm here too, and I want to help you." His hands caress my arms, the gloominess on his face makes me sad.

I need to start doing better by him. "I know. And I promise I really was going too. I wanted to see if I could reason with her. But if anything like this happens again I'll let you know first, ok?" My fingers rest on his chest, I can feel the heat radiating off of him.

"I'd really like that." He hums.

"Can we still talk about what happened though? I only caught the end of it." His voice grows tight at the end of his sentence.

"Yeah, of course." I grab his hand and lead him to the couch, sitting beside him. He grips my hand tighter when I try to let go and brings it to his lap.

His thumb runs soothing patterns on my palm. "How long has she been being a bitch to you?" His choice of words never fails to surprise me. It seems as if it's his duty to make sure to get a cuss word in just about every sentence.

"Since the bathroom at the bowling alley." I wince.

"What the fuck? This whole time?" He says disheartened. "She was so nice to you when we were around though." He added, confused.

I know, me too buddy. You should have seen my face when I found out. "She's a really good actor." I point out. "I told her she should audition to be a professional. I was impressed, but she uses her talents for evil. So I'm not that impressed." I ramble.

It shouldn't be normal for someone to switch to a completely different personality so quickly. It must be extremely exhausting.

"I'm sorry you had to deal with that. I'll talk to Isaiah about it. I don't want her in this house anymore and I really don't want to be around her at all." He's so sweet to me.

"Bella isn't like that is she?" He asks, looking down at me with calculating eyes.

"No! Bella is the nicest most sweetest girl I've ever meet!" I quickly defend her. "She was the one who made me realize that I shouldn't let Mary walk all over me anymore." I love her, she's amazing and within a day she managed to help me realize I need to put myself first sometimes.

Even if it hurts to do so.

"Good, I'm glad." A small genuine smile lifts onto Blake's face for a second. "But why did you wait for so long? Why not tell me, or Isaiah?" He frowns again.

I sigh.

"I was worried that he would have to choose between hanging out with us or with her. I didn't want him to have to do that. I didn't want to take your friend away from you either, if he chose her, that would mean that we wouldn't see him. You'd lose your lifelong friend and it would be my fault." I mumble.

It sounds stupid now, just because Mary and I don't get along doesn't mean that Blake and Isaiah's friendship would have to end. I worried too much and put all the pressure on me for how things would end.

When in reality I should have let people make their own decisions. I understand that now.

"If Isaiah wants to walk away from this friendship for a girl who is harassing you then he isn't the same person I grew up with." Blake says sincerely.

"Isaiah deserves someone who is a good person. How much harder do you think finding this out will be now that he's invested so much time into their relationship." He points out.

I hang my head, guilt creeping in. I didn't think about that, I should have but it never crossed my mind. I'm such an idiot.

"Fuck, Rose I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to make you feel bad." He pulls me to his side and wraps his arms around me, embracing me once again.

I shake my head, "No, I understand. I messed up, I should have handled it differently. I'll try harder next time." I mumble.

I'm still getting used to having people around me who I can go to for support or even just to talk to about my day. It's a foreign concept to me, but it's slowly being accepted by my brain. "That's all I ask." He says.

His fingers trace patterns in my shoulder, leaving a trail of tingles in its wake. "Change of subject," he suddenly pipes out.

"I met Bella in the hall before I walked in on that shit. She said she had something to show you." I gasp, placing both of my hands on his shoulders.

"No, you're lying!" I thought she wasn't going to be home for a few more hours. Excitement builds inside me, I can hardly contain it.

Bella has a few Jobs, one of them happens to be an assistant at a veterinary clinic. She told me a few days ago that someone brought in a litter of puppies they found abandoned in the woods.

Luckily most of them were perfectly fine, but one little guy needed some extra care. They had to perform a minor surgery on him and while he recovers she volunteered to foster him.

She didn't know when exactly he was going to be coming home with her, so I've been trying to forget about it so I didn't drive myself insane.

"I have to go!" I yell running out of the apartment. I skid to a stop and turn around running back into the apartment, I grab Blake's hand and drag him with me as I run out of the apartment again.

I bet he would like to see a cute little puppy too. I knock on the door, bouncing on my toes as I wait for her to answer. I try to explain to Blake what's going on but my words come out all jumbled.

You wouldn't know it by the way he reacts. He listens to every word I say, nodding along even though he can't understand what I'm saying, his mouth curved up into a smile.

Bella's door swings open and in her arms is a tiny baby black lab. I grip my chest at the sight, it's so cute. Gaaaahhh.

"I think I might die." I wheeze out.

"Please don't." Blake says as he places his hand on my lower back guiding me into Bella's apartment, so she can close the door.

"Do you want to hold him? He's still a little out of it, he's on pain medication, so he's been sleeping most of the day." She explains.

I don't waste any time plopping myself on the floor, I sit criss-cross applesauce so the puppy can lay on my lap.

"Yes please." I nod my head fast. I need that puppy in my arms right now.

"Ok, here you go." She gently places the puppy in my arms, he weighs less than I thought he would.

"You could've sat on the couch you know." She laughs. Oh, I didn't think about that, when she asked I just sat down where I was standing.

"She's too excited. She wouldn't have made it that far anyway." Blake says, he kneels down next to me looking at the sleeping puppy curled up in my arms.

"Really cute right?" I ask, beaming down at the puppy. His tongue sticks out of his mouth as he sleeps.

"Yeah, you guys are." Blake says smoothly, my cheeks blush. I don't know if I'll ever get used to him saying stuff like that to me.

"Awe, thanks." Bella says from her spot on the couch. I lift my eyes from the puppy and see that Blake is looking at me. I burst out laughing when I saw the look of horror on his face.

Gosh, Bella is the best.