"Maybe you should calm down Kimberly." Eleanor mumbles to mom, pressing pause to my mom's scolding. 

"Oh come on, I have never had one of my family members going public with information without letting me know," she says taking a sip of my wine. 

"Not everything is about you mom." I mumble, rolling my eyes. 

We were currently sitting at the dinner table, trying to have a meal, but mom has other plans. 

"I'm not making this about me, you are bringing shame to my perfect family."

"Oh for fuck's sake, Sophia isn't pregnant." Axton mumbles and everyone turns to him. 

"What? Axton you don't have to cover up for Sophia." My mom shrugs her shoulders, ignoring what he said. 

"Mom-"

"Enough Sophia, you already ruined our family!" 

"If you didn't tell me about your dad, we would still be a family." she mutters, but I hear it, it's the only thing I hear and it drove me mad. I stood up from my chair. 

"Oh, so you would rather have your husband cheating on you with multiple women? I didn't ruin this family mom, the only thing I did was save you from a marriage that clearly wasn't going well, and I covered for your youngest daughter that's an exact replica of you. You forced acting onto Shyla, you made her do things that you never got to do! You had her pretend everything was okay when she was depressed, you painted this cover for her and that's why she's so scared to tell you she's pregnant!" I yell, everything built up in me.

"Instead of putting me down, you should be thanking me! Eleanor, I'm sorry I ruined dinner." I apologize, walking away from the table, walking out of the house. 

"Hey everyone, I brought coconut cheesecake!" Jace yells and I feel bad for walking right past him. 

Tears stream down my face, I didn't want to ruin dinner, I didn't want mom to find out about Shyla's pregnancy this way, and I really didn't want to yell at my mom. Once upon a time, all our conversations ended up that way, I don't want to go back to that. I really don't. Flashbacks of yelling at her, her yelling back, everything she said, everything I said, they all crash into my mind and I can't stop it. I drop onto the ground, crying. 

Make it stop. 

Make it stop. 

Make it stop. 

"Instead of putting me down, you should be thanking me! Eleanor, I'm sorry I ruined dinner." Sophia says, walking out the house as Jace walks in. 

I turn to Kimberly. 

"Are you done?" I ask her and she places her head in her hands.

"I shouldn't have-"

"You shouldn't, but you still did it anyway. Now save that lame apology for when she's ready to hear it." I get up from the table, walking out the house to find Sophia. 

I walk out to see her on her knees, on the floor, I can hear her mumbling words, but I couldn't quite make out what she was saying. 

Fuck, it broke me to see her this way, it wasn't the first time. My mind goes back to a few years ago, the night before Sophia moved out. 

"I don't know why she's moving Xavier, but I'm counting the days until she comes back, as a failure." Kimberly says as Sophia freezes on the staircase. 

"Mom, not this again, please." Sophia pleads knowing she'll end up saying something she doesn't mean.

"This designing idea is bullshit!"

"You don't know it like I do!" 

"You're going to fail!" Her mom yells again.

"You don't know that." Sophia sobs and all I want to do is take her out this house.

"You'll never make it without me." Kimberly mumbles and Sophia breaks down.

"Come on let's go, Xavier." The two shitty parents walk out the house, but I'm focused on Sophia. 

"Make it stop." she mumbles crying. 

I wish I could Soph, but I suck at this shit. 

End of Flashback. 

Not this time, this time I'm going to try. 

I walk up to her, sitting on the floor with her, pulling her into my arms. 

"It's okay Soph, you're okay. Just breathe, look at me, breathe." I tell her and she eventually controls her breathing. 

"Is she- is she gone?" she asks trembling. 

"No, but we can leave." I tell her and she nods. 

"Alright, come on." I stand and extend my hand out. She places her hand in mines and we walk to my car.

I pull the seatbelt over her body because she won't do it. 

"Where are we going?" she asks, still a bit zoned out. That's what Sophia does when she's upset, either she cries a lot, like screaming and fully breakdown, or she zones out, and silently cries. 

I hate seeing both.

"To a graveyard." I mumble and she sighs rolling her eyes.

"Okay Axton, whatever you say." she mumbles, leaning her head on the window and soon falling asleep. Every now and then, I look at her, the way she looks so peaceful when she's sleeping, okay is that creepy?

It is. 

Okay. 

I look out the window, the city lights flashing as we drive past them. Sophia always says she'll move away from New York, but I know she wouldn't. Just like me, the city lights stir something in her, the brightness in the dark background, it causes this sparkle in her eyes, and it makes her smile. 

I turn to the only reason I'm still on this planet, the one person that stopped me from ending it all, the one person out of the entire world that truly understands me. She's been there with me since we were fucking seven. I pushed her away so many times, but she always came back. She never left me, even through my darkest shit, a simple smile from her makes me happy. 

"Soph, we're here." I tell her, and she wakes up, but keeps her eyes close. 

"Axton if I open my eyes and we're actually at a graveyard I'll add a member to their dead city." She says and I laugh. 

"Well, I hope I have nice neighbours." I mumble and she quickly opens her eyes.

"We're not at a graveyard asshole." she says, exhausted. 

I get out of the car and walk over to her side of the car. 

"Carry me." she mumbles and I walk up to grab her but she starts laughing.

"I was kidding."

"Oh." I mumble, smiling. 

"Where is this place?" she asks me and we walk through the gate. 

"You'll see." I mumble. 

We walk through the doors and she instantly gasps. 

"Wh- how?" She asks taking a look at all the books. 

"This," I point to the entire hall,

"Is, yours," I tell her and she gasps again.

"No, no you did not! Axton, this is a whole house filled with books!" she says and I nod. 

She literally jumps onto me and I'm not sure what to do but I hug her back.

I don't do hugs unless its Sophia. 

"Thank you, you really didn't have to." she says, walking around. 

"I wanted to, but now, the more important thing. Call a number." I smirk and she turns around smiling at me. We did this thing when we were younger where we picked a number and read said amounts of books. It was something we really enjoyed. 

"One hundred and twelve." she smiles and I nod.

"With Smut." I wink and she rolls her eyes. 

"You wish." She says, adding a book to the pile in her hands.