Seafoam //Completed//

Chapter 12

A buzzing that sounded more like a shriek through the pounding headache she bore, snapped Lulu out of her trance. The last night had been full of episodes in which her body tried to force upon her a shut down that her head wouldn't allow.

Through bouts of throbbing headaches and nausea, she waited out the night locked up, a prisoner of her own fears. Fears that had the face of her father and his fist connecting with her cheek again.

Grudgingly, she reached her hand out of her covers and grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand. The time read 12:04 pm. Ava had been calling her for the last hour and only then did Lulu remember the plans they had made to go to the beach that afternoon. She hadn't even called Matty to invite him.

Dialing Ava's number, she got out of bed and went to the restroom. While the line rang, she inspected the damage done to her face. Luckily, the ice pack had helped prevent major swelling, but nothing could mask the purple tint of the bruise that covered her cheek.

"Lulu! Finally!" she heard Ava's sweet voice from the other end of the line.

"Hey," she croaked out.

"Whoa, rough night?" joked her friend.

You have no idea, Lulu thought darkly.

"I couldn't sleep," she replied after futilely trying to clear her throat.

"Oh, we can always reschedule," replied Ava, ineffectively trying to mask her disappointment. No matter how much Lulu wanted to though, she didn't have the heart to cancel. Instead she told Ava to meet her at one and after hanging up, proceeded to call Matty.

"'Lo?" was his groggy response when he picked up.

"Hey weirdo, let's go to the beach," she said.

"You wanna go to the beach right now!?" he asked, flabbergasted. "Today, Sunday afternoon? The day I spend in bed, eating Cheetos and playing video games with only my tighty-whities on??"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll pick you up in thirty." And with that they hung up and Lulu jumped into the shower.

Under the water, the soapy bubbles in her hair turned rusty when her fingers gingerly scrubbed through the matted blood. It was a while before the water drained clear after all the red had gone. In the mirror she parted her hair on the right side of her head and saw a cut about an inch long just above her ear. It didn't seem to be too deep despite all the blood it had gushed the night before.

As she examined her injury, she caught sight of the thin white scar that ran down her right arm; the scar she had gotten the first day of school. It felt strange to think about that day. It felt like the beginning of something that was yet to happen. All the moments she had lived since then seemed suspended in the air, waiting to fall. Waiting to explode.

"All cut up and no one to sew me back together again," she mused aloud.

Grabbing her makeup bag, she began heavily applying foundation to her face in order to cover up the bruise. When she was satisfied that most of the purple had been covered up, she fished out a modest black bathing suit and put it on under a light gray sundress. She let her hair air dry into waves, thankful it covered up the cut on her head.

The girl in the mirror looking back at her looked incredibly sallow and her doe eyes betrayed her fear. Unable to look any longer, she turned her head and walked to the window. Below, in the driveway, her father's car stood idle.

Clutching tightly to her purse, she waited for Matty to text her. The second her phone buzzed with his message, she bolted from the room and ran down the stairs. Her father was in the living room and when he saw her running past him, she heard him yell out her name. Swallowing the scream of fear that threatened to rip through her lips, she yanked the door open and slammed it behind her. She tried to act as normal as possible as she ran to Matty's car and jumped inside.